Report card

For those of you curious if I ever do anything anymore that I proclaim (via this blog) I'm going to make myself do ....

1) The Year of Making Coffee? FAIL  I'm back to buying Dunkin' Donuts and/or Starbucks coffee drinks every day. Damn tax refund, for causing momentary flushness.  Although Lent is on the horizon .... with its reminder of the need for sacrifices.  Stay tuned.

2) Quit Online Dating? B-  Caved last week and rewrote my OKC profile to see if it entices hits from a different breed than I had been attracting the last 6 months.  But take heart: when a 22-y-old engineer who, after initial sweetness, began detailing unsolicited fantasies about a fetish I can't even think about without throwing up in my mouth a little, I didn't reason, just ignored him. I think he has gone away.

3) Run every day, no less than 2 miles a day?   B+ After tonight I will have clocked 103.6 miles in 2011 to date.  Not every day. But 103.6 divided by 49 days = 2.11. (Whew.)

4) Great Cosmo Challenge?  Eh.  Baby steps.  Last week:  contemplated the 22 date ideas. Yesterday: fed the list into a Google Docs spreadsheet for easy further review. Tomorrow: contemplating them further. In the meantime: if you know of any co-ed rec leagues that might take a chance on a shorter-than-average girl, get thee your suggestions to my comment box.

5) Major Shake Up?  Better than Eh.  Fear not, I haven't given up.  It's been on my mind.   I have a serious thought as to executing such .... but I'd rather figure out the logistics before spilling what it is. 

In the meantime, I have started wearing everyday earrings, something I haven't done since 2003. In the last week I have received 5 male-based comments on my "pretty" appearance, all while pulling my (in serious need of haircut) hair back and wearing these $4 hoops from Target. 

Coincidence? Can major shake-ups come in smaller packages than originally conceived?

As in, should I just have been exposing my neck and collarbone all this time?

Day 27 of 28: 1.8 miles

Day 28 of 28: 2.8 miles

February Total: 53.05

2011 Total: 103.6

What single guys do on weekends when they don't have dates

Can I call it ironic
to be sitting at Starbucks
alone
on Saturday night
when 2 feet to my left
a dozen adult males
(a dozen! and none bad-looking!)
in support-group format
thanks to Meet-In or Meet-Up
(I forget which, though they said it)
and
in all seriousness
strategize conversation starters
for meeting girls in nightclubs
and
conversation continuers
for when the starters succeed,
giving each other pointers
before leaving en masse to
ostensibly
try some out
at a nightclub.

Wingmen in flight.

I wonder
had I been wearing
something more alluring
than
a hoodie
tennis shoes
and
unwashed hair
they would have realized
they could have tried
some on me.

I was
too shy
to ask them.

Or
maybe
these men
weren't the type of men
who realize
that girls hang out
in other places
besides nightclubs.

But that isn't really my point.

Which is,
actually,
that
decent-looking
confident-sounding
guys
are just as
clueless
and
scared shitless
as the
rest of us.

It's
kind of
a relief.

Pick-up Line (new favorite)

"Would you possibly be interested in a very hot, pleasing tushy massage?"

Seriously.  Twenty-two, college graduate and "tushy."  I'm trying to decide what it is about this question that amuses me.  Word choice?  Preference for a** above all else, especially that of a woman in her late 30s? 

(From now on, every post about an OKCupid pick-up must include the rubber-stamp disclaimer: "I Thought I'd Heard and Seen Everything .... Until ....")

"You and I seem to have some strong similarities. I really enjoy playing the piano, and have composed roughly ten hours of music. I also really enjoy running, and was one of the fastest runners in Massachusetts when I was in high school. What's your mile/five mile time?"

Hm.  So I dig into his profile and see that he's also an engineer, a lover of "deep music that brings out the emotions in you", a political moderate who likes people "who are amusingly weird yet down to earth when it counts."

Still.  Twenty-two. Whose first comment to me was about my rear end.  But, also:

"I don't like it when people view my profile after I send them a message, but completely ignore me afterward. It says a lot about their personality...

Sigh.

Update 1:20 p.m.:  Not wanting to know what ignoring him says about my personality, I wrote to tell him he was sweet for writing but that he was a fair amount younger than me. To which he immediately replied:

"I think age is just a number, and numbers are only important when you're running."

