The Not-So-Secret Diary of a Bad Luck Girl

For Labor Day weekend. I guess this happens every year, but I’m always amazed when it does.
Last night for instance the streets were almost dead when usually on a Thursday night they’re overrun with drunk idiots. But as MB and I made our way back from seeing the awful awful Babylon A.D, there was almost no one.

We were both disappointed by the movie. The premise was promising, and it started out okay, but then the ending totally fell apart and turned incredibly cheesy. And Vin Diesel should really not try to act. Just be tough and a smart ass, and take off your shirt and beat up some bad guys. That’s all I ask.

We don’t have any big plans this weekend, thank goodness. I think we’re both sort of pooped with packed weekends. A couple of weeks ago it was Nashville, and last weekend was the spa day/dinner with my mom and aunt. We’ll try to get massages at that Chinese place again, and maybe hit the Met or another museum.

I was looking back through some writing odds and ends, and found last September’s horoscope:

Romantically, this month will mark a real change over the frustrating conditions you’ve experienced over the past two years. If you were not able to meet anyone, no matter how hard you tried, Saturn in Leo may have been to blame. Saturn will leave this position for the first time since July 2005. Finally, after two years, Saturn – the planet that would rather see you work than play, and the planet that asks for certain sacrifices – will no longer have sway over your love sector. Glory be! Saturn’s not due back until 2036!

There’s one more reason to anticipate the very best when it comes to romance. Venus has been traveling through your love sector in weak and sleepy retrograde mode, but will awaken and become lively from September 8 onward. Until Venus leaves your true love sector on October 8, you will have a full four weeks of bewitching fun. Dear Aries, for the first time in such a long time, you have the right conditions to allow love to bloom. Don’t let old disappointments color your expectations. You are looking at a whole new situation – I promise!

This is from Susan Miller. It’s really weird because 1) just a few weeks after I read the horoscope, I met MB, and 2) it was exactly July 2005 that I began dating, or trying to date, after separating from my ex.

In other news, today is very dead at work, though someone from overseas needs something “urgently,” though I don’t think I have it. I asked my boss about it. If I don’t hear from him by this afternoon, I’ll just send what I have and follow up on Tuesday.

Classes start next week! Boo! I like school but I love free evenings and weekends.

I should go to the gym but I don’t want to. I want to go to the Gap.

So I have this friend, or former friend I should say. Let’s call her SL.

SL and I met in college, my senior year, her sophomore year. We were in the same Chinese class and hit it off immediately. We had similar senses of humor and just got along really well. Plus I liked that she was completely guileless.

After college we continued to be friends. While she was still in school, I’d come visit her, and after she graduated, she’d visit me in Boston quite often. She met my other friends and got along well with them.

We’ve traveled together to Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris; she was one of my bridesmaids; and she was there for me when all the adultery shit went down with my ex. But then back in the fall of 2005, a few months after I moved into the city, she just stopped talking to me.

I guess she was already becoming distant by then. We both had places in the city, we were both single, but she never wanted to hang out on the weekends. She’d prefer to go to her parents’ in Brooklyn. More than once we had plans and she ditched me, preferring to hang out with her folks.

She was in an improv group, and that October I was supposed to go to one of her shows. At the last minute, I couldn’t and left her a message apologizing, and followed up with another message to see how it went.

I never heard from her.

I let a couple of weeks go by, then sent her another message with my new cell phone number.

No response.

Was she that annoyed with me for not going to her show? Some people might be, but she wasn’t that kind of person. I think I emailed her a couple more times after that, but never got any answer.

It was very weird.

What’s even weirder is that in 2007, her sister called me on my new cell phone number. I knew her sister because she temped at my company and had called me before. I was in the car with my parents, and she said, “Is this a good time to talk?” I hesitated, and she said, “I’ll call you back later.”

I was scared to death that something happened with SL. But all it turned out to be was that her sister needed some favor. I asked her how SL was, and she said, “She’s fine,” sort of dismissively. I said, “You know I haven’t heard from her in forever.”

“Really?” she said, sounding surprised.

Weird weird weird.

I still think about SL regularly, partly because I’m baffled about how things turned out and also because I miss her friendship. So yesterday on a whim I sent her an email as a sort of last ditch effort to get back in touch with her. I told her how surprised and saddened I was with the way our friendship ended, and that maybe I had done something alienate her. I gave her a very quick update about recent events in my life, and wished her well.

Knowing SL, I will probably never hear from her, but at least I wanted to try.

Can’t wait till fall.

The week was rather quiet though I did have work to do. I have a short presentation to give on Tuesday, and I still have to finish up my slides. Luckily I know my stuff so it’s just a matter of organizing my thoughts and rehearsing a couple of times. I had a presentation this past Monday as well, and although I was nervous in the beginning, overall it was fine.

