what are the odds

of hearing "play that funky music white boy" twice in one day? I don't know that I've heard it in years, and yet, once on the oldies station while coming home this morning and once this afternoon on the tile man's jack fm radio. I was happy for the twang of the song the first time and happy for the coincidence of it the second.

The tile man has been here since 10:30 in the morning. It's now 7:30. Tile work is not nearly as impressive as hotmopping, and sadly, the polished, bubbly quality of the tar has been coated in gray layers of mortar dust: it's as if the shiny hot mop had never worked its magic. Moreover, I have been sleepy and starving all day long. It's important for me to be here, even though I don't even pop into their area to check out the work because if there are complications with the building manager, I have to step up. But the "if" factor makes for a dull day: this is how security officers must feel, constantly patrolling and having to be alert for something that is not occurring.

Perhaps what I should have been patrolling was the work itself. After they left, I looked around and found that I really hated the way two of the tiles fit together: they weren't quite cut right and they don't look good. I'm very much in knots about it, how to tell people that I'm not pleased with part of the job: will I be insulting their craftsmanship? And will it cost them an inordinate amount of money? I know I have to protect my space and make sure the job gets done right, and I know I have to be straightforward about this, but I find it really difficult to handle.

THE LISTS:

to do work: Outline the chapter. Write the first section on ecstatic memory. Write a first draft of research statement. Write the mask section of c2.
done! wrote two paragraphs of the ecstatic memory section. Read 3 pretty useless articles.

to do life: Pay down debt (currently $1,031.09). Procure dog. Send siff letter. Go to dmv. Go running.
done: wrote draft of siff letter.

to do blitz: sarah, marilyn, giulia, irmary, mariana, dar, nv, sf, marzena, thérèse, hen.