Day 25 of 28: 3.00 miles 

February Total: 48.46

2011 Total: 98.46 

Good poem (sung II)

I Love, I Love (Traveling II)*
from The Honesty Room (1995)

I heard love can fall so hard, it can bury a kingdom
I heard it makes the spring appear out of season
It's a storm in a shadowbox, a force to be reckoned with,
When it finds you and find you, it will.

And I'd not believed it til I loved, I love
The rivers sing and stars awaken above me
And the wind and the moon in fits of restless conspiring
Turn night to heaven for you.

But I am going to a far, far land
I know it sure as I've a past and a future
With my maps on the table, you see, I have lost many things
So many I won't turn back.

And were I a deadwood ship, my heart a compass
I would leave with inanimate grace, no love could touch me
But I live and I know that I'll burn as I grow
Though it might break my heart to walk away and so

As a moon may adore you and remain, high moon
The wind may crown your head with leaves, and keep blowing
So I'll stop and I'll watch you, for I love, I love
And then be on my way. And then be on my way.

--Dar Williams

*recommended
if you need something to

unexpectedly bring you to tears

on an overcast Thursday afternoon at the office

Day 24 of 28: 2.45 miles
February Total: 45.46
2011 Total: 95.46

Opinionatedless

Two things from today:

Michigan Mike's most recent Facebook status update:

"I've come to the conclusion that diplomacy is inefficient."

Which I read shortly after a lunch with my sage Justin who, after parsing my now-infamous state 'o lethargy, pointed out a quality he and I share:

Too deferential.  Too quick to compromise to make someone else happy ... in and of itself not a bad thing, but when done repeatedly in the service of subverting our own opinions.

He does it sometimes in conversations with his wife, creating problems by being deferential rather than truthful.  I do it in trying to hold onto friends, to lovers, or to situations long after their shelf lives, not speaking up if and when I'm disappointed at the time I'm disappointed, leading to lack of resolution and squandering of opportunities and f***ing, chronic insomnia.

Wow.  All this time I thought I was just trying to be nice.

But it is a habit of mine -- not stating what it is I want out of something or someone out of fear of being too pushy.  Like not contacting men I've dated, waiting for them to go first.  Not telling a guy friend that I have romantic feelings for him and then getting angry when he doesn't ever ask me on a date.  Not explaining to a friend that I've lost touch with that I'm sad we've lost touch because I think she's probably too busy to stay in touch and me contacting her would just make her more busy and me less likely to be able to stay in touch.  Not that I've ever said any of this to her. And not that we're in touch.

It reminds me something from college, when my girlfriends and I would cruise around West Fargo on Friday nights for an hour of purgatory, because no one in the car would be the one to make a decision about which restaurant to stop at, because no one wanted to offend anyone by giving an honest opinion. By which point we'd all be chewing Kleenex out of sheer hunger. And mad at each other for wasting each others' time.

It's a good thing, I think, this having an opinion and stating it -- if I could just figure out how to incorporate it into my daily diet.

Great Cosmo Challenge

Q:  How do you know you must really be appearing tapped-out and desperate to the the masses?

A:  When your cousin's fiancé mails you a torn-out clipping from the March issue of Cosmo titled

 "Where to Meet Your Future Boyfriend:  Is your dude selection seriously lacking? Think of our suggestions as your guy GPS--they'll direct you straight to an eligible cutie."

To be fair, his accompanying note stated that my cousin is the one who thought I might want to see this ....

And to be more fair, Cousin J down in Nicaragua did e-mail me last week to say she was asking him to forward it to me -- in particular because he himself had given a "real man's stamp of approval" to this list new suggestions for meeting guys he thought were "good and valid."

Not surprisingly, I have to agree that many are indeed that -- from going to coffee tastings to visiting a guitar shop to hanging at the iPad displays at Apple stores to joining a fitness bootcamp.

Other than going to wine tastings, I haven't given many of them a thought before.  (And as I sat on the bus this morning perusing the list, I caught the man next to me innocently reading over my shoulder and quickly looking away as I caught him ...  which seems a good omen.)

So it is the 22nd of Feburary. 

There are 22 ideas.

My birthday is on the 22nd of March.

A month seems adequate time to see how many of these I can tick off, eh?

On your marks, get set.....

Day 22 of 28: 2.00 miles
February Total: 43.01

2011 Total: 93.01

Good idea

Meghann and I did check out Telegraph Hill Saturday night, which was fine.

