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getting paid to not work on john lennon day

Listening to:	zebra, tell me what you want
Reading:	the shitty news
Weather:	crazy hot and humid

One of the first executive directorish things I did when I became exec director back like 20 yrs ago where I work is propose to the board that we change our holiday policy to celebrate John Lennon day on the second monday in october instead of columbus day. It was liberal hip to hate christopher columbus at the time, still is only with less fervor. So today I am chillin like bob dylan here at home, on this sunny humid day about to get strangely hot (high 80's) fall day, getting paid to not work and not celebrating gentrification or exploitation of indigenous peoples or whatnot.

A friend (well, at least in the facebooky sense, though in the small town of motown we've been among the usual suspects in various ways for about 20 yrs) who is a blogger and professor and promoter of language and literature posted a short bittersweet lil piece about what middle age means to her right now. She's 49. I'm 52. Her kids are younger, her dad died much younger than mine, she's been married a long time, so we have substantial distinguishing experience, but this notion of having lived longer as an adult than as a child is a mutual thing. I was 51 when I my dad died, and if I live til Livi is 51 that'll make me 76 when I die. Larry is going to be 70 next year. He's got a grandchild old enough to legally drink liquor. Shit is hazily getting real.

One thing I'm noticing about my middle age is the creeping affluenza. When you spend more and more of your leisure time dealing with your stuff, cleaning it, moving it, culling it, maintaining it, replacing it, buy stuff for your stuff and to contain your stuff, etc. you realize the burden of your accumulations is a bunch of bullshit that you can choose to avoid entirely. But you don't. And by you I mean me, of course.

btw, I cannot recommend Ricki Lee Jones's first 3 albums enough, holy shit, she is amazing and these records totally still hold up. I've been listening to these records for more decades than I have left. Not so hazy there.

Plenty of hickory and chestnuts this year. Gonna be a wicked snowy winter, I'm thinking. We'll see.

permalink posted by cat 8:54 AM

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