Trying on a different life

I'm listening to somebody else's records in somebody else's home. Somebody else isn't here, but I'm settling in. I went to the books first and scanned the shelves. I looked for the books I'd read and the books I want to read. I looked for a connection to my interests, then I looked for a pattern. My efforts were not so concentrated as they sound, but as I scanned the shelves I tried to put together this person that I didn't know. How was she like me? She had "Men are from Mars.." How was she different? Dorothy Parker, financial success for women, feminism, I soon lost track. This was not my literary double. With my head tilted, I then scanned the titles for books that I wanted to skim. I found "Why Men Love Bitches."

I switched from Zeppelin to Supertramp.

At first the records seem more accessible than the books. Perhaps, this is a function of their weight and the commitment they require. Why Men Love Records? Unable to focus, I moved to the DVD collection, but found nothing that I needed now, certainly not "Bridget Jones' Diary". v. much no, thank you.

Supertramp turns to Bruce Springsteen.

I made another lap around the house, arms tucked behind me like a speed skater, though my walk and my eye were more like those of the art student. I studied the pictures and paintings, the candles and saucers on the mantle, the clutter of existence. Every object told a piece of story I didn't know. One wall hanging held my eye. The top was a vibrant red hand print on a black background. On an Indian tablet below the precise lettering of an elementary school student proudly proclaimed the recess skills that every child wanted. The confidence of the young student echoed in the confidence of the thick wooden frame.

Springsteen became Aretha Franklin.

I returned to the records and pored over them. I feel like a man lost in another time. I have nostalgia for a life I haven't led. My studies again follow a similar trajectory as I look for the intersection of familiar and interesting. The familiar are less widespread when I realize that my reference point for record collections is my parents'. A few records overlap, but much of this collection veers closer to the days of CD, or at least cassette tape. I begin to pull records from the shelf. The other records close the gap and I lose track of the exact location. I'll slide the sleeves back in as best I can and hope my host is not like Rob of "High Fidelity" organizing and re-organizing the collection by major life events.

I open the sleeve and pour the black grooved disc out. It feels so delicate. The delicacy is compounded by the fear of damaging someone else's property. Has age made records more brittle? I suspect they've always been brittle and delicate, that's why my dad severely limited my handling privileges. Holding my breath, I move the needle without shaking or scratching. The record spins on and then crackles to a start. There's something violent and satisfying about starting a record and finding a groove.

Then it stops.

More Aretha.

A bit of catching up, sans the final top tens

The time between 12/31/09 and 1/1/10

Escorted like the privileged class, dining on cupcakes, and sipping champagne, we waited on the eleventh floor for the ball to drop. We were a party of seven pressed against the windows. Parties of more or fewer calmly raged to the right and to the left and in the conference room and down below. The famous ball of the square of time that marks the passage of another Seacrest/Clark moment was but a nose-press and a glance away. When the countdown came and the fireworks spewed in our general direction and then right at us, the ball began its descending wave to nine before disappearing in a cloud of ten. Saliva was exchanged in a passionate plea to the universe to improve. Ten could make us better and brighter, but for now only the remnants of lip balm and its oddly shaped headgear advertising remained.

The bag tax
My fair city has passed a law. I'm sure they do this all the time, like it's their job. This law is different. This law has had an immediate positive impact on my day to day life. Washington DC has made plastic bags five cents. Some folks are flipping out. The paper detailed the story of a woman who drives to a state next door (where they pay a higher food tax) to avoid the fee. It makes no sense. I've been known to make no sense, but this time, I'm relishing the bag tax. It encourages behavior that I support in a way that isn't completely prohibitive. The best part, however, was the immediate culture shift of my grocery store checkers. Instead of immediately cramming my food into a plastic bag, they now turn to me to ask if I have bags or if I'm willing to pay the five cents. I am no longer stuck stuttering with my re-usable bag in my hand while a checker buries my food in plastic.

There are challenges. I don't usually have my bag when I go for lunch time take-out. The produce bags are five cents. I try to get by without them and I wonder if there is a suitable alternative. The morning paper (as if there was an evening one anymore?) comes in a bag adding a cost to an industry that could probably do without losing its last eight subscribers. I'm ok with all of this. Grocers are reporting bag use has been cut in half. The five cents on that half go toward cleaning up the muck in the Anacostia River. I'm lovin' it.