But we also braved the genuinely local scene at Sullivans across the street (complete with two inebriates attempting to pick us up as a pair) and stayed until the wee hours at Quencher's Tavern on I Street.  And I think we both agreed that Southie should forget about trying to upscale its pubs and stick to dive bars.  Cheaper, livelier.  More real.

It was while on the stools at Quencher's that Meghann interrupted whatever gripe-ridden story I was telling to proclaim:

"I think you are ready for a major shake-up."

As in job. Neighborhood. City.  Church.  Or something to pull me out of my sense of stagnation that feels potentially un-ending.

Two days later, and I'm still thinking about her proclamation and what might be required to have one occur, and what kind.

Because I like the idea.

Day 20 of 28: 3.25 miles

February Total: 41.01

2011 Total: 91.01

Saturday meet-up

Hola y'all.

Taken in by Meghann's enthusiasm to check out a new place in the hood, and the fact of a 3-day weekend, and that I always say I want to check out new places in this hood but rarely do, 

it seems as good a reason as any to check out a new place in the hood.

Tonight.

Let's start at 8 p.m. at Telegraph Hill, 289 Dorchester Street, South Boston.  We can have a round, determine if we want to stay longer, and if not, think of another new place in the hood (out to Fort Point Channel, perhaps?) we want to check out.

Daters of Idiosyncratic Bostonians are welcome.  But you don't have to be one.  If you just feel like getting a beer in Southie on a Saturday night, come join.

(Questions? Or think you might join later and don't have my phone number?  Drop an e-mail to datersidiosyncraticbostonians@gmail.com before 7:30.)

Day 19 of 28: 4.10 miles

February Total: 37.75

2011 Total: 87.76

Never hurts to ask

I was glad

Random Blog Reader

weighed in yesterday

with her suggestion on

Central Bottle's

Thursday Wine Bar.

What fun, for $14.

(And in Cambridge, too.)

RBR and I

got caught up on each other's lives

after long absence

and tried

falanghina

romorantin

schioppetino

and

gagglioppo.

Then
we went down Mass Ave
to find
Miracle of Science
to full to sit down,
but the night was warm
so we walked further to

ZuZubar,

home of the shaggy, friendly bartenders

(we discovered)

and had

empanadas and black olive paste with labenah

and beer.

Refreshing a dormant friendship.
New places to hang.
Weather that melts snow.

A good Thursday night.

Day 16 of 28: 3.35 miles

Day 17 of 28: 2.15 miles

February Total: 33.65

2011 Total: 83.66

Eventful(less)

Omelet.  Coffee. Work. Another coffee.  Gym. Rehearsal. Pasta. Dishes.  Bed.  OKC.

All before midnight.

(A miracle!)

Maybe I'm relatively caught up with things.

(Or at least the things I meant to do today.)

Leaving me with time to remember that I don't have any activities scheduled for tomorrow night.  Or Thursday night.  Or Friday night.  Or Saturday night.

(Other than running and yoga.  Which don't really count.)

Folks, I need a social outing scheduled, stat.

Who wants to do something?

Anyone?

And what?

Ideas and invites welcome.

(Other than mocking me for even asking.)

(Which you can do amongst yourselves.  Just don't invite me.)

Seriously.

Single Girl's V-Day Lunch

The Scene: glassed-in "lunch area" of office tower lobby, a sunny day, mid-day.

The Player: single girl in purple sweater, grey skirt, black leather knee boots.

The Meal: leftover tater-tot hotdish in tupperware, recently re-heated in the office microwave, eaten with plastic fork.

The Activity: reading Nicholson Baker's The Fermata, the single girl's first (and only, she thinks) book where sex is explicitly in the forefront, about a 35-year-old (male) office worker who can stop time by snapping his fingers and occasionally uses it to undress his fellow (female) humans, bought somewhat by accident in 1994, titillating then for its gratuitous minutiae about vibrator styles, in 2011 less a turn-on and moreso appreciated for the skills of an author who can write gratuitous minutiae about vibrator styles and make it fascinating to someone not using a vibrator at the moment, especially someone re-reading it in a public space for the first time, over hotdish remainders, with her fellow office workers at the next tables clueless to its content, somehow enjoying most of all that she can and that they are.

Day 14 of 28: 2.25 miles

February Total: 28.15

2011 Total: 78.16

Changing it up

Because the Celtics

are hot.

