Reflections

I am tasting
Crusty bread dipped in olive oil
Redolent of rosemary.
Across the table
My pleasure is reflected in your eyes,
Doubled as it returns to me.
And how much more
When your touch brings delirious waves
Lapping at my shore,
Then rolling out again,
Your nearby island intensifies
And sends them back to me

"Miss Congeniality" Films Downtown

I've met someone who's in the movie biz, usually as a production coordinator, but this past week, he worked as a rigging grip on "Miss Congeniality," which is shooting in Austin right now. So last night we were on set watching everything. They've turned the Cue Lounge on Fourth Street (next to the Alamo Drafthouse) into a Russian Mafia bar in New York, complete with Cyrillic signage (ЛАЙКА) and wonderful Russian murals of Lenin and so on inside and even a Battleship Potemkin reference. Sandra Bullock was there roughing up a Russian bad guy, and Benjamin Bratt (Julia Roberts' main squeeze) was playing a cop going undercover as a homeless guy, and Laszlo Kovacs (Easy Rider, New York, New York, My Best Friend's Wedding) is the cinematographer. They had "New York" cabs and background cars with NY license plates, rain trees to, well, make it rain, and tough-looking extras, and copies of the New York Post for authenticity, etc. I even got to nosh from the craft services truck. So I'm a bit tired today, but it was cool. Maybe they'll keep the sign up and leave the bar as is.

Lightning Strikes

After kinda drifting off on the sofa with Teresa the kitty on my lap, I finally decided to drag myself into bed, and just when I was falling asleep, a huge lightning bolt hit the transformer across the street. The resulting fireworks both woke me up and knocked out the power for long enough to reset all my clocks. I don't think I actually fell asleep until 6:30 or later, because my alarm clock (battery backup) went off at 7, but I was in such a deep sleep I didn't actually wake up until 7:30. I'd really rather not be awake right now.

I was reading a Time online article about the movie "Gladiator," and realized that I have met the producer, Douglas Wick. He came to Wellesley when I was a senior to talk about "Working Girl," which had just been released. I was in a video production class at the time, so I made a point of talking to him. I got the feeling he really dug me, which I might have used to wangle a job, but I was intent on finishing school first. Maybe I shoulda been like Brad Pitt, who ditched school his last semester to go to Hollywood. Maybe not.

Easter 2000

Easter was a bright and beautiful day in Texas, if rather hot. I went home early Sunday morning so I could go to church with my mother. All the old faithfuls were there. It's nice to have that kind of continutity in one's life. That's one thing I miss here in Austin--knowing adult-type people who have known me all my life. Then we had pancakes at home, went and visited my grandmother, and then had a lamb shish kebab/ham dinner at the Luccheses' house (Mrs. Lucchese was my Latin teacher, and led the Europe trip I went on 10 years ago). It felt nice to be doing something Easter-y.

My mom is off to Italy today with her old friend Debby--she'll be gone for almost 4 weeks, and will be driving back from her friend's house in CT with a "new" Saab (new to her - it's Debby's old one). There was some excitement last night, because most of the flights in and out of Logan Airport had been canceled, so she had to find another way to get there this morning and catch her flight to Zurich. She just called me from Newark, so I think all is okay. By the way, she got re-elected as the head of the school, so I guess she's out of retirement now. I think she mostly retired before to take care of my dad, so now that Oma's in a nursing home, she has no more invalids to care for. Still, being the head of a school is more work than I'd want at her age.

Limerickal Silliness

There once was a young man named Srini
Whose passion was dining on blini
When the deli ran out, the loss made him pout,
Saying, "Now I must eat beany weenies!"

Tornado Nightmare

I had a mini-nightmare this morning that I was standing in my office, looking out the window at some ominous clouds that looked like they could be distant rain or a distant huge tornado. The radio only played maddeningly cheerful music--no storm warning or anything. Then suddenly the cloud came closer, and it was an enormous wide tornado full of dirt heading straight my way. Then it turned and started going down 183, whirling police motorcycles into its midst. I thought, whew! But then it turned again down Shoal Creek, I thought it was going down the middle of the street, past me, but then it changed course and headed inexorably my way. I suddenly realized I didn't know which way to run, and was only wearing night clothes. I thought, "They're going to find my battered body half naked in a pile of rubble." AAAAAH! And then I woke up. And realized that I had dreamed all that in the short musical interlude between two news stories on NPR.

Of course, when I drove to work this morning and saw similar clouds on the horizon, I just about had a fit, thinking my dream might have been a premonition. But the sun is out now, so I'm feeling calmer.