Optometrist

Like most people, I hate going to see doctor's.  But I recently realized what I really hate about going: socializing. 
This seems like a strange thing to say, since I'm relatively social.  But those people I socialize with are friends.  I don't want to talk to my doctor's about stuff.  When they ask "How are you?" I want that to be a cue to assert my overall health, not as a chance to catch up on my family, my career and the drama with that one friend. 
With this in mind I went to see my optometrist.  I sat in the waiting room, reading one of those celebrity magazines that I only look at when there's not something more sophisticated. 
I went in with the assistant, an older woman.  We tested various small things with my eyes.  There's a test where you're suppose to tell if certain circles are jumping out at you while wearing 3-D glasses.  As the years have gone on, I have failed more and more of that test. 
Failing eye tests are nothing new.  When I was thirteen, I had to take an eye test while at school.  I failed the first time, with my glasses on.  So they called me in a second time, and I failed a second time, again, with my glasses on.  I tried to explain to the lady running the test I had really poor eyes, and I think she believed me, but I was really embarrassed by this.  I didn't fail anything at that age. 
We kept going through tests, and, even with my glasses on, it's amazing how little I can see.  I think if I had lived before glasses, I would have been confined. 
The doctor came in and I braced myself.  This doctor really likes to socialize.  It's not that I can't be polite, or that I can't speak back, but this particular doctor likes to talk about politics, and we do not share the same beliefs.  Several years ago, he complained to me about a apparently gay English professor who tried to pick him up.  I have gay friends, and I know there's almost no way this story is true.  LBGT people are scared to pick people up if they don't know their sexuality, especially if they're doing so in an "unsafe" place.  (They're more likely to pick up in a gay club or bar, but there it's expected and assumed you're okay with that.)  I didn't really tell him I disagree, but I don't really want to talk to him about politics.  I only rely on him over my eyes because my Mom insists, but the truth is I'd rather try someone else. 
We had a long discussion about surgery.  We've been considering surgery for my eyes for what seems like ever now.  At least high school, though I think it goes back farther than that.  (I was first told that I could use contacts at ten.  I never have because something about putting shards of plastic in your eye strikes me as gross.  I can't even look at someone who is putting in or taking out their contacts.  It's one of the few things I find unsightly.)
Anyway, the surgery option is always on the table, though it's unclear if I qualify.  I would need to get checked. 
Thankfully, there was none of that.  Instead, he went through the usual tests, checking my eyes with those various glasses.  When he decided on something, we moved on to making sure I didn't have things like glaucoma.
I hate those eye drops that you get.  They always make my eyes sting and they give me a headache.  I don't even try to do anything after an eye exam, because I know it's futile to try. 

Not Seeing Anything

My Father wanted to see if we could go out to see a particular astrological phenomenon, so we got into the car and drove around a bit, trying to see it.  Mostly this involved driving around in the dark, trying to see if there was a point near by at which we could see it.  No luck.  Mostly this just meant blowing a half an hour that I could have probably used to continue working on some of my writing or talking to some friends. 
It was very anti-climatic, not seeing anything. 

Researching and Interviewing

I spent the evening researching for an interview.  All the articles out there say that if you're going to give an interview, you should know as much as possible about the company and their mission.  So I spent the evening on their site, looking at everything I could about them.  Then I Googled them to see if interesting things came up.  The only thing that really caught my eye was a short set of pieces that discussed their history.  They've only been around thirty years here, though they discussed the old school way of doing things and I found myself profoundly grateful that it was the old school and not the norm any longer. 
Everyone wish me luck on this.  I'm really going to need it. 

Monte Cassino

Tori, Ashley and I went out to dinner.  We went to a little restaurant near home.  The last time I had been here, I had gone with Jennifer when I desperately needed to talk to her.  I had the mac and cheese and it had been terrible.  I wasn't going to do that again.  I ordered saganaki and a veggie burger instead.
I love a good veggie burger.  I know a lot of people complain that they are not that good because they do not taste like meat, I do not notice much of a difference.  I'm actually pretty impressed with their ability to get a bunch of semi-mashed vegetables to taste like meat.
And then there's saganaki.  It's delicious.  It's a simple thing, but I have it infrequently enough that when I do have it, it makes me really happy.  Tori and Ashley had never had it before, so I let them try some.
Ashley talked to us about her father and traveling.  She was complaining that her Dad only likes to go to the beach when they go on vacation, and that she would like to go to museums and monuments and shop a little and do all the other things that normal people do I vacation.  I suggested Rome to her, because it's close enough to beaches that might satisfy her Dad and lots of museums and things she would like.
What I should have said, now that I'm thinking about it, is about the area between Rome and Naples.  That whole area is supposed to be covered with beautiful beaches and lots of history.  Ostia is an important ancient Roman city.

