Arctangential

Well, it actually finally happened. I did something in my real actual life which is interesting enough to merit an journal entry. Which means no random blathering, I’m afraid. Anyways. I went on vacation.

I went to New York, to hang out with my friend, help her put together new new computer, and laze around, all of which I successfully did. Her computer is very nice, and the putting together of it was actually pretty painless, apart from having to wander around the upper east side looking for case fans. Some other highlights of the trip:

• I got to see The Vagina Monologues. I had great seats, 2nd row, in the middle. I could see every vein on Eve Ensler’s unshod feet. It was a very cool show, too. Wasn’t sure I’d like it, but it was very funny.
• I ate very well. Including:
  • I had some stuff called “Red Flannel Hash” at a lovely diner. It was not like your standard corned-beef hash from a can; it had big cubes of potatoes, corned beef, yams and roasted beets, topped with poached eggs. Extra-yum.
  • I went to Peanut Butter & Co., a restaurant that serves (almost) only peanut-butter sandwiches. I got the “Elvis”. (Wheat bread) (Creamy PB) (With bacon) (Yum)
  • A margarita bigger than my head.
  • The best smoked salmon EVAR. If I lived in Manhattan, I would have Sable’s lox on a bagel with cream cheese and onion every single day. Dying of heart failure would be worth it.
• I went to the Museum of Natural History. Saw a really cool exhibit about Einstein, which apart from the standard handwaving explanations o relativity (which were actually incredibly well-presented), had his actual Nobel Prize. Very cool. Also saw an IMAX show about Stomp, called Pulse. It was mostly short segments of various musical groups from around the world — Bushmen dancing, American marching bands, an Indian drummer, etc, intercut with Stomp performing on various instruments (including bicycles).
• I saw the Statue of Liberty — although only from Battery Park, so it was kind of small. But it was way too cold to even consider getting on a boat. Still nice to have seen it, though.
• Went and saw Harry Potter. In the spirit of fostering good will and such things, I won’t discuss my opinion of it here.

And then, just to top everything off, on my bus ride back from New York, we stopped at a loverly truck stop with a particularly dingy gift shop. Inside, I found (and purchased) this wonderful film, although my DVD is titled Kill Shot and not P.C.H.. If it had only had Casper van Dien and Denise Richards in it, I would not have been as enamored, but the wonderful presence of Elliot Gould
just captivated me.

So now I’m home. Work is fun, etc. I know I promised a poem before — I meant to work on it on the bus but amazingly enough, I actually slept on the
bus instead. Which was reasonably amazing. I’ll get it out to y’all as soon as I can, I promise.

There are certain words and phrases that I just like; I can’t really say why in particular. It isn’t just their meaning — heck, many of them don’t have any meaning at all. It has something to do with the sounds they make when said, and something to do with what the letters look like when typed on the computer. I don’t think of any of it in those terms, though: it all boils down to this kind of a shape that I have in my mind. I can’t really describe the shape; it’s not like they’re little circles or pulsing tesseracts or anything. I just feel like the property that I’m responding to is somehow akin to a shape.

Anyhow. I’m sure you’re all curious what my favorite words and phrases are. Many of you have probably heard many, if not all of them already, but that’s not so important. So here they are:

PLAP
False profundity
pleep
Fish nipple
I like pie
Pendulous dugs
….

Those are the ones that come up the most often, any ways — given time, I’m sure I could come up with an arbitrary number of them — “insouciance”, “apothecary”, “impinge” just came to mind right now as particularly pleasant ones.

Anyhow, I am forced to wonder if I’m alone in this (as I am in so many things). Do you, faithful reader, have a set of favorite words or phrases, that have a pleasant mental shape? Leave comments, let me know what your favorite words are. If I get enough of them, I’ll write a poem. I was going to write a poem with just my own, but I don’t really have enough. So I need your help!