Come Devil And Play

so yesterday at about noon i realised that i was bored. incredibly bored. not that i had nothing to do - oh no... desk full of work - but my brain had absolutely no interest in it all. and i still had six hours to go before i could go home.

at 12:30 i wasn't sure i could make it through the day. the boredom was beginning to hurt. my brain was bouncing up and down in my head asking - are we done yet? what can we do? i need distraction!

i tried to surf the net but where does a bored mind even think about going. i emailed a couple of friends - i'm bored. the response? sorry. or - don't you have work to do?

at about 2 i was convinced that i really could be bored to tears. the big headline on the beeb had to do with lockerbie but i had no drive to read the story. i checked the wimbledon scores, but it's just not like watching it, is it? i visited some blogs but was afraid to comment in case boredom is contagious.

did i mention that the office was freezing cold? and i was so bored i couldn't even get excited about the evils of air conditioning. i opened the window wide and a bunch of ozone rushed in and almost suffocated me. for half a second i wondered about the quality of new york city air. and i thought - hmmm... surely it must be better than air conditioned recylced new york city air. but bouncing brain said - today, we really don't care. when can we go home.

i called my roommate - in nigeria - and she asked. why are you bored? nothing interests me today and i don't know why. but i can't take the pressure anymore, kai! right now i'm so bored i could rob a bank.

knowing my deep fear of jail and issues with out in the open toilets where all and sundry can see and smell you do your business like you're potty training again - that is some mighty bored.

i miraculously made it through the day without stabbing myself in the eye and i went home.

bored. bored.... oooh apple pie and ice cream!

Where's The Rain Already?

today the united kingdom got a new prime minister. a new envoy for middle east affairs and some dude resigned. but all of that didn't matter.
you know why?
cos it was so humid you could drink water off my face.
apparently it makes me look like i'm glowing
the lack of mona lisa smile should tip folk off... nothing is making me smile today
instead i ponder on the dubious honour of faulkner being on oprah's book list...

Goodness!

how time flies, even when you are not necessarily having fun.

i have been feeling a tad under the weather and my blog has been neglected as a result. perhaps this tells me something about how well i take care of myself, period.

that said, while i was having my bad week (or two) it seems that it was kinda contagious... on a global level. while i have been wallowing in pain and/or self-pity all kinds of madness has been going on around the world. okay okay crazy has been the norm for a bit but get this:

apparently zimbabwe has 6 months to go before it implodes completely. i called my mother to warn her and to tell her to collect goods for the barter system that will be in place at that point. she laughed me off but i hope some little corner of her mind takes me seriously... just in case.

because i am learning that really, nothing is too preposterous to come true.

We Are The World, We Are The Children!

so last night i was watching tv and i saw a bunch of famous people looking fabulous and airbrushed, sitting around dramatically in a room. ellen degeneres said something about making an impact, doing something important - i think. then alicia keys blurbed about children. i usually skip the ads but this looks interesting. i pause.

because for the last few weeks i have been feeling like a bit of a waste. there is so much to do out there and i am stressing about how snug my trousers are - just in time for the summer - and how i still can't stop snacking on the mind boggling amount of chocolate in my little home. i am wondering what happened to the dreams of philanthropy i had a few years ago when i thought - to hell with rent, my life must mean something! what can i do?

yeah... then at some point i decided that shallow was easier to achieve than meaningful.

but recently, philanthropy is nagging... i think things like - you have aids orphan girl children (and probably other affected girls) who miss about a week of school a month because they cannot afford underwear to house any kind of makeshift sanitary pad when they are on their periods. i mean... who even thinks of that?

so back to commercial. i hear something about sending in ideas for a cause/project and american express funding it - up to five million dollars. FIVE MILLION DOLLARS! i know in the uk and europe that is like half of nothing these days but i'm excited. ideas bursting out my pores, i have so many...

all i have to do?

be a member.

No, Mom, You Can't Come

out in galesburg, illinois, students and parents signed a contract. not to reduce littering or to recycle more, but to make promise that parents would behave appropriately during their children's graduations. it seems in 2005 some parents came armed as though they were going to a football game - horns and goodness knows what else. the school had to put its foot down.

so this was the solution - if a student's family made too much noise (as determined by the principal) said student would not receive his/her diploma. apparently five families behaved badly. although some claimed that breachers of the contract were racially diverse, they must have been wrong because the five who did not receive a diploma were all black.

one student cried foul - i mean what if there are folk out there that don't like you so much, they could stand up and create a commotion. but we know that no one is that mean. the thought is preposterous.

but all is not lost. there is still a way for students from noisy families to get their diploma. a way to make up for your misbehavin' parents' "hooting and dancing". eight hours of community service. no, silly, not them; you.

or you could just ask them to skip it. promise to give them each a dvd of the ceremony and they can hoot and dance as much as they like... at home.

I Believe The Children Are Our Future

because i believe that being chirpy is so 10 years ago, i tuned in to anderson cooper for some light depression. apparently since september, the beginning of the school year, 28 school kids have been shot, stabbed or strangled. the head of the school district seems to believe that the reason why this has not really made the news is that the kids are poor inner-city children. the mayor seems to think it is not such a big deal because (a number he threw out) 80,000 are killed in america every year. it's just the way the country is. so there. mild depression.

now to a more pressing matter. i was reading an article that spoke of a man called cash $. question - if i decide to read the article out loud, as a bedtime story for the child of a neighbour, how do i pronounce cash $?