liz becton, locanda, infinite jest

absolutely gorgeous essay by colin meloy on why he's doing infinite summer. i just got my copy in the mail. i have two bookmarks in it (one for footnotes). i'm ready ;) i'm also wondering whether it wouldn't have been better to read the thing on a damn kindle. except i don't own one but have been looking for an excuse to buy one. wonder how footnotes work in one of those things. anybody know?

and these elizabeth becton (liz becton to those in the know) e-mails are AMAZING! GAH! i want more. because you know she's deadly serious and this is how she chooses to live her life. as a spiteful, ridiculous person. she's a cartoon character brought to life! maybe her house will go up with balloons later too and we can make a happy/sad story out of it when a child dying of cancer gets to see the story.

LOVE THIS!

men with hirsute toes should not wear sandals. i just saw on the train a man who had so much hair on his toes that you could have made ponytails out of them. maybe even braided it. imagine what hte rest of his body looks like! EWWWW.

i often makes jokes that only i find funny. this is why i am not considered a funny person, like, at all. caught a minute of the yankee game on saturday and saw a-rod at bat. in my head (thankfully not out loud) i said, "i thought a-rod was on vocal rest" which was funny to me. mostly because vocal rest, for singers, is meaningful but sounds like such a pussy-ish thing to do. so for a-rod to be taking days off for exhaustion or whatever seems also pussy-ish. i don't know. like i said, funny to me and NOBODY else.

last night after work i went back to locanda verde. was quoted a 50 minute wait but not minutes after i'd been handed a glass of verdicchio at the bar the host said, "we'll have a table for you in 2 minutes." rock. on. and i was sat at a cute little two-top just inside the restaurant but alongside the open veranda-style doors where they also have a few tables on the sidewalk. so not only did i get some fresh air and glorious late-afternoon sun, i also stayed dry when it started down pouring 30 minutes later. THIS RAIN MUST STOP. i ordered and relished, completely, the herbed ricotta on garlic toasts. i don't know what crack is like but this is better. it has to be.

i start reading infinite jest. i think i'm in love. i'm less than 100 pages in but, the same way i love borges, i like puzzles and this novel has a hella amount of stuff that i'm going to have to remember to piece together later. some of the lines are just amazing. and so funny. i couldn't stop thinking about it when i went to bed, i'm already fully absorbed and wrapped up in this. my stomach was in knots for young hal. fiction always tears me apart. i can't stay away but i'm not sure whether i'll ever learn to love being mangled...

vignettes during dinner which seemed appropriate, like something DFW might have appreciated. 1.) douchebag in pink polo with popped collar on a date. date leaves to go to the restroom and i catch douchebag grab date's shopping bag and rummage through it to see what she bought. i was hoping he'd get caught in the act but it was not my lucky day.

2.) a man a few tables over barks four times. they were muffled barks, down into his chest. the date looks over at the couple of girls at the next table, smiling as if barking at a restaurant is a typically jokey thing to do. the girls looked back with skeptical eyes to let her know that it was not typical. and will he please stop? it's weird.