So, three weeks later (to the day), and not a
single entry. Tragic, and no mistake. Part of
the problem is that I have been happy. There is
nothing like happiness to make you live and stay
in the moment without feeling driven to the page
for an hour or two to ruminate moodily on your
situation. Aside: I was listening to NPR
tonight, and suddenly I got really worried about
the upcoming war on Iraq. The media is
polarizing like crazy. Even good old national
public radio was sounding anti-government and
reactionary, suspicious and cynical. I dunno.
When everyone runs for the edge of the spectrum
and there is no work to negotiate the middle
space, that is when I start to get worried that
things might not end well. Then there was the
no/limited candy thing. In my life, not on NPR.
Outside of saving thousands of calories a week
from needless slaughter, there does not seem to
be much effect. If anything, being off candy
was/is worse than being on. I was tired, I went
through what must have been a mini-caffeine or
sugar withdrawal and was a bit sickish for a
week, and dig this: I had the biggest outbreak
of acne I have ever experienced since I was a
teen. What is up with that? I had a zit on my
chin that was so big I will have to claim it as

a dependent on my income taxes this year. Horrid
blemish outbreaks notwithstanding, I have
generally been pretty darned good these last
weeks. I have not spent a single cent of my own
money on candy. There have been a couple of
times where people offered me a piece of candy,
and to be social, I accepted. And when given a
bag of peanut M&Ms, I ate them. But when I
went to see Harry Potter this weekend, I sat
there without cola, without candy, without even
movie popcorn. It was horrible, but it built
character to sit in that comfortable chair in
the dark while a gigantic screen relieved me of
the duty of any higher mental functions ? all
without the aid and comfort of candy. Really,
excepting the one M&Ms episode and the three
gallons of ice cream (which I really probably
should have lumped in with my empty-calorie
promise and given a miss), I have been quite
good. In non-candy related news, I spent the
weekend with href="http://www.jonplummer.com/"
target=_blank>Jon and his
ever-more-beautiful wife, E~. It was raining the
day I flew out of Seattle, and when I finally
arrived in LA, the land famed for its buxom
tanned women strolling along sunny beaches, it
was raining even harder. But that was nothing to
the torrents that fell on Friday. I took
vacation days off work for this. It also rained
on Saturday. Sunday, the day I had to fly home,
I got up and it was beautiful and sunny and hot
and the clear blue sky stretched from horizon to
horizon. Of course. We put in a quick trip to
the Getty before taking me to the airport, so
that was okay. But mostly it was just very good
to get to see Jon and catch up.
My life is definitely impoverished by not having
more of him in it. Aside: Is it just me, or is
Saddam kicking our collective behinds? We are
the ones being all aggressive and irrational,
sure, but he is playing us like a yo-yo. Or like
a fish on a line. Or like some sort of special
fish-yo. He stands us off, then lets us come in,
then keeps us waiting, then lets us move forward
a step. He is good. He is better than us. The US
may be the bull, but Saddam is the clever
matador, dancing around and waving the red flag
that infuriates us, and eventually wearing us
down. We think we are the strongest player in
the arena, but we are not proving ourselves to
be anything like the cleverest, and so all our
strength comes to naught, and we are getting
played like a fish-yo accordion. Anyway. I am
off to bed. More catch-up news tomorrow.