Because they match the color of

this blog's main font.

Because I've never 

done so before.

And who's to see my bare toes

any time soon,

anyhow,

except for me.

(And, I guess, y'all now, too.)

(Obviously.)

Day 13 of 28: 3.10 miles

February Total: 25.90

2011 Total: 75.91

(F***) alone time

Seem to be going through a phase where I like to be alone.

Three nights this past week I had chances to be social.  I must have reminded myself I was tired and that I'd benefit more from going home to cook and read on the couch and go to bed at a decent hour, and begged off.

Last night I was in bed at 11:30.  Today I took the entire day on this approach:  up early to run and to yoga, to a coffee shop to finish tax returns, to pick up long-forgotten drycleaning, to my office to get a stack of bills and 4 backed-up months of correspondence and parking ticket (yes!) appeals off my brain and in the mail.  All this decluttering feels wonderful -- but I don't like so much this total desire to be alone.

Not that being alone is bad. Or even necessarily undesirable ... from time-to-time, and in small doses, to illustrate self-sufficiency.  

But I've been here before for weeks at a time and it's bad habit to get into. It's too damn comfortable.  It back-burners friends who don't deserve it.  It makes me forget how to be a conversationist of note, a flirt, a person with something to say.

I've been alone enough in this lifetime so far, anyway, right?

I'm about to head home to make some hotdish for supper.  After which, in my original grand scheme for today, I thought I'd finish the night by throwing my bedding in the laundry and go picking up a DVD from the grocery store Red Box.

But maybe I could just clean the apartment tomorrow?

I'm starting to think instead about Stats.  It's a bar down the street that is new and that is always hopping and might be full of 20-somethings but might also have some 30-somethings too.  I don't know why, although I do know there's a dart board and there's a television and there will be people. If I take a shower and put on some fresh jeans and my boots and go say hello to some of them, maybe that would be a good exercise.

Maybe even a good night.

Day 11 of 28: 2.25 miles

February Total: 22.80

2011 Total: 72.81

OKC is good for something ....

.... yeah, and that would be the occasional laugh brought on by sheer increduility at what their employees choose to do with the billion pieces of user-provided information they can sort and twist in any way they want in order to create entries for the site's "research blog":  OKTrends.

Topics of yore: 

"How Your Race Affects the Messages You Get." 
"Gay Sex vs. Straight Sex."
"The Case for an Older Woman."

Most recent topic: "The Best Question for a First Date:

"This post is our attempt to end the mystery. We took OkCupid's database of 275,294 match questions—probably the biggest collection of relationship concerns on earth—and the 776 million answers people have given us, and we asked:  What questions are easy to bring up, yet correlate to the deeper, unspeakable, issues people actually care about?"

Essentially, as they say later on, "the shallow stuff to ask when you want to know something deep."

I'll leave it to you to read for your own gems of wisdom.  I, personally, have laughed until pain every time I have read this paragraph, which is only provided to give background context.

 First--define "easy to bring up"

"Before we could go looking for correlations to deeper stuff, our first task was to decide which questions were even first-date appropriate. I know each person has his own opinion on what's okay to talk about with a stranger. I also know that if I had to wade through hundreds of thousands of user-submitted questions like these verbatim examples:

Q: If you were to be eaten by cannibal, how would you like to be prepaired?
Q: do u own 3 or more dildos in your room?
Q: Do you hsve a desent job?

"I would go f***ing insane. The basic currency of the Internet is human ignorance, and, frankly, our database holds a strong cash position!"

Do read.  I mean, considering my angst-filled 2-year history with the site, if it can still provide something to joke about, you're going to have to trust me that it does.

It also, as always, reminds us all how much FUN! dating is.

Trying to tell me something?

This morning, at the top of the Pandora website, the following:

"Get ready for Valentine's Day by listening to one of our Love (or Love Stinks) Stations."

Next to it, a clickable link that said "Learn More."  Particularly curious what songs might comprise a Love Stinks playlist, I clicked to "Learn More."

But the new window only opened to the same Ben Folds / Dar Williams - inspired station I've had on for the last 8 weeks. 

Hmm.  Does Pandora simply sense that a desire to hear Love Stinks songs in this season is bad form and is dissuading me?  Are Love and Love Stinks stations one and the same?  Or.  Did they instead skew my current algorithm towards heartbreak?

