Day Seventeen: One Foot in Front of the Other

Still trying to tackle a walk-in closet's worth of stuff, of the accumulated crap of my life. I pulled a couple of boxes out, boxes I haven't opened in years and found...well, crap I haven't looked at in years. I know, surprising. I found papers from college, a dean's list letter, pictures of people whose names I can no longer remember. It's amazing how time flies and goes and suddenly all of that is in the past. And the parts of the past that still matter, too. I also found pictures of friends from high school, an old letter from my roommate, that sort of thing. It's both fascinating and boring, really. And it's still all completely daunting. I keep waking up in the morning and then throwing myself back in bed, terrified at the totality of it all. I can't quite wrap my brain around it, or figure out exactly what needs to be done. I almost need someone else to come along and say, "Do this, and then this, and while you're doing that, I'll do this." That would be great, wouldn't it?

Yesterday, on my birthday, I went to Bryant Park and watched Jaws. It was great. Not just the movie, which rocks and never gets boring for me, but the whole experience. There were hundreds of people there. I went with my friend Andy. We met at the park at 5 pm, which is when they open the lawn. There were people lined up around the perimeter, all holding blankets and carrying picnic stuff. At 5 pm, it was like the Sooners heading into Kansas...or Oklahoma or wherever the Sooners were. We found our little patch of ground and sat on it for a couple of hours.

The highlight of waiting was this: electioneering. Anthony Weiner, who's running for the Democratic nomination for mayor, came out to press the flesh. As he was working the crowd, this other guy, Seth Blum, was also working the crowd. Blum is an NYC teacher, also running for mayor, as an independent with the Education Party. He was gathering signatures to get on the ballot. Seth sees Anthony and calls out, "Hey, Anthony! Great debate on Sunday [all the Democratic hopefuls had a debate Sunday morning]! Vote for Anthony in the Democratic Primary!" So Weiner thinks that he has a really vocal supporter and waves back. Then Seth says, "I'm running for mayor, too! Sign my petition to get on the ballot!" And Anthony is totally lost, trying to process that information. So he just turns his back on the guy. It was all pretty funny and neat to see. Politicians caught off guard.

Okay, I'm slowly making my way up the big hill. Step by step, slowly I turn...