And more humor...

Credit Brad again, for this one.

I was sent this e-mail a long time ago at a job:
Moral dilemma test...You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night, whenyou pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for thebus:
1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing that there couldonly be one passenger in your small car? Think before you continuereading.This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually used as part ofa job application. You could pick up the old lady, because she isgoing to die, and thus you should save her first.Or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, andthis would be the perfect chance to pay him back. However, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again. The candidate who was hired(out of 200 applicants) had no trouble coming up with his answer. He simply answered: "I would give the car keys to my old friend and lethim take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait forthe bus with the partner of my dreams."Sometimes, we gain more if we are able to give up our stubborn thoughtlimitations. Never forget to "Think Outside of the Box."

So yeah, we're supposed to learn something from this. Brad's reply was much better...

Yeah, but then you stuck your old friend with the thankless task of hauling an old bag to the hospital while you stay behind and cavort with your new lover. And the old friend was probably someone of the opposite sex who has had a lifelong crush on you, which really sucks for that person. While you're at it, why don't you tell your old friend to do your laundry and clean your kitchen after they're done dropping the old bitty on the hospital curb. The old friend can then pick you and your new lover up at the motel the next morning.
And this is why, if you don't have one, you need a Brad in your life :)

So I am stealing from Brad's blog...but I forgot how entertaining this really is...credit Brad for the writing, credit Jayme for finding this magnificent man (or rather, him finding her last year). Anytime I need something to laugh at, I just think of this. Is that wrong? Anyway, here it is, from Brad's blog, last year...
"A good man is hard to find"
Ok, not that I peruse Match.com that often, but my attention has been brought to this entry: http://www.match.com/profile/showprofile.aspx?lid=1000005&TP=U&UID=5taghGM3rx6UIhR1avD9sQ==&Handle=sloemo
Now, the entry itself is almost too overwhelming to describe, so I'll just comment on one telling excerpt:
MY FRIENDS SAY THAT I'VE BEEN ON MY OWN FOR TOO LONG AND HAVE GOTTEN TOO COMFORTABLE WITH THAT. THEY MAY BE RIGHT. I LIVE A BACHELOR'S LIFE. I AM NOT MATERIALISTIC. I AM A SIMPLE MAN WHO ENJOYS WALKS AND FINDING BARGAINS.I'M LOOKING FOR A WOMAN WHO I CAN GET ALONE WITH, SOMEONE WHO WILL ACCEPT ME AND ALL MY IDIOSYNCRASIES.

Even though this "simple" man is 42 years old and a Hong Kongian (wtf is the politically correct term for a Hong Kongian anyway?), I feel a kinship and a recognition that runs deeper than the ocean. "Yes!" I exclaimed out loud upon reading this, "Finally someone less shy and reluctant than me has come forth and laid bare his deepest emotions. Finally someone has said, 'enough of this being alone, I shall set forth and find my soul mate.'" And to top it off, I, TOO, enjoy bargains. Uncanny.

God bless this gentle and courageous creature who might show us what true love is. Ladies, I'm not sure of this man's availability now, but my advice to you is to seize him as your own as soon as possible, if possible.

R.I.P. Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day is my least favorite holiday of the year. When I lived in the South, I barely gave the holiday a passing thought, except that it meant college football was starting and baseball was winding down. Now that I am back up North, it conjures images of everything I despise - cold weather, snow, being sick, baseball ending, and the long wait for summer to begin again.
I remember going to Jamaica in October of 2000, getting off the plane in Laguardia only to be greeted by snow flurries. I repeat, in October.
I remember flying home my senior year of college in April for a weekend of interviews, and being snow delayed at the airport.
It really shouldn't snow from October to April...that just seems a little ridiculous.
I can't focus on enjoying Fall, because I know winter is just a step behind. I hate wearing sweaters, shoes, and coats. I hate when daylight seems shorter than nighttime. I hate scraping ice off my car windows, and shoveling my car out of parking spaces.
Everyone keeps commenting "It's going to be a bad winter" and all I can do is cringe.
Once Labor Day comes, it's only a matter of time before the countdown to summer starts again.