For some reason this week I kept running into old coworkers. First was the medical director who gave me such a hard time before I left. Needless to say he pretended not to recognize me (dick). Then I saw two guys I actually liked, and as we were standing there chatting, another guy I liked came up to us. It was fun to talk and joke, even if just for a couple of minutes. We could do that I guess because we had all escaped our old horrible department.

Friday night MB had a friend over, and they had a “jam session,” the friend playing harmonica and MB on guitar. They were actually pretty good, especially towards the end. MB had me join in on this little instrument, I don’t even know what it’s called. It’s this prongy metal thing attached a small wooden base. I thought I’d suck but it was actually easier than expected.

Later MB and I saw Death Race. We knew it would be total brain candy, and it was. Some parts were SO dumb, like yeah right, female prisoners really look like models for hair care products and low rider jeans rather than the scary bus driver and/or cafeteria ladies from elementary school. I was also very tired and almost fell asleep a couple of times despite the noise and action on the screen.

Saturday was spa day with my mom and aunt. I had given my mom for her birthday a gift card for an hour-long Swedish massage at this spa I like, thinking we’d make a day of it. Then she suggested giving one to my aunt as well since it’s her 60th birthday this month. (My aunt and I are both rats.)

I picked my mom up around 2 at Penn Station, after which we walked to the spa, where we met my aunt. I’ve taken my mother to a spa before, but she acted like she’s never been. My aunt definitely hasn’t, and they were both embarrassed about taking off too many clothes under their robes. Then I had to tell my mom to shush as we walked through the “quiet area.”

They did, however, enjoy the waiting area with free tea and other goodies like Luna Bars and dried fruit and nuts. I liked seeing them take advantage of the frills. This is totally random but I think Dr. Jarvik from those cholesterol-medication commercials was there too. Or at least a guy who looked exactly like him, down to the balding slicked down too-long hair. But I didn’t feel comfortable asking, especially since we were all sitting there in our robes.

Our appointments were at the same time, but while my mom and aunt went off as scheduled, I sat around waiting for another 15 minutes. Turned out there was some mix up and my facialist was only just on her way back from another location. In all I waited maybe 20 minutes. No biggie, but the facialist was very apologetic, and they ended up giving me a 15% discount plus some free body wash. Nice! They must have it in their records that I spend bookoo bucks there.

The facial was very good, better than one I had last year when I was left alone, wrapped like a mummy for way too long. She did some scalp, neck, shoulder, and arm massage as well. The extractions were painful as usual, but didn’t take too long, and then she did an oatmeal mask. It was nice and cooling, but also smelled like breakfast. Afterwards my skin looked quite nice.

I walked into the locker room, and my mom and aunt were there, all done and waiting expectantly. For some reason my mother had decided to put her shoes in my locker instead of her own, and so she had to wait for me to finish before she and my aunt went off to Flushing to look for Korean soap opera DVDs.

I took my time going home, but then MB and I basically had to leave right away to meet my mom and aunt for dinner in Queens. Why my mother wanted to eat in Queens, who knows. Probably for the same reason she left her shoes in my locker.

It took FOREVER to get out there. The 7 stopped at every stop, and plus there was a baseball game, so there was train traffic. Then of course all the idiots dressed up in Mets paraphernalia. And when we finally got to our stop, we had no idea how to get to the restaurant. It didn’t take us long to figure out, but of course my mother had to call, frantic: “Where are you? Are you okay?” Hey lady, you wanted to meet in Queens.

The restaurant was pretty good. We had lots of seafood, including chili shrimp, crab, and this very rich fish (I don’t know the name), as well as Chinese broccoli (oh boy, I’m hungry).

This was the first time my aunt was meeting MB. I wasn’t worried since my mom is the stickler; my aunt is very easygoing and gets along with almost everyone. Plus she and MB had work in common (ie, computers). It was funny: the three of us kept lapsing in Chinese, and I’d forget that MB didn’t understand. He didn’t seem to mind, but I tried to translate as much as I could.

Afterwards we all took the train back together. My aunt got off at Grand Central since she lives in Connecticut, and we took my mom to Penn Station and waited with her till her train came. As we said goodbye, MB initiated a farewell hug, which I could tell greatly pleased her.

Today we had all sorts of plans. Get a late lunch, get massages at this Chinese spa MB found online, then see a movie. But after lunch and as we were hanging out at a bookstore, I started to feel really sick. As we left the restaurant, I had felt slightly nauseous, but I thought it just might be hormonal. Then suddenly sitting in Borders, I started to feel crappier and crappier.

I did get sick, but just a little. It was very weird. Afterwards, I was perfectly fine. I didn’t have too much of an appetite – though now like I said I’m sorta hungry – but no more hurling. Must have been something I ate.

