We are having some kind of freak wind-storm here in the New York\/New Jersey area. It is out of control. I saw a teeny little woman literally clinging to a lamppost on 42nd Street so she wouldn’t be blown away. I myself was chased down the street on my way to the bus by a renegade trash can. I was RUNNING, trying to get away from it. Trees bent to the side. I woke up to the sound of howling against my window. The wind was not whistling, it was howling.<\/p>\n
It’s exhilarating. I love it.<\/p>\n
The wind blew the clouds away from yesterday.<\/p>\n
Well, mostly. I was flipping through my new Vanity Fair during my commute – and there’s a long piece on Bloomberg – and one of the quotes they pulled out into large type was this: “Think about all of the press attention to 9\/11. That number of people die every year in the city from secondhand smoke.”<\/p>\n
I had heard that monstrous quote before.<\/p>\n
But suddenly I felt like standing up and throwing the magazine out the window. I wanted to scream or cry or something.<\/p>\n
I closed the magazine, and began to viciously compose a letter to Bloomberg in my head, telling him exactly what I thought of him, how much I hated him, how much I think he is a bloodless cadaver during his press conferences, how much he hectors New Yorkers like we are spoiled children …<\/p>\n
Blah blah blah. I didn’t vote for the guy cause I live in New Jersey, but you know what? I would have voted for him. Because Guiliani endorsed him, and after September 11, I would have voted for Donald Freakin’ Trump if Guiliani said so. A sad statement perhaps, but a true one.<\/p>\n
Then, letter fully composed in my mind, I got out of the bus on 42nd Street and was immediately hit in the face by this huge wind – I mean, it felt like … Wizard of Oz or something … women’s skirts blew up over their faces … the air was filled with swirling cyclones of leaves and paper bags … random strangers met eyes as they struggled down the sidewalk, and laughed … there was a sense of solidarity in the street.<\/p>\n
I love wind.<\/p>\n
Last night I walked home from the grocery store – The night was still. No hint of the Maniac-Wind barreling down upon us. But the mist … it felt like I was back in Rhode Island, on a misty day, where you can’t see 50 feet ahead of you. You drive down the country roads in Rhode Island, through a pea-soup mist, headlights on … and you see … dimly … as if in slow-motion … other headlights approaching you through the thick grey. It’s a sea mist, an ocean fog.<\/p>\n
And here it was, covering New Jersey. The lampposts along the main drag were haloed in a thick nimbus. You could not see beyond four blocks ahead of you.<\/p>\n
I love mist, too.<\/p>\n
So mist last night, wind today. I feel a bit better, and more like myself.<\/p>\n
Also, I went home last night, cooked some dinner, and proceeded to watch “Bend it Like Beckham” (Emily!! <\/a>David Beckham!) – which I had never seen before – and which is, literally, a joy from start to finish. Like my friend Mitchell says, on occasion, “Sheer liquid joy.” I laughed, I cried. Great film.<\/p>\n Loved the actor who played the Sikh father. He was wonderful. Just wonderful.<\/p>\n I think my favorite line in the film was Juliet Stevenson’s (a great actress – see “Truly Madly Deeply” if you haven’t already!) – She plays the obnoxious mother of one of the girl soccer-players, who is horrified at her tomboyish daughter, obsessed with the fear that her daughter is a lesbian, etc. She is a ridiculous character. Her daughter is out in the back yard, kicking a soccer ball around, and Juliet Stevenson comes out to hector her daughter – “Why can’t you be a normal girl? Why can’t you grow your hair?” Etc.<\/p>\n The daughter wins the argument but this is Stevenson’s parting shot as she goes into the house.<\/p>\n She says to her daughter, in a tone of grim importance, “Just remember, dear. It is no mistake that Sporty<\/i> Spice is the only one without a man.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are having some kind of freak wind-storm here in the New York\/New Jersey area. It is out of control. I saw a teeny little woman literally clinging to a lamppost on 42nd Street so she wouldn’t be blown away. … Continue reading