crazies on the T

I take the Red Line two stops, twice a day, during rush hour, so usually my commute is mundane. On the bus up to Chelsea, there was a mildly crazy guy (more of the overly social variety) which made me a little bit nervous, but he was far enough behind me in the bus that there was no worry about my having to interact with him.

On the Red Line to South Station last night, there was this very scruffy looking guy who was (mumbly) talking at first as if he were talking to someone (though there is no way anyone gets cell phone reception underground Harvard T Station) and then it turned into the more publicly declarative type stuff. No one responded to him and I don't think he was really making attempts to interact with anybody (I had my back to him) but I still didn't wanna be near him. I have fear of getting sucked into conversations with crazy people (influenced heavily by all the sketchy hit-ons I've suffered, I'm sure). (And he was ripping up part of his newspaper. ::shudders::)

This morning on the Red Line, a guy dressed business casual standing near me: "President Bush is a gentleman of the White House. [blah blah blah]" I said something like, "Okay."
"If you want to sit down, this lady will give you her seat."
"No, that's fine, I'm getting off in another stop." [We were pulling into Porter.]
Then he started saying how she was a Bush supporter. The lady, to her credit, sat impassively in her seat reading her book and not responding at all. And then he started back on how he was a Bush supporter. "President Bush is a gentleman in the White House. [blah blah blah] Bringing peace to the world through strength and diplomacy." And then he said to the car at large, "This lady in the red [i.e., me] is a big campaigner for Bush." I admit, I was weak, and dramatically rolled my eyes. He was obviously trying to start shit, and I just didn't wanna deal with it.

Firefly: pilot episode ("Serenity")

( Yes I spoiler-cut. )

"Ruby Tuesday" in my head thanks to Tania.

My work computer has a DVD drive and I can't make it play CDs.  Gar.  (The computer has Real Player, which will play mp3s, but I can't make it just play the contents of the D drive.)

Good things about today:
+ nice weather
+ Sarah sent me the photo that she took of me with the "Sparkling Bean" cow at Copley.
+ Becca replied to my e-mail.  (Seminary?  Whoa.)
+ actual meeting with Prof.B. !!!
+ and as a consequence actually did useful stuff today instead of staring uselessly at the computer all day
+ watched "Serenity" (pilot episode, not movie -- note quotation marks rather than italics) with Eric; for more joy read the writeup of the experience
+ got a positive review on my Lilah/Faith fic over at Notorious
+ finally got swipe card access to FormerUnitHead's office
+ v. positive reaction to a concrit I left, leading to discussion of post-"Chosen" Dawn and also of Xander generally
+ I bought the new Ani CD for $10.49 incl. tax thanks to a Newbury Comics coupon from hedy.  (The regular NC price is $10.88 vs. the $15.99 sticker.)
+ The landlord put in the right screen in my bedroom window.  (Yeah, the previous tenant swapped out the screen for one that didn't fit.  I don't ask questions.)

When I came home the painter was still working -- was until about when I left -- so WJMN was blasting the whole time.  I don't dislike the station, but I wasn't thrilled about the volume.  Since I was leaving soon I just let it go, though.  When he left he said he was all done, so I have my apartment back now.  It'll take a couple days for the paint smell to really vanish, but still.

Wine-tasting was cancelled, so we hung out at Mike's for a while.  (I ordered pumpkin ravioli 'cause I was intrigued, but then they were out of it so I got mushroom ravioli instead; and I forget that ravioli comes with tomato sauce, but it scraped off easily; the ravioli didn't really taste like much, which as I'm me isn't inherently a problem, but I was looking forward to some sort of mushroom taste.)  Then they went bowling but I was feeling tired and am never keen on bowling, so I came home.  Am debating whether I'm tired enough to actually go to bed now.

reprieve (Ani DiFranco, 2006)

I'm not a fan of the musical experimentation Ani did with her last few albums.  revelling/reckoning (2001) and evolve (2003) took a long time to grow on me (the former especially), and I couldn't bring myself to listen to educated guess (2004) and knuckle down (2005) more than once each.  And we don't speak of so much shouting, so much laughter (2002).  So I had no expectations for reprieve (2006).

As it turns out, this album is the mellow evocative one might expect from the cover artwork.  (The artwork accompanying each lyric page is also very complementary.)  The lyrics are not the brilliance I am used to expecting from her, and I often notice similarities to earlier songs [though I guess that's to be expected, as there are only so many stories to be told] but it's actually enjoyable to listen to.  I am reminded of revelling/reckoning (and my experience therewith) a lot actually.  And frighteningly, I find myself wanting to give her last two albums another shot.

It sounds like I'm damning with faint praise, and maybe I am; but hey, I'm relieved.

( song-by-song )