Still we didn’t think massages would be a good idea, and just headed home. I had picked up Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, a strange choice for someone with an upset stomach, but I’ve been wanting to read it and it was on sale. It’s good so far.

I wish we had yogurt. That’s what I could go for right now.

Back to work tomorrow. So not the right thing for a lazy girl.

Well, I’m back from Nashville, and what can I say? Oh boy. So much. Feel free to skip to my obnoxious observances at the bottom if you wish.

Overall we had a really fun time, but I could never ever in a million zillion years live there. I could live in Charleston, our last vacation spot, but definitely not Nasvhille.

The flight was just two hours so we got in on Thursday before noon. Our room wasn’t ready yet so we decided to take a walk. Right around our hotel seemed to be mostly offices, except for one street which was frequented quite often by crackheads/meth addicts. Nice. I would not have felt comfortable walking by myself.

Not far away was the visitors’ center, which was HUGE. That was something I kept being amazed by, the enormous amount of space in terms of restaurants, stores, museums, everything, and a lot of unused space too. For example right in front of the visitors’ center was just a giant empty slab of concrete. I felt like there should have been benches and trees and other foliage. Standing on that concrete in the southern summer sun was brutal.

Near the visitors’ center was the very touristy part of town, that section of Broadway that has all the bars and kitschy tourist shops. Our first meal was barbecue sandwiches at a place called Rippy’s, and they were actually pretty good. Cheap too, at about $7, including cole slaw and fries.

The touristy stores were fun – that first day. By the third day they were depressing. That whole street is pretty depressing actually, at least during the day. At night it definitely livens up.

Around 2 our room was ready so we headed there to rest up. For dinner we ended up walking to the other side of town for this place, the South Street Original Smokehouse, which I had read about in our guide book. The walk wasn’t long, little over a mile, but the directions MB found sent us the backway, so we were in a very desolate part of town.

But we got to where we were headed. It was a fun place. Our waiter was really nice, as was almost everyone we encountered. Quite a change from the mostly terrible customer service in New York. My meal was just okay thought – flank steak with corn cakes. At least the sides were good, baked beans and cole slaw.

MB went for the Crab-o-Rama, a huge plateful of crab. I took a picture of it, which I’ll post later. There was so much he couldn’t eat it all, so I helped him. I forgot how fun it is to eat crab. Usually I think of it as a messy pain in the neck. When he finished, I said, “Done! Woohoo!” and our waiter who was passing by cracked up.

On the way back, we took the main street, which was still a highway but much better than how we got there. Nashville is definitely NOT a walking city.

Next we decided to go bar hopping and check out the different bands that were playing. The first one did a lot of cheesy rock covers, like You Shook Me All Night Long. The band was pretty good, but then people started dancing. Oy. Picture it: drunk, white, straight people dancing in Dockers and cowboy boots. We left shortly after.

The next bar was better. It was much more relaxed and the band was mostly women. The lead singer had a good voice, and the guitarist was really amazing. She was this big, middle-aged woman with tats up and down her arms.

The last bar was the best. There was a bluegrass band that played fun, jaunty songs. The lead guy had Buddy Holly glasses, a cowboy hat, and bolo tie; the steel guitar was probably 60; the fiddle player was this woman with a great smile and short, spiky bleached blond hair; the bassist was a nerdy guy with glasses, and the drummer was this young guy who gave us the creeps. He sorta looked like Adrien Brody, and kept staring out at the audience was this zombie-like expression. It felt like he was looking at us, but he probably couldn’t see a thing with the lights.

We stayed there for quite a while. MB liked them so much he bought their CD.

The next day we got out kind of late, then spent entirely too much time looking for a breakfast place. There was NOWHERE around our hotel. Nothing was open yet. So we ended walking back to the part of town we were in the night before. We had passed a place called Noshville, which was New York style deli. Yes, we went all the way to Nasvhille to eat at a New York deli.

The walk over felt really long for some reason. Maybe because it was so humid. Aside from that the weather actually wasn’t too bad. Mid-to-upper 80s, not too humid except for Friday.
The food at Noshville was just okay. I got eggs and corned beef hash, and I found a huge piece of gristle in my hash, which totally turned me off for the rest of the meal.

There was definitely more stuff going on in that part of town since it was close to Vanderbilt University. I needed some water and wanted to stop in this market. MB said, “That’s not a market.” From the outside it looked rundown and all the windows were mirrored so you couldn’t see inside. But the name said “market” so I peeked inside.

It was really nice! HUGE! In addition to a convenience mart, there was a giant cafe in the back with paintings and everything. It was very surprising.

