Breathing normally

I am reading an article in Fast Company magazine about Apple. Well, about Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google and the epic battle among them. This sentence made me laugh, "This passion for the Fab Four of business is reflected in the blogosphere's panting coverage of their every move."

Now, when people say "the blogosphere" they are not referring to me and my thoughts about, say, tea and swimming, and my five readers. Obviously. Nevertheless. It is a blog. So, let me just state for the digital record that I am not breathlessly covering anything's every move and were I, for the sake of having inexhaustible content, take it into my head to do so, I can pretty much guarantee that I wouldn't choose the "Fab Four of business."

What's more, I'll bet I'm not the only one. As it turns out, the "blogosphere" is a pretty big place.

Fitness dispatch

To save time, I put my bathing suit on under my clothes before I went to the gym today. The unexpected result was that when whisking off my outer layers in the locker room, I felt like some kind of swimming superhero.

It was a fleeting feeling, alas. I shared a lane with a man who looked to be approximately 83 and who, from my vantage point on the pool deck, seemed to be swimming very slowly indeed. However, I now know that were we in a race, he and I would be quite evenly matched. I might win, but it would be disspiritingly close.

Man Booker

Having recently heard a round up on BBC radio of this year's nominees, I decided that reading 100 Man Booker winners/nominees would be a worthy life list goal.

Here are all the books.

I discovered that I've--somewhat accidentally--got a good start having already read:
The Life of Pi
True History of the Kelly Gang
The Blind Assassin
The God of Small Things
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
The English Patient
Oscar & Lucinda
The Bone People
I also twice tried and failed to read Midnight's Children, which I was meant to love but didn't. Additionally, I have a strong feeling that I've read Hotel du Lac, but since I have no idea what it's about (other than, presumably, a hotel by a lake) I suspect that I am lying to myself.

Guess what? The books I actually did read are good books. Really good books. Word to the wise: those Man Booker people may be on to something.

Moral support

A man and a woman are standing outside of Bi-Rite on their break.

Woman: I'm getting emotionally prepared for Thanksgiving. I'm excited about it...

Man [interjecting]: I love that about you!

Wrong one

I had a doctor's appointment today because for basically the whole of the fall, I have felt lousy. I continually feel as though I'm coming down with a cold, though I never actually seem to get a cold. Just a festival of sore throat, headaches of varying severity, fatigue. Yesterday, for instance, I felt quite horrible. Turn off all but one light horrible. Head down on the desk at lunchtime horrible. That's what prompted me to call the doctor. Today, of course, I feel completely fine. This is not dissimilar from having spent all of last Friday frustrated to the verge of tears trying to figure out some website thing, only to have it work instantly as soon as the tech guy walked into the room. Sigh.

I went anyway even though I felt silly. I was briefly excited when they told me I was to be seeing Dr. Artie Shaw. I mean, if Artie Shaw can't make you feel better, then who can?

But it turned out to be Dr. Arti Shah. Life is full of these disappointments. And, so it would seem, allergies.