Here are the 5 songs that popped up immediately after the click:

1)  "Time of No Reply" - Nick Drake

Time goes by from year to year
And no one asks why I am standing here
But I have my answer as I look to the sky
This is the time of no reply.
The time of no reply is calling me to stay
There`s no hello and no goodbye
To leave there is no way.

2) "Teardrop" - Massive Attack

Most faithful mirror
Fearless on my breath

Teardrop on the fire
Fearless on my breath

You're stumbling a little
You're stumbling a little

3) "Rainbow Sign" - Fruit Bats

Bring on the rain tell the Lord make it so, make it so
Bring on the wind let it blow let it blow let it blow
Waiting for the rainbow sign
Bring on the hail let it sting let it sting let it sting
Beneath a cloud of crows let 'em sing let 'em sing let 'em sing

4) "Volcano" - Damien Rice

Don't hold yourself like that
You'll hurt your knees
I kissed your mouth and back
But that's all I need
Don't build your world around volcanoes melt you down

What I am to you is not real
What I am to you you do not need
What I am to you is not what you mean to me
You give me miles and miles of mountains
And I'll ask for the sea

  5) "Dewdrop" - Ashton Allen

Now my face is on the floor and I'm asking you once more
To show me a sign so I'll know that it's divine
My bowl that is full of water
Don't let your anger burn against me, answer my request
Does she think I'm out of line here
cause I've put you to the test?
Miracles they happen every day
I think it's time for me
To put this drop on a shelf
And keep it there forever
Right beside my former self

Um, yeah. 

Although song # 6 gives me hope.

6)  "Say Yes" - Elliott Smith

I'm in love with the world through the eyes of a girl
Who's still around the morning after
We broke up a month ago, and I grew up - but didn't know
I'd be around the morning after
It's always been wait and see
A happy day and then you pay
and feel like shit the morning after
But now I feel changed around and instead of falling down
I'm standing up the morning after

Wikipedia says: "Say Yes" is one of Smith's widely recognized songs. It is happy and optimistic in both instrumentation and lyrics, which contrasts with the dark tone in most of his other songs. In an interview, Smith said that the song was written about "someone particular and I almost never do that. I was really in love with someone."

Of course, then, Smith died at age 34 from 2 stab wounds to the chest.

Love?  Or Love Stinks?

Day 9 of 28: 2.10 miles

February Total: 20.55

2011 Total: 70.56

Numbers (and why they inspire hope)

Left 80 sunburning degrees behind in Florida this afternoon .... but Boston is at 40 tonight and my parka is too warm to wear walking home from the airport bus. Which isn't that awful.

After 1825.23 inches of snow (and 14,358.35 decibels of tough-ass Bostonians whining about it), the 40 degrees means that all the snow that was covering my car last Thursday is g-o-n-e baby gone without me lifting 1 shovel-ounce.  Which means I survived another blizzard week without losing a limb to the Great Southie Space-Saver Wars.

(Of course, 5 more inches of snow are supposed to come tomorrow. Which is typical.)

Packers 31, Steelers 25.

Today is my dad's 69th birthday.  Which is cool.

E-mail from Joshua tonight:  116 days until his wedding on Lake Sunapee, and he's encouraging hotel reservations sooner than later.  Which means I have only 115 days to find a date to split costs. Which based on my track record with finding and retaining dates for weddings means I should start finding one tomorrow.

After 88 nights of auditions in December in January, the musical I play for that goes up in May is cast .... and rehearsals don't begin until February 21.  Which means I've got 14 evenings free before 3.5 months of chaotic but gratifying servitude to The Secret Garden.  Which could equate to the opportunity for 6 restorative yoga classes and for 2 dozen nights go to bed before midnight so that when rehearsals start the chaos isn't so chaotic.

(Which might be a total pipe dream.)

Which will be easier to do since I have 0 outstanding correspondences on OKCupid and 0 folks sending me IM messages late in the night on any regular basis and 0 dates anywhere in my vision, peripheral or straight-on.  Which is OK.  Really.  I think the break is/has been/will be good.

And I found time to run all 4 days (for 14.7 miles) of my Florida vacation which is 5 of 7 days so far this month.  Which I'll take as a good sign.

Day 6 of 28: 2.90 miles

Day 7 of 28: 4.00

February Total: 18.45

2011 Total: 68.46

I'm here.

You're not.

Sorry.

