It's Friday morning, as happens every week, but I realized the last couple of Fridays that I'm not dreading the weekends anymore. Back in January and February and even well into March, I loathed the weekend. Too much alone time, time to think and stew and ponder and beat myself up and otherwise wallow in abject misery. Nate tried his best to keep me occupied. We even ventured out to Queens, had lunch at a Himalayan restaurant (salted butter tea and goat curry, anyone?), took the 7 out to the old Faigrounds and checked out the Robert Moses exhibit at the Queens Museum before wandering around Flushing and then taking the G train all the way to Park Slope, Brooklyn. And I tried my best to keep me occupied, even forcing myself to initiate contact with dear friends I was almost too shy and feeling too needy to reach out to. But Monday morning was always something of a relief. I was talking about this to a coworker and he said, "Geez, Em, you know you're in a bad place when you're looking forward to Mondays..." Well, I'm pleased to report that I'm back in tune with the working masses again, and am happily looking forward to closing up the library tonight promptly at seven o'clock and not having to think about the place for two whole days.
Speaking of the working masses, I received my annual Social Security Statement in the mail yesterday. I'm always slightly amazed by this thing, not quite sure why. If I were to die right now, my non-existent child and spouse could each receive $978 per month. Is this, in part, how Social Security stays afloat? People like me, with no dependents, paying in, dying alone, leaving no one to collect our share? If I were merely to become severely disabled, I could receive $1,201 per month. And though I earned around $1500 per year in 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1997, I earned exactly $0 in 1996. What the hell was I doing in 1996?
I check the temperature every morning before I leave for work, either through the NY Times online, or on NY1 (channel 98 here in the city). But I rarely think to actually look out the window and see if it looks like it might rain. Nathan gives me a hard time about this, but he's a little obsessed with having everything he might ever need with him at all times... not that this is a bad thing. Anyway, it's April 6th and freezing out. I mean that quite literally it's 32 degrees out. Only 5 degrees warmer than Fairbanks, Alaska. When we were in Fairbanks on January 1st of 2006, it was apparently an unusually warm -11 degrees there, and when we got back to New York, it was nearly 60 degrees here. That's a big difference. 5 degrees, not so much. I hear it's a balmy 85 degrees in parts of Madagascar, though stormy and awfully humid. I'll take my crisp, freezing New York weather any day.
Speaking of the working masses, I received my annual Social Security Statement in the mail yesterday. I'm always slightly amazed by this thing, not quite sure why. If I were to die right now, my non-existent child and spouse could each receive $978 per month. Is this, in part, how Social Security stays afloat? People like me, with no dependents, paying in, dying alone, leaving no one to collect our share? If I were merely to become severely disabled, I could receive $1,201 per month. And though I earned around $1500 per year in 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1997, I earned exactly $0 in 1996. What the hell was I doing in 1996?
I check the temperature every morning before I leave for work, either through the NY Times online, or on NY1 (channel 98 here in the city). But I rarely think to actually look out the window and see if it looks like it might rain. Nathan gives me a hard time about this, but he's a little obsessed with having everything he might ever need with him at all times... not that this is a bad thing. Anyway, it's April 6th and freezing out. I mean that quite literally it's 32 degrees out. Only 5 degrees warmer than Fairbanks, Alaska. When we were in Fairbanks on January 1st of 2006, it was apparently an unusually warm -11 degrees there, and when we got back to New York, it was nearly 60 degrees here. That's a big difference. 5 degrees, not so much. I hear it's a balmy 85 degrees in parts of Madagascar, though stormy and awfully humid. I'll take my crisp, freezing New York weather any day.
2 comments:
As I recall, it didn't feel particularly warm on that day in Fairbanks.
not at first, maybe, but after all those bloody marys, things started feeling a little warmer...
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