Idiosycratic Life

Hmm.... Am still in Boston. I flew in and out of Boston because otherwise my frequent flier restrictions would had me passing through Detroit with long layovers to get to White Plains, and this way, I could visit with Stephen if I had time and have Amanda pick me up, etc. (Thanks for the chauffering, by the way. ;)

Got to see Jillian and Nikki, too, as I, somehow, didn't manage to visit them since ringing in 2002 slightly more than a year ago. It was nice to see you!

Stephen and I wandered up and down Newbury Street today, window-shopping and stopping in all the (heated and not frighteningly windy and cold) stores that, in one way or another, resemble the Imaginary Store Alissa and I hope to have. They were all staffed by one "nearly-comatose-with-boredom" person, usually a young woman, who all said business had been really, really slow. After commiserating about the boredom working most regular retail can induce (which, as some of you may remember, nearly reduced me to a compulsive tshirt-folding, mentally Spanish verb-conjugating, "tights, panties and things" stocking zombie in the summer of '97), it occurred to me that we really do need to implement the Dial-A-Friend service that the character of "Nanny" dreams up in the "Nanny Diaries."

In this book, Nan- driven crazy by the incessant demands of her snobby and neurotic employers- fantasizes about having the ability to just call up a service and have them send over an Instant Friend, bearing a pitcher of margaritas and an 80s Madonna album, for companionship as she's stuck in Nantucket caring for their overstimulated, tantrum-inclined 4-year-old.

The bored, isolated retail workers needed this really badly. I myself could have used it in the early weeks of Miami. :)