Circular words and words of circles

Poor copy editing, especially on advertisements meant to sell something or entice me to go somewhere, drives me crazy to no end. I will focus on a mistake for hours on end, trying to mentally correct it. Of course, this Jedi mind-trick doesn’t really work as much as I’d want it to, but it helps to pass the time on a train ride.

The particular example that has spurred this post:

“It’s my flower show…because it has the all the things I like.”

In the first line. Really! I couldn’t stop staring at the first the in the sentence and it was driving a hole into my brain. Like a too slow screw going into a wall, scraping the entire way, I could focus on nothing but that. Luckily, a cute, muscular punk boy entered the train and sat directly under it to my benefit, so I had something else to focus and project on. All tattoos, shaved head and muscles.

It’s funny how cute boys have a tendency to make everything better.

A post-St. Patrick's Day conversation

It's almost like we're grown ups!

me: and in to work before 10pm
on the day after st patrick's day!
this is like...
it's like...
er..
10 am
tom: yay for us!
me: of course i was getting texts from grant from like 3-5am
tom: same here
the concept of 9 to 5 work still eludes him
me: we just had a ridiculous fire drill to inform us of how to react to an envelope chock-ful-o' anthrax
tom: fun!
me: yeah those old epa guys are adorable
tom: why would people be sending emarketer anthrax?
me: corporate sabotage?
I am a very important person, Thomas.
i know terry also loves going to italy and speaks italian
tom: can't you have your assistant winkles open your mail for you?
me: I can
and do.
tom: it's probably him sending you the anthrax
me: bastard... i never even thought of that
tom: behind that innocent iowa facade lurks the sinister soul of a rebellious employee
he's probably putting laxative in your coffee too
me: damnit... the catch-22 of assistants.
they're all greedy little sociopaths underneath. just like in showgirls
tom: haha
showgirls?
i didn't see that reference coming
me: Only the classic picture of the understudy usurping the star!
tom: yes, it is modern day shakespeare
me: i do prefer the vh1 version
with the drawn on bras and panties
tom: well gilt group came through on the swimsuits today, but unfortunately the guys aren't that great
me: boo
me: oh, those vilebrequin shorts are all rehashes
tom: it's going to be swimsuit season soon too!
me: haha
tom: i need to shave my legs!
me: ...eiw

...ten minutes later...

tom: at least i didn't say back

Classy, Tom. Classy.

This aint no lump of coal...

How I came to New York is a bit of a peculiar story… As inevitable as it was I definitely took an odd route. I really do believe that I was meant to live here for at least a good portion of my life, but I was not totally doe eyed about the experience either. I knew that coming to NYC (and staying) would be hard and require a level of determination that I hadn’t experienced previously.

The idea was put into my head that I could survive here, or any other big city, on Christmas day. I was in a bar, drinking with my brother and his best friend. At the end of the table they introduced me to his sister, Steph. Steph was a little different. I could tell immediately. Maybe it was her really cool cell phone, the Razr, which at the time only drug dealers or techies were using back in Lancaster. There was something that I was drawn to but I really doubt it was her cell phone.

She was visiting from New York for Christmas and had brought a friend along but once we started talking we completely ignored everyone else at the table. It was like meeting someone I had known all my life for the first time. It was strange, I was able to open up to her completely. It started because we spoke about music and quickly moved on from there.

Steph, as I have come to find out, has a directness about her that helps to guide others. Which makes sense - she manages musicians for a living, notorious for being misguided and lacking direction of their own.

The conversation changed quickly to what I was doing, what I wanted to be doing, and where I wanted to do it. She spoke of the glory of the big city, the opportunities there in comparison to where we were from. I understood and grasped it immediately. She asked what I was doing wasting my time in Lancaster in that dead end job, working for someone else.

I wasn’t sure myself, and told her as much. She filled my head with ideas, saying that if I went to school in Chicago or NY that she could help get me an internship in music or business, that she saw a smart and determined individual in me, different from a lot of the people that are willing to settle in life. That I wasn’t going to be happy accepting the lot in life that I had placed for myself so far…