While we were in that part of town, we decided to check out what was there. First we stopped at this place called the Upper Room, a chapel and museum. It was quite nice actually, and even nicer to get out of the heat for a while. The chapel was quiet and beautiful, and they had some cool stuff in the museum like different Christian art and artifacts from around the world, and a collection of painted Ukrainian eggs.

Next we checked out Music Row, which sounds much more exciting than it is. We were picturing a bunch of stores, but it was actually offices and studios. How disappointing.

Finally, we went to Centennial Park. Again, a big waste of space. There was grass and some trees but mostly open space. There was also the Parthenon, which was only moderately interesting. The coolest thing was this 40+ foot tall statue of Athena.

Rather than walk we hopped a bus back to the other side of town. That was an excellent idea. On our way was the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, which we really liked. Downstairs was contemporary American art while upstairs was a Tiffany exhibit, which was beautiful. Unfortunately the place was FREEZING so we didn’t last too long.

That night we had dinner at this random place. It wasn’t bad and not too expensive, but I was getting kind of sick of heavy food. We tried again to go bar hopping and listen to music, but it was Friday night and much crazier than the night before. Wall to wall drunk people. We went to the same place we liked and didn’t stay as long. We both got exhausted suddenly and quickly.

Saturday was a little more organized. MB had suggested breakfast in the hotel to avoid wasting time looking for a place – and you know what? It was really good! And reasonable too, like less than $10 for substantial dishes. I got a half stack of pancakes with sausage for $8.

It was museum day. First we went to the Ryman Theatre to get tickets for a show at the Grande Ole Opry that night. The Ryman Theatre was pretty nice and fun to walk around and learn about all the famous people who have perf
ormed there. The Grande Ole Opry, which I thought was the name of the theatre, was a radio show that performed at the Ryman Theater. Eventually, the show was moved to a new space on the other side of town, and the Ryman sat empty for a long time. Finally in the early ’90s, it was renovated and now is a museum/theater.

Next was the Country Music Hall of Fame. I’m not a big country music fan, and MB is only a moderate fan, but it was fun all the same. We did a package tour, which included getting driven out to Music Row and having the chance to see the inside of the studio where Elvis and many others have recorded. And that was on August 16, the day Elvis died.

At the beginning the guide talked for a long time about all the different artists – probably too long, though he definitely knew his shit. We also saw the old equipment and the piano Elvis loved to play. Apparently Priscilla had given him a gold-covered piano for his birthday or something, but he actually preferred the old piano in that studio.

After the tour it was back to the museum. Again, GIGANTOUR. Tons of stuff and info on different musicians like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Kitty Wells. She was there that day for an interview and tons of people were lined up. She’s like 90-some odd years old.

That night we went out to the Grande Old Opry House, which was much bigger than the Ryman and out in the middle of nowhere. Luckily a cab out there was the flat rate of $25, as it is out to the airport. Not bad!

The show was fun. Again, not such a country music fan, but they played some old ones everyone knows in honor of Don Helms, who died on Thursday. He was a steel guitarist who’s played on a ton of famous songs, including Patsy Cline’s Walking After Midnight, which Vince Gill and this other chick performed.

There was also some “new” country by this group Point of Grace – sooo Christian – and a bluegrass band, the Grasscles I think was their name, who I actually liked.

After the show, we didn’t want to wait in line for the bathroom so we walked over to the mall. Again, MAMMOTH. It just went on and on. Most of the stores were closing by then, but we were able to pop into Barnes & Noble. Again, Christianity everywhere. There was a whole row on Bibles, another on Bible study guides, another on Christianity, and another on “Religion,” which was probably just another way of saying “Stuff about Jesus.” They also sold Bibleopoly. For real. I have pictures.

And finally, here, as promised are my obnoxious observances:

• There are a lot of fat people in Nashville. And not just fat. Morbidly obese. Between the heavy food and no walking, I’m not really surprised.
• There are a lot of white people in Nashville. Some blacks but not many. I didn’t see any Latinos, and could count the Asians on one hand, most of them at the mall. I felt weird and got some stares.
• Nashville is a lot more fun at night than in the day. Wall to wall bars, live music everywhere, stuff open till all hours.
• As stated earlier, Nashville is very Christian. Bibleopoly at Barnes & Noble, a church on every corner, people in church clothes every hour of the day, every day we were there. They don’t call it the Bible belt for nothing.
• Overheard in Nashville: “So what I was saying was, I had left my gun in my car. . .” Also on every museum door was a sign saying, “No Weapons.” Glad they specified, otherwise I’d have brought in my .45.
• People are very friendly. No doubt. Even in a crowded bar, a woman actually said, “Excuse me” after she bumped into me, and sounded sincere.
• People are slow. Walking, talking, giving me back my change. Hurry it up!
• I could never ever live there. If that wasn’t obvious.