Extremes

"...I will never stop trusting extremes. I will always believe that anything worth having is worth having in excess. The good things are worth hoarding until you have a cookie-fat ass, sex-aching loins, joy that fires through you like popping popcorn, or love, the weakness at the sight of some boy that makes your chest ache like indigestion."
- "Smashed"
Koren Zailckas

I still don't love this book. I am on page 232 and to be honest, it has been repetitive since page one. Just the same, some of her thoughts definitely resemble things that have rattled around in my own head.
What it proves - no matter what your poison, what your addiction...it's all the same in the end.

Here is New York

"And the price of a memory is the memory of the sorrow it brings"
- "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby"
Counting Crows

Tenth grade photography, developing seemingly artistic photographs - when I found out that Kurt Cobain had died. Babysitting one summer afternoon - when Jerry Garcia passed away. Playing Monopoly on the floor of a friend's room - when TWA Flight 800 crashed.
I remember my 8th grade Social Studies teacher telling us to ask our parents if they remembered where they were when JFK was assassinated.
Until September 11, 2001 - these were the biggest events I remembered.
In just ten days, it will be five years since that day. I was home in New York for a two week vacation, and had plans to meet a former coworker for lunch in the City. It was a stunning Fall day; not a cloud marked the cerulean sky. I read a book last year, written by a firefighter's widow. She questioned why in times of tragedy, do we always point out how normal the events of the day seemed. Everyone remembers the beautiful weather that day.
I was on the train, headed into the City when my cell phone rang. It was my mother; she had heard that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center (at this time, everyone assumed an accident, maybe a Cessna...news travels slowly) and that I should probably avoid that section of the City. Within minutes, the train became a flurry of cellphones ringing, people gasping, and the eventual pandemonium. We were approaching the East River - where you can see the skyline from Long Island City on the train. People had bits and pieces of information about what was happening - enough to make people panic and feel immediately claustrophobic, but not enough to truly understand what was happening.
We sat in the train, unsure as to whether we would continue into the City, or head back East. The train stood still, as we watched the Tower fall. I remember people shouting, people crying. I remember my father, the conductor on the train, saying over the loudspeaker, "Please stay calm and pray."
The cell phones stopped working - I couldn't call my mother to tell her that we were okay. I couldn't call my brother in Boston to see if he was okay.
"All circuits are busy."
The one line no one wanted to hear that day.
The silence of the next few days was deadening. Radio stations refused to play music, instead embracing a talk format to assuage people's grief. No planes flew overhead. I remember the silence in my backyard.
I returned to Charleston about a week later - it seemed as if nothing had happened. New York, which was the portrait of America as one, was covered in flags and unified in support and brotherhood. Charleston seemed too quiet, as if the events that had happened were so far removed from their day to day lives.
At that moment, I was so grateful to have been home for it, as devastating as it was.
Last week, I was waiting to get my hair done and picked up a copy of New York magazine, which focused on September 11th. In one of the articles, they mentioned a book called "Here is New York" - a photo book detailing September 11th and its aftermath through the eyes of New Yorkers. I ordered it from Amazon, curious as to what I would see.
My own memory is spotty at best - I cannot watch the coverage that shows people jumping out of the Towers. My mother remembers the funerals of firemen - it seemed like they lasted an eternity. Each one dredged up a memory of the devastation.
I look back at my journal from that day, and am ashamed of how self-involved I was, at 22.
"They're calling it the worst terrorist attack in history. A bunch of plans were hijacked - they crashed two into the World Trade Center (it's completely destroyed), one into the Pentagon, and one crashed in PA. It was so sad - completely surreal that the Twin Towers are gone. I'm bummed about my own life - work stress, etc. - but I know it is selfish to think of my own problems right now when all of this is going on."
I couldn't even recognize what that single event would mean the rest of my life.
The book arrived today - it is almost 900 pages of photographs. While they are all undoubtably tragic, there is a beauty in what New York became during that time. Something about looking at these photos reminded me what I felt that day, something that I could not have possibly captured in words.
I often take my surroundings for granted. After September 11th, I tried to shut it out - I didn't want to see the footage anymore; it hurt too much. Looking back at these photos reminded me that yes, it hurt. It hurt much more than I thought it did then.
While the City was certainly beautiful before, looking back at photos taken on September 10th, with the Twin Towers posed loftily as the centerpiece of the skyline - it became even more magnificent on September 12th.