I have two of them. They in their own ways are good people, very generous with others, etc, very talented and so on. They just don't seem to like each other much. I suppose siblings driving each other crazy shouldn't be news, but you'd think time would help that stuff along.

I am stuck in the middle. Now, my older sister is going to be 46 this year, the younger just turned 37 and they still are always one insult away from all out stupidity. It may have happened. In December, sister the younger came home to her 89th street apt in Manhattan to find it charred. A fire took out her living room and everything in it. Everybody felt awful, but there were limits as to what we could do from distance. She has a good network of friends for the scutwork and immediately running to manhattan would have just put me in the way, so I stayed put and repaired her laptop. She, being pretty together, assembled a patchwork of places to stay while she fought insurance companies and her landlord. Sister the older lives in the Chelsea District and pitched in with laundry, storage and all the stuff you could ask for.

Both are very particular folks and awfully set in their ways. The day before both were going to come up to Buffalo for Christmas. Younger calls the Older and asks for one more night since her plans for that night fell through. I think she was about one last nerve away from coming unspooled. Older starts to talk her way through and doesn't answer quick enough so younger loses it.

Younger calls my dad and says she may just have to leave abruptly because older was such a bitch. My dad tells me this and I kinda of cringe because I still want my kids to enjoy Christmas (stoopid ass that I am). The Witches of Eastwick put on a good show for my mom and my daughters so it all passes without incident. A week later, I'm at my younger sister's boyfriends house. She is randomly announcing that she is sure when she is going to talk to our older sister again. A voice in my head is saying "just let her vent." I listen to my voice and study the bottom of my beer glass. I want to point out that that won't achieve a thing, but a mouthful of guinness ensures that I remain neutral in this dispute.

The reason this comes to mind on this holiday is that savvy younger sister fought the authority and won and her apartment has been restored and she gets to from her temp surroundings and go back home. The first call she placed was to our geeky father. Dad has a wiring knack and some time on his hands. As he and my Mom are telling me about heading into New York on Thursday, they simulataneously developed this look of "Oh Shit." My folks are reasonably worldly, but doing the dance of the fragile egos in Manhattan put them in the state of such befuzzledness that they asked me for advice. Me, who is freshly divorced, not frequently dating enough, semi tangible social life, is suddenly the pillar for intrapersonal relations.

I came to the conclusion that it wasn't for my folks to get in the middle of. The siblings are way too frigging old for this shit and their spat was not for my folks or me to get in the middle. Tell them both the exact same thing in terms of plans and let the them figure it out.

Dad gave me a case of guinness for my wisdom. I told him it's easy to be wise from a distance.

The Drama

Something about last night's rain (before the winds and whatnot) was soothing. It's like my apartment building got hosed off. The fresh air was a welcome change from the artificial fresh air. It was perfect for sleeping. After laundry, I made a lazy dinner and plopped down in front of the sabres game. They won, so I figured I could postpone taxes till tonight. Sleep came real easy. And it was the good kind, as a bonus. I was almost ready to go to work until I actually got here.

Nothing like a heavy workload to kill the good mood. For a place that doesn't want to keep me much longer they are working me. When you get your paper this Sunday, there is a cable supplement (one of those annoying one sheet thingies) that is my handywork and they want me to do more. Perhaps a job hunt could be postponed. Good thing as I need to work on those other things, like a life....

If filling out turbo tax with a chocolate rabbit nearby is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Anybody want an ear?

I have to work Easter Sunday -- something depressing about that. If you're going to the Sabres game, stop by and say howdy. I could use a friend.

I am without a demographic. Okay, I'm starting to randomize.

Must need more sleep.

George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld are flying on Air Force One.

The President looks at the Vice President, chuckles, and says, "You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out the window right now and make somebody very happy."

The Vice President shrugs and says, "Well, I could throw 10 $100 bills out the window and make 10 people very happy."

Not to be outdone, the Secretary of Defense says, "Of course, then, I could throw 100 $10 bills out the window and make a hundred people very happy."

The pilot rolls his eyes and says to his co-pilot, "Such arrogant asses back there. Hell, I could throw the three of them out the window and make 56 million people unbelievably happy."

Got home last night and it was too nice to just collapse, which is what I mostly feel like doing after work these days. Changed out of my boring work clothes and put on some boring play clothes, strapped on the IPOD and started schlepping down Delaware to get some exercise and see if a spring day can revive me.

It did. I followed Delaware down to Lincoln Parkway and veered over to Elmwood by the gallery and just worked my way back of Elmwood to Utica and back to my humble abode again. No great shakes that, but it was just good to get out with a decent soundtrack in my ears. It was one of those nights that make you happy to be glad in the village, plenty of folks were out, but it was without the weekend tourists, ya know. I stopped or was stopped to chat a few times, snafed one of Spot's patented italian sodas. Almost no money fun.

It wasn't very remarkable, but a jaunt like that was able to free my mind from all the intellectual bullshit of work, the possibility of needing to look for work and sundry crap.

While downloading Batman's whupping (Thanks Jenks), I made a contribution to Gather that caught my fancy. It's an acoustic version of "That's Entertainment" by Paul Weller with a little help from Noel Gallagher.

Enjoy
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As I read other folks journals, I find I'm also checking out links that other peeps are posting and I'm finding a goalmine ofcool stuff. You guys are broadening my horizons. That's a cool thing. Estrip: Does a Mind Good.

the world in which I live......

I'm struggling to hang on the job, as the door isn't closed all the way. I'm a hot topic at Adelphia Media Services. The news that I am probably available is grist for the gossip mills down there They are the hucksters who go to businesses to sign them up for commericals. "You can come join us"

I know cults with more enticing recruiting. What makes the whole thing a fucking sitcom is that there actually are Sales Representatives for Adelphia who work on a door to door basis, jehovah's witnesses without the warmth. These characters are the result of somebody calling central casting and saying "Send me the most charmless creeps you can find and if they have body odor, more's the better." These gifts to society now reside in our building. We used to keep them safely stashed over by UB. A few of the matinee idols are grooving through the building trying to find out who got the call from Time Warner and who didn't.

Their inquiries have gotten progressively annoying to the point where the two women I share an office with laid them flat. They both have my eternal respect and today reeled off lines I wish I would have thought. One DSR was told "he made it to Day One with Time Warner, best of luck with Day Two."

Not terribly innovative, but it gave me a chuckle over my morning quart of coffee. My ego got a much needed boost too. There has been a big hullabaloo over Major League Baseball coverage and we got to the bottom of it all. A release was drafted but the big bosses weren't comfortable turning it loose until "Mike reviewed it."

Score one for me. Gotta take your victories where you find them.

It needed to be said, better now.

More later

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