And between Rome and Naples is Monte Cassino.  It's one of those places I've always wanted to go to.  As someone who is interested in monasticism, Monte Cassino is important because it is the birthplace of Western monasticism, where St. Benedict of Nursia, the founder of the Benedictines and inspiration behind so many other orders, began his community.  In addition to that, it is also the former site of a pagan temple to Apollo and the site of the Battle of Monte Cassino.  A Polish cemetery is located there, where over a thousand Polish soldiers who died during that battle are buried.  Also buried there are St. Benedict (for obvious reasons) and St. Scholastica, his sister and a nun.  The monastery also once held the archives of the Keats-Shelley House in Rome.
I want to go, want to take a tour, want to take in mass, want to look through their archive, and want to put red poppies on the graves of those Polish soldiers.  (It's part of a song, "The Red Poppies of Monte Cassino.")  
Never mind, I don't think Ashley would like to do this as much as me.  Talking about traveling got me daydreaming again.  One of the many problems with traveling is that it seems to be a never-ending desire.  Going a little does not really satisfy it. 
After we finished eating, and paid our bills, we went home.

Bright College Days

Clearly, I'm having a strange day, because I have videos to show you of various great songs from Tom Lehrer.


This one is called "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park," which is delightful as it sounds.  It starts off as a nice song, you think it's going to be about a nice song, and no, it turns into a silly song about doing something no one sane or decent would do.

I love that he wrote a parody of the kinds of songs that you might hear in a college.  I love that he introduces the song by saying that everyone at these reunions gets "soggy with nostalgia."  This sounds a lot like those alumni songs, and indeed, it is related to a certain alumni song...
...like this one.
Lehrer reminds me vaguely of Victor Borge, who is most famous for combining classical music and comedy.  My friend Philip introduced me almost six years ago.  (He had Borge only on cassette tape, so he had to work to make me a copy of it.)  He made classical music, and its preposterous nature, fun, sort of like Lehrer, who makes fun of lots of different kinds of music.  Here, he dances around with someone while trying to work through Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. 

Coral Watts

This might come off badly, but I love to read about serial killers.  I think most of this comes from my love of mystery novels.  Anyone who loves mystery novels knows it's because they fancy themselves a detective, and enjoy trying to solve the whoddunit puzzle.  So when I say I love to read about serial killers, it's a love of reading about how the cops caught the guy, and how they did it. 
For example, the BTK killer?  Totally caught because he used a computer at the church he worked at.  There's something enjoyable in knowing that the police lied to him to get him to accidentally reveal himself. 
But today I found the Wikipedia article on Coral Watts.  What's fascinating to me is that he is the suspect in some ninety unsolved murders, but was only convicted on about three of them.  And that people were so desperate to keep him in jail they sent out a national call for evidence against him.  His crimes were terrible and awful, but somehow I take great pleasure in knowing that he served time in jail. 
It's the sort of thing that you would see in a movie, but surprisingly, he's only been featured in two of those real crime tv shows. 

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

I went to see my Grandma.  She seems relatively okay.  We basically hung out and watched some tv.  She's not suppose to do much else without supervision from nurses.  (She does a little reading, but it's of those soap opera magazines.  I bought her two of them and gave them to her.) 

We watched the beginning of the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, one of the early Basil Rathbone depictions of the famed detective.  I wasn't sure if she would like it, but she does like old movies in general so I thought I would put it on. 
I couldn't help but compare this older movie with the latest one that came out recently, titled Sherlock Holmes.  The thing that struck me was that Professor Moriarty was such a big part of this movie.  In Sherlock Holmes, he was a unseen, evil presence.  I think I like Moriarty better in the new movie because he doesn't seem so farcical.  It's hard to imagine that Holmes even found Moriarty to be much of a challenge in this older film, he just seems like an ordinary man who's a little OCD about his plants.