Lost in the aisles
While I'm thinking of the market, I should mention my most recent shopping experience. I'm working to improve my nutrition and I've found a plan that seems pretty reasonable, though not without its bumps in the road. My first challenge was grocery shopping. I took the pre-made list to the store and quickly realized that I couldn't find anything. I was cruising the outside of the store rather than the processed food haven I've come to count on. Life outside of the can is far different. I wandered wide-eyed and bordering on frantic as I searched and found quinoa, but failed to find steel cut oats or oat bran. I spent more time buying fruit and vegetables than I usually spend at the store. I won't even begin to discuss the challenges I've faced in the kitchen.

That'll have to do for now. I still want to write, but I find that I want to do a lot lately.

Top 10 lists continued

Top 10 movies
1. Lost in Translation
2. Bend it Like Beckham
3. Lord of the Rings
4. Love Actually
5. The Notebook
6. Once
7. Walk the Line
8. Spirit of the Marathon
9. The Family Man
10. Mulholland Dr.

Top 10 (non-Ultimate) trips
10. Providence,RI
9. Boston, MA for Marathon spectating
8. San Francisco, CA
7. New Orleans, LA- first work trip
6. Door County, WI
5. Hays, KS
4. Iceland/Norway
3. Grand Canyon- hike
2. Grand Canyon- mule
1. Paris

Top 10 Ultimate trips (maybe? I'm mixing trips and tournaments here)
1. Columbia to Sectionals, Dallas, TX in an RV
2. DC to Edinboro, PA- Something Frozen, met CUA
3. Columbia to St. Louis, MO- First tournament
4. Winter Park St. Louis to Baton Rouge, LA- Mardi Gras
5. DC to Atlanta, GA (including the panic attack at Arby's)
6. KC to Fayetteville, AR- Harvest Moon
7. Winter Park to Lawrence, KS for Fool's Fest
7. Columbus to Cleveland, OH- No Surf
8. Columbus to Washington, DC- Choptank
9. DC to Boston, MA for ? Invite (which I didn't actually play in, but I was on the roster)
10. DC to Wildwood, NJ and back in many years including the Kelly Clarkson performance and the Jersey cop experience

I'm interrupting my top 10s to bring you the straight lists from 2009.

Movies I saw in 2009
1. Run Fat boy Run
2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
3. Tropic Thunder
4. Outsourced
5. Hamlet 2
6. The Dark Knight
7. 10 items or less
8. Cooley High
9. In Bruges
10. Brian's Song
11. Calendar Girls
12. Love and Other Disasters
13. Taken
14. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
15. Get Smart
16. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
17. Bella (sort of)
18. Coraline
19. Employee of the Month
20. The Watchmen
21. Just Friends
22. Much ado about nothing
23. Baby Mamma
24. Now we know
25. Chalk
26. National Treasure: Book of Secrets
27. Milk
28. Adventureland
29. Waiting for Guffman
30. Sweeney Todd
31. Pineapple Express
32. Happy Go Lucky
33. Frost/Nixon
34. Up
35. Ghost Town
36. The House Bunny
37. Star Trek
38. Bedtime Stories
39. WordPlay
40. The Proposal
41. Passengers
42. The Wrestler
43. Happy Accents
44. Last Chance Harvey
45. Fanboys
46. 500 Days of Summer
47. How about you
48. Henry Poole is here
49. The Time Traveler's Wife
50. Doubt
51. 17 Again
52. The Savages
53. Die Hard: Live Free or Die
54. Whip it
55. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
56. Valkyrie
57. Bigger, Stronger, Faster
58. Eastern Promises
59. I Love You Man
60. Defiance
61. An Education
62. The Hangover
63. Away we go
64. Up in the Air
65. Sherlock Holmes
66. The Informant

Books I read in 2009
1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and other Jazz Age Stories (started in '08)
2. The Five Dysfunctions of Team
3. The Hand of Fate
4. Tell no one
5. I love you, Beth Cooper
6. Drop Shot
7. The Woods
8-10. 28 Barbary Lane
11. Watchmen
12. Small is Possible: Life in a local economy
13-15. Back to Barbary Lane
16. Change your questions, Change your life
17. Soul Thief
18. Blindness
19. There's no Place Like Here
20. The Road
21. The Accidental Tourist
22. Sway- The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
23. Schulz and Peanuts
24. The Last Lecture
25. Time Traveler's Wife (re-read)
26. Eavesdropping
27. Her Fearful Symmetry
28. Juliet, Naked
29. Dead Sleep
30. Possibly Strongly Opposed (online)
31. Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress
32. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
33. Micromessaging
34. Dara Torres: Age is just a number
35. The Inheritance of Loss
36. Run Fast