Lil' Abby Coffee is being baptized next week, so I'm gonna be off to South Bend for that blessed event. I'm taking a flight at something like, 8 p.m. Friday, and getting into South Bend after midnight. Then it's off to the Coffee homestead for a full day Saturday, and the return to New York on Sunday. To get the cheap flight, I had to take a connection in Cincinnati. We all know how much I love connecting flights. I've never been to Cincinnati, though. Maybe my hour in the airport will be interesting.
I can't believe it's coming up so quickly!
So I'm running on battery power at the Starbucks. It's crazy busy. This changes, of course, depending on the Starbucks you're visiting, but this one is pretty quiet even when it's really busy. All the tables are full up, and all the people are talking to each other, but I can still hear the music being piped in over the sound system.
These Upper East Side crowds are just rowdy animals, damn it.
Speaking of animals, I overheard the strangest conversation on the train to work this morning. Actually, considering my low opinion of humans, it shouldn't be so surprising to me. Anyway, I was trapped, as often I am on a crowded subway, between two people carrying on a conversation; a couple of young black kids. Their conversation at one point turned to their jobs, and it so happened that the young black girl worked at some animal care facility, but really, and I mean really didn't like animals. She was going on and on about how when she'd work with the cats they'd all try to scratch her, and how the dogs - without even trying - would pound the shit out of her by trying to jump up on her. The bile that this girl was releasing talking about her job was just amazing to me. She went on to tell how on her first day of work they had scared her so much she'd just cried the whole way home. And this girl was not small, by any means. She looked like the sort who could take care of herself.
But I got to thinking about people like this girl; people who're so unhappy in their work, but keep at it. I mean, it didn't take much to realize that this was the only job that this girl could get; she was completely unqualified not just for anything she might like to do, but for anything else period. But there are a lot of people out there who stay in jobs they hate, even though they're qualified for other things just by virtue of their experience alone. I lived through that back in the old Corporate America days.
Listening to these kids talk about their work (actually, listening to her... the other kid, a young black guy, was really into his job in the mail room of some company, where he was just learning how to write up UPS and Fed Ex and DHL packages for shipment) made me think about how lucky I am, how grateful I should be that I have, at least, some marketable skills.
The future looks bleak for a lot of people. Especially, I think, given the results of the recent mid-term elections. Boy, I can't tell you how disappointed I am in those. One has to give the Republicans credit, they managed to convince people it was all about the "War on Terror." So they get two years to try and push through their agenda. I'm most worried about what the next two years will do to the people sitting on the federal and supreme courts. The "damage" done by conservative appointments over the next two years (or however long it takes to get Democratic control of the Congress back.... hahahahahahahaha!) could be incalculable to gay rights, women's reproductive rights, social equality... the list could go on. Oh well, at least the rich won't have to worry about taxes. There's always the poor to pay those.
There's a guy that I see a lot at this particular Starbucks; cute as hell. I'm guessing he's Hispanic, though he could actually be middle-eastern or even Israeli. Really sharp jaw line; small ears that do that slightly-sticking-out thing that drives me nuts. Gah! I accept that I can't force being in a relationship, but boy it would be nice to have a little intimacy. Trouble is, too many people mistake intimacy with connection, I think, and end up profoundly unhappy.
I'm supposed to have a couple of dates this weekend, though, so I can't complain too much. Who knows where these things'll lead. One thing's for sure: I don't get my hopes up too high, anymore! That way lies mondo disappointment.
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