Cathy 1 and Cathy 2

I joined a gym this week and it is actually wonderful. It gives me something to do and somewhere to go after work each day, instead of slugging it out at work and then going home to my television. I worked out yesterday, but next time I will remember my headphones as Cathy 1 and Cathy 2 almost buzzkilled my workout.

I was on one of the machines next to two girls who were obviously friends, or more likely, frenemies. They were the whiniest bitches I have seen in awhile, and some of their comments reminded me of the Cathy comic. Here are some snippets:

1) "I mean, I get my J Crew packages sent to my work, which I kind of feel guilty about, but hey - I need my khakis!!"

2) "So this pregnant woman at my work asked everyone at the staff meeting to stay home from work if they're sick because she's vuerable to illness. I was like, 'how about we call in to work if we're feeling sick and work can tell you to stay home.'"

3) "I was telling a new guy at work about my vacation days and he was like, 'I wish I had vacation days,' and I was like, 'I earned my vacation, ok? That's what happens your first year of work, you don't get vacation, ok?'"

3) "I hate this. I'm tired today. I hate this."

I mean, what Wisconsin puritans! The negativity pouring off these girls was disturbing. Then, during our workout an amazing rainbow appeared out the window. I'm serious. It was an incredibly vivid and beautiful rainbow. I looked around from side to side to see if the people around me would notice, and they didn't. So I said, "Cathys, see that rainbow."

What else could I do?

Odds and Ends from NC

Today I walked over to the university arboretum and spread out a blanket by a big old North Carolina tree. It was in the 70s, and though it was unseasonably warm, I savored an afternoon of the slow pace of life down here that everyone talks about. I sat in the sun and read some back issues of the New Yorker, soaking up months of culture that I had missed when my reading list was solely based on urban planning. Yep, three of four classes are now done for the semester.

After a few hours of reading, I drove over to a local coffee shop where I sort-of avoided getting hit on by some 60-year-old dude who was wearing some kind of cyclist windbreaker unzipped so that his gray chest hair poked out of it. He made conversation with me about the beautiful looking fruit tarts:

Him: Are you going to have a tart?
Me: Nope. (Pause) Just coffee.
Him: Oh! Good discipline. I really have motivation not to eat one either.
Me: Uh, yeah.
Him: I just had two apples and a piece of cheese for lunch.
Me: (Silence)

After that, I came home and watched some old videos on YouTube. Josephine Baker, Russian Ballet from the 70s, the new exhibit of Kara Walker's art at the Whitney in New York. You can really find anything you want to see on there. I guess it goes to show that I can only complain to a degree about being culturally isolated down here. To the degree of a 2" x 3" online video of about 5 minutes in length on almost any cultural topic in the world.

Also, I went to the "Short Circuit Traveling Film Festival" last week. It was a series of short films made by filmmakers of the Southeast US and it was really fun. My favorite short was called "The Language of Limbs: A Documentary on the Agrifolk Art Movement." It was hilarious and clever and southern. You can view a portion of it here.

Bike Ride for Coffee and Happiness and Micheal Jackson

Saturday was probably my best day yet since I've lived here in North Carolina. I went with a new friend to participate in a bike ride around Durham. It was a fundraiser for sending bikes to Rwandan coffee growers. The bike ride included stops at local businesses - a community garden, a co-op bike space, a record store, a coffee shop. It was fun to be outside and fun to see some cool community spots. I enjoyed spending the day getting to know a new friend. Then we went to a Durham bar for beers and snacks. Then we went out to dance and enjoy the band, Who's Bad?, a Micheal Jackson cover band. I danced a lot, and really enjoyed the music.

It was a full day.

Common Sense for Pedestrians

I was riding my bike to work today and I cut through downtown to avoid the windy corridor of Oak Street and Taste of Chicago. It was a pain to bike through downtown because of all the stoplights, mostly. There was also an annoying pedestrian, a guy walking with his nose buried in the Wall Street Journal. In general, I don't have a problem with people walking and reading as long as they are will to be slow and kind of passive. In other words, they are fine as long as they follow the traffic signals and make it easy for people to go around them.

So I passed WSJ dude on my bike and then had to wait at a light. He proceeded to walk and stand directly in front of my bike at the street corner, only to begin reading his paper again. WTF?!

I had another similar issue with a pedestrian when I was visiting Chapel Hill last week. Some dude was standing on the street corner with his head buried in a map. The light turned green and there he was, buried in his map, not moving. I began to make a right turn, and lo and behold he stepped off the curb (not paying attention) and I had to swerve out of the way. "It's okay! I'll wait!" he yelled after my car angrily.

In these situations, both people have a responsibility to be attentive to their surroundings. Pedestrians certainly have the right-of-way, except when they are being total bozos and not paying attention.