7-4-00

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July, 2000

7/4/00

I apologize for being so freaking boring. Not a whole lot Heads29.gif (18232 bytes) happening in my tiny corner of the planet right now. I almost wonder why I should keep typing anything into this journal. Oh well -- it's a journal, nothing in it needs to be particularly "worthwhile" (or useful) anyway. One thing, though, after reading how incredibly boring and uneventful my life is, just think what it'll do for your own self-esteem. Wow. I think I just became useful by being boring.

Yesterday I watched the Wizard of Oz for the -nth time. It's one of my favorite movies of all time. The poignancy of Judy Garland singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" draws the tears every time I hear it. And of course, at the end: "There's no place like home." Excuse me. <sniff, sniff> Then there's the "whimsy" factor: God, how I love the Munchkin scenes after the house falls on the Wicked Witch of the East. The "Ding, Dong the Witch Is Dead" song; the "Lollipop Guild" song with the smirking Munchkins doing their little jig. Sigh. And l love it when Glinda the Good Witch of the North informs Dorothy (after Dorothy asks why Glinda is so beautiful) in her sweet, dulcet voice: "Only bad witches are ugly." I could go on and on rhapsodizing why l love this movie so much. I've got the video (and even though I don't have DVD yet, I'll probably go out and get the DVD version anyway). I've seen the movie countless times through the years on television. I've seen the re-released digitized version in the theatre surrounded by a lot of restless rugrats. Although one little girl (about six or seven years old) sitting next to me softly sang the words to all the songs! That's amazing! I mean, the movie is over sixty years old and this child born only in this past decade knows all the songs (even dialogue) by heart. I don't quite remember how old I was when I first saw the Wizard of Oz on tee-vee...obviously a looooong time ago. Heh. I used to have a crush on The Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) when I was little. After seeing the movie again -- I still think he's cute. He may not have been able to frighten crows from a cornfield, but he was agile as heck. And though he supposedly lacked a brain, he seemed to have the best ideas (like when he teased the grumpy, selfish apple trees into hurling their fruit at Dorothy and he, thus supplying them with lunch; pretty smart I'd say). Then there's the Cowardly Lion chewing his tail... The Tin Woodsman seizing up with rust, the others squirting oil into his joints... Emerald City and the Horse of a Different Color... The Wizard himself, nothing more than a kindly old man from Kansas, hiding behind smoke, a booming voice and a scary projection... the Flying Monkeys (probably the scariest scene, Dorothy being carried off)... plucky, little Toto... the brilliant Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West (...I'm melting, melting...oh look what you've done to my wicked loveliness...)... the hourglass scene, when Dorothy sees Aunty Em in the crystal ball and calls out to her... the Witch's guards chanting "Ohhhh-WE-ooooh, yo-OOOOO... God, how I love that movie. For a couple of hours I can forget my boring life, my problems. There's no place like home. There's no place like Oz.

My writing output. You had to ask. Well, yesterday was a dismal writing day in terms of numbers (only 469 words). However, though the word count for Mind Diver was minimal, I'm finally advancing to the infamous "party" scene where Gillian will meet Christopher. I'm hoping that this will spur a writing frenzy which will result in a larger word count. One can only hope.

Total Mind Diver word count for June: 3,780.

I forgot to mention my lunch at The Field in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter on Saturday -- and not because it wasn't memorable. It was. Mmmmm. I had the corned beef and cabbage (couldn't resist). Mmmmmmm. This was the leanest corned beef I've ever had -- not a trace of fat, it was so tender I didn't have to use my knife to cut it. The meat was covered with a white wine sauce (I could easily have eaten a vat of the stuff), accompanied by three red potatoes and very nicely boiled and fragrant cabbage. Before my entreé I had black bean soup (which came with butter and a biscuit) -- the soup itself was very thick -- and crowded with beans. I repeat: MMMMMMM! Next time I'm trying their fish and chips...