Entries from September 2009
September 25, 2009 · 1 Comment
Apart from getting to watch my favourite players in action at the U.S. Open — namely these two (please excuse the poor quality of these photos, I was very, very far away and had to use the creative combination of binoculars and regular digital camera):
my annual pilgrimages to Arthur Ashe Stadium have also been rewarded by the presence of Hollywood celebrities in the audience. On a good day, they’ll also goof around for the cameras. Last year, Will Ferrell flexed his biceps for us. This year, as SexyBack played overhead, Justin Timberlake gave the thumbs up to one audience member moving to his music and when the camera panned out to another dancing tennis fan and then back to him, he gave it a palm down, “so-so” rating. It was funny.
Below are but a few of the stars I was quick enough to snap a picture of on the jumbotron. Others (who I can recall anyway) include Charlize Theron with boyfriend Stuart Townsend and Gwen Stefani.
Categories: Travel Stories
Tagged: Celebrities, Federer, Nadal, tennis, US Open
September 24, 2009 · 5 Comments
See the red thing in this photo? That’s the shape of a mouse hole! I was just as shocked as you are now to discover that it’s not a cute little half-oval cavity in your wall. It’s an inconspicuous gap between your air-conditioning unit (with centralised cooling and heating) and your floor.
I was sitting in bed the other night watching tv when I saw something moving through the corner of my eye. I focussed on it and saw it was a tiny gray mouse. I yelled, “Hey!” like it was a burglar or something and screamed. It looked at me for two seconds and ran back into the hole you see plugged up in that picture.
For about 10 minutes I sat up in bed, frozen, staring at the hole, my heart pounding, imagining the mouse (100 times smaller than I) on the other side of the airconditioning’s metal cover, staring back, also shaking. It was only slightly amusing.
Then I thought, “Crap! It wants my food!” So I grabbed all the snacks in my living room and put them in the fridge. After that I crawled back into bed and continued to stare at the hole. What next?
I googled mouse behaviour. The first article I came across said to block out mice with wire mesh. The closest thing to that that I had was a dishwashing sponge. When I went to get it, I found it was more like a plastic scratchy material but it had to do. So I cut it up and stuffed it into the hole to close the gap.
Now I’m working on the assumption that mice, like electric currents, always choose the path of least resistance and the mouse won’t try to push or chew it’s way back in. It’s been five days. So far so good.
Categories: Home · Life
Tagged: mice, Pests
Wow. It’s really been a weekend full of drama, what with Kanye West’s stage crashing incident and Serena Williams’ crazy tantrum. Outside of the tv box, I encountered more.
Don’t know why but I seem to be a magnet for the insane. Nobody else I know has as many stories of crazies to tell. Sigh. Anyway, here’s something that happened Friday night on my way to New York for the Us Open men’s semi-finals:
I was seated at the back row on the BoltBus next to this really big fella. I got there first and he CHOSE to sit by me when there were tons of other seats around. I thought, “Oh crap” because he smelled bad. But whatever, it was fine until my friend Gigi called me and I picked up because I hadn’t spoken to her since she moved away two months ago and was wondering what she needed. I was planning to speak for only a short time and softly too. But while I was talking to her (hardly saying anything except for “uh huh uh huh” softly and with long pauses in between) this guy starts clearing his throat really loudly and coughing and stuff and I’m like, what the?!
So I hang up and I turn my back toward him. He gets up right after and tries to find another seat. And of course the bus is full and he comes back and asks if I will switch seats with him because his light doesn’t work. And I’m like, fine. I get his crappy seat, which is lower to the ground than mine and makes me feel kind of sick because it’s not by the window anymore and I can feel the bus move more. Ugh. Fine, whatever.
Then I fall asleep and the lady in front of me gets on the phone and that’s fine too but she gradually gets louder and louder and her conversation goes on for probably about an hour. Half an hour into it, the guy next to me starts having a freak out about it. I look at him, he looks at me, we’re both annoyed and I contemplate telling her to keep it down but what does he do? He starts coughing and clearing his throat really loudly just like he did with me and then when that doesn’t work he starts reading his book ALOUD REALLY LOUDLY so the whole bus can hear!! And so now I’m stuck in the corner of a backwards L-shape between these two crazy loud people! The woman is looking behind her bewildered but reluctant to hang up and so she wins because he starts feeling embarrassed I suppose and so stops his crazy tantrum and she continues yakking about the school she runs or something. I kind of want to lean in and ask her questions about the stuff she’s telling the other person. Hey, if u can’t beat them, join them right?! But I don’t. And I don’t tell her to keep it down either because of this and also because this past week, when I finally mustered up the courage to confront a guy I thought had his video game on too loud on the metro, I realised too late it wasn’t him. Ugh.
Categories: D.C. · Life
Tagged: crazy people
Fall has come early this year, I think. And I am grateful. In the summer it’s harder to zero in on the best food because it all smells so strongly in the heat even when tightly wrapped in those stretchy bags and stuffed in garbage cans.
When it gets cool like it is now, the smells quieten down and I can sniff out the juiciest burgers among the random bits of fruit and veggies. My fur coat is also no longer suffocating me and I can wander about carefree at night on my scavenger hunts.
It would be nice if I had a partner on those hunts though, I don’t mind sharing. But none of my kind will join me. They think because I’m big I’ll keep it all to myself. I admit I am twice their size but I am no different otherwise. I have the same dark circles around my eyes and tail. I have the same black-gloved hands like everybody else. Besides, wouldn’t I be an asset when those pesky cats come around and try to steal from us?
Sigh, rejection hurts.
The other night I was on my usual walk down an alley, enjoying the smells of leftover pizza and the like, when I saw two tall skinny girls and a dog. They were chatting with an old man, or rather the old man was talking to them when they all froze, staring at me. The dog was speechless and didn’t even bark. What?!Never seen a giant raccoon before? Seriously folks, I am NOT THAT BIG! I mean, I’m the smallest in my entire family (who sadly have all been victims of road accidents).
Anyway, after trying to win a stare down, I decided the humans and the dog weren’t worth it and I turned and walked away. Hope I don’t see them again.
Categories: Fiction
Tagged: Fiction, raccoons