Day 5 of 28: 3.15 miles

February Total: 11.55

2011 Total: 61.56

Good poem (sung)

Sleep

The evening hangs beneath the moon
A silver thread on darkened dune
With closing eyes and resting head
I know that sleep is coming soon

Upon my pillow, safe in bed,
A thousand pictures fill my head,
I cannot sleep, my minds aflight,
And yet my limbs seem made of lead

If there are noises in the night,
A frightening shadow, flickering light…
Then I surrender unto sleep,
Where clouds of dream give second sight.

What dreams may come, both dark and deep
Of flying wings and soaring leap
As I surrender unto sleep
As I surrender unto sleep.

-- Charles Anthony Silvestri

Day 4 of 28:  4.65 miles

February Total:  8.4

2011 Total: 58.41

Heading south

My aunt and uncle spend their winters near Fort Myers, Florida..

Every other year I go down to visit them for a long weekend.


Fort Myers, March 2009 --
Twins spring training with bro-in-law Bill


On off-years, by the time March comes with the rain and slush and late Nor'easters, I'm self-flagellating for being so short-sighted as to not schedule a trip.

Not this year.  Not only is 2011 not an off-year, but in 2011 Fort Myers comes super-early to my schedule.

Like, today. 

Like, the most unintended perfectly scheduled day:  just after 2 blizzards and just before a 3rd. 

Just the day after thousands of flights nationwide were cancelled, but my Delta connection through Cincinatti tonight still seems to still be on, and be on time.

Just at the point where I am exhausted with my wet boots and parka and being at work reading Facebook status updates from friends sitting at home on their couches griping about no-work snow days.


Oh Florida and your 82-degree highs and sunny skies ...

..... mwah!

Oh, gross.

As if I needed another reason to take a break from online dating:

"Match.com buys OKCupid to spread the love"

Says the CEO of Match's parent company, which paid $50M for OKC:

"We know that many people who start out on advertising-based sites ultimately develop an appetite for the broader feature set and more committed community, which subscription sites like Match.com and Chemistry.com offer, creating a true complimentary relationship between our various business models.

"This acquisition therefore goes a long way toward our objectives of bringing new people into the online dating world, offering the ability to meet in whatever type of online setting, and at whatever commitment level, our members desire, and facilitating a seamless evolution of the online dating experience without ever having to leave our portfolio of sites."

Says the Salon.com article author:

"The acquisition, it seems, hinges on the idea that Match can turn OKCupid’s non-paying members into subscribers — that the service will be so good that they just have to pay for more. Well, umm, good luck!"

Indeed.  Says the first responder in the comments section:

"shit

So, the free site with better functionality than any of the paid sites gets bought by a paid site? Glad I'm not single at the moment. OKCupid, it was fun while it lasted."

To a degree, yes.

Day 1 of 28:  3.75 miles

February Total:  3.75

2011 Total: 53.76

Glitter and be gay? Sure!

I had a post all queued up this morning about quite enjoying the OKC instant message request I got last night, after which I wanted to know in which universe it is acceptable for a 42-year-old to follow up "Hello how are you tonight?" with "I know you are looking for a lay" with "your, loss baby," and then have the audacity to state on his profile that he would be my man if I "like to laugh, are looking for a caring and fun guy, and like good conversation."

Then I got on the belly-to-butt #9 with 400 other able-bodied young commuters who also refuse to exert themselves,  merrily watching the beginnings of the "Fluffy snow falling throughout eastern Massachusetts .... marking the start of the double-barreled storm system that will punish the area until Wednesday night."

And I tried not to remember I have a flight out of Logan in exactly 56 hours, bound for Fort Myers, FL (at this 68 degrees and sunny skies, high of 80 later today) that connects through Cleveland, that cannot be cancelled or delayed.

Can not, I say.

Even though it very well might.

And then I decided that, you know, I have a shoveled-out parking spot already and I get to wear jeans to the office the next 2 days, and even though Bernstein's Candide has zero relation to Boston or endless winters or potentially abortive attempts to fly out of New England for a respite from said endlessness, it is the very appropriate day to watch Kristin Chenoweth frouf around in a pink dress and belt, no matter how satirically and ironically, and remind me (at 3:13, among other places) that ....

.... perhaps it is ignoble to complain...

Enough, enough

Of being basely tearful!

I'll show my noble stuff

By being bright and cheerful!

Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha!