Garbage, Mice and Snow

Dad! It's been a month to the day since my last post. Partly because of my incessant laziness, partly because I heard a rumor that blogging is out for 2011. I guess the new thing now is long-form hand-written correspondence. But you know what? I'm going to blog anyway because I know how deeply you care for it.  Here's some of that snow I was telling you about, shot from my office window...  Isn't it so pretty? I like the contrast of the urban landscape in the background, the way it makes the snow look even more natural and lovely. We've all seen snow fall in Tahoe. Big deal. It looks like it should snow there. But snow falling between two 10-story pre-war brick buildings? Come on! That's, like, a miracle of nature or something. Apparently, I'm the only one in this city who feels this way. Everyone else is like, "Bring on the salt." That's sad to me. Did we talk about how I went to see A Little Night Music starring your girlfriend Bernadette Peters? The people love her. She was her usual amazing self, really fascinating to watch and wonderful to listen to. The play is kind of dull, though. That Sondheim really loves a refrain. And the other actors were doing a weird speaking thing that sounded very staccato and odd, like they were trying out Welsh accents just for fun. It was irritating at first, then it started to make me sleepy. Then it inspired me to mentally list all the mistakes I've made in my life that have kept me from becoming a Broadway star. All in all, I can't say it wasn't a full experience, but it was definitely painful. Regrets, I've had a few... None of these people went to Sac State. What else do I have to tell you? Well, when I finally returned to this apartment after our extended holiday visit, a sad sight awaited me.  Wait, I know CPR! A little dead mouse in my bedroom doorway. I was so sad, mostly because I knew it meant the cockroaches were on their way. But then, about 3 nights later, a big fat mouse went strolling through the kitchen as I watched TV and I realized the dead one was probably the fat mouse's baby. She's obviously been doing some emotional eating to cope with her loss. So, the good news is, of all the things I have to worry about right now, a vermin shortage in NYC is not one of them. You can imagine my relief. I took a video of the garbage that has piled up on the street since the blizzard of '10 that shut this city down. (NOTE: I've already posted it and the mouse picture on facebook and had long and hilarious discussions with my friends about them, but since you refuse to participate in that type of social networking, I am forced to repeat myself here like some kind of blogging Sondheim. Also, it seems mice, snow and garbage are the only things I've been paying attention to these days, so unless I start cutting and pasting news stories from AOL, this'll have to do.)  {ADD'TL NOTE: Unfortunately, the machine won't load the video, so I'll just show you a picture of what it looks like from the internet.} Delicious. The pile in my neighborhood looked just like that when I first saw it and it's only 1/3 shorter today. If it snows again tomorrow, the children will be able to sled down it. I guess that's not totally horrible. Wasn't San Francisco built on garbage? Or was that just propaganda made up by Willie Brown and his hat?  All right. Clearly, if I'm making Willie Brown references, I've run out of things to say. It's time for me to go out into this city and discover something new and not filthy. I've been told a group of us are going to Little Italy for dinner tonight. Surely, I will have plenty to tell you after that. I hear they have the best garbage down there- salami rinds and old pizza crusts and mustache clippings... oh, just you wait!