Every winter I get a nasty cough that lasts several months. So, this year my doctor decided to try a new course of treatment that I started Tuesday. By Wed. night I developed an allergic reaction to it - mass itchiness. And it's the type of itchiness that doesn't subside. I'm so freaking uncomfortable. Last night was the worst - I kept waking up. Needless to say, I'm not taking this stuff again. I'd rather cough up a lung.

Are you taking Zyrtec or something for the allergic reaction?

He just took me off Zyrtec because it wasn't working. This Rx is another allergy medication.

Oh good, my cold is coming back. Or maybe it's a new one.

I'm not in Manhattan enjoying the warm, sunny weather and meeting Maurice (and the rest of you).

The only cough medicine I've ever used that is really effective is something called Tuscosed Linctus, an over-the-counter preparation available in the Caribbean. We always bring back a bottle or two. One teaspoon knocks you out for 20 solid minutes if you take it during the day and gives you a full night's sleep at night (with very vivid dreams, I might add.) I showed the bottle to the pharmacist who told me that he would not be permitted by law to compound something like this. I think the stuff is practically opium. Whatever it is, it shuts down that convulsive cough mechanism and let your body begin to recover.

Had a cab driver tonight who picked his zits constantly, then rolled whatever came out in his ffingers and examined it before discarding it on the floor of his cab. It ranked pretty high on the disgusting meter.

Left my wallet at home. I don't even have loose change in my pockets. Luckily I had brought in a bag of fruit over the weekend so I should be able to tide myself over on my 2 apples, 2 bananas, 2 avocados (it's like a Noah's Arc of fruit) and strawberries.

Stepping in the Astor sea (a large body of water that forms on the northwest corner of Astor place whenever it rains)

Being awakened this morning, an hour before I had planned, by the cat licking my eyelids.

I am having what I think of as a 'Sisyphus Day'. Revising a fucking spread sheet a gazillion times because a pack of whining control freaks can't agree on a fucking format. That's par for the course. I went out to lunch in order to disappear long enough for them to duke it out a final time.

In the midst of the final revision, attempting to do about three other tasks simultaneously, the big cheese's wife calls. She needs a favor. She needs to 'borrow' our messenger service to pick up some stupid framed poster she brought to a midtown lunch to give to a friend which the friend left in the restaurant. I have the receptionist dispatch a van (what is this costing??) to pick up the thing and take it to some townhouse on the upper west side where it comes to pass no one is at home except a barking dog. The poor driver is double parked in the rain. I call the bosses wife. Oops she says, I thought the housekeeper would be there. She didn't call to check before she had us get a goddamn van, that's charged by the hour, at 3:30 in the afternoon in the rain???

The poster is on its way to the upper east side to spend the night with dingbat wife of boss. No doubt we will start all over again with this vital mission tomorrow. No doubt boss will be complaining about overhead at the end of the month. Grrrrrrr.

Nevermind. Just a story about running over a backpack.

One the one hand, those periodicals which start to send you renewal reminders about one month into your annual subscription, the most notoriously egregious being Time Out.

But on the other, the odd maverick which just lets your damn subscription expire without making any attempt to remind you. I just figured out why my New York Observer stopped being delivered.

P.S.: The good news is that those plastic "telephone" things they distribute for you to get home delivery of the New York Times work for the Observer too! Who knew?

Yes, it's preferable, but I can see the possibility of a happy medium.

One of my favorite shirts, the one I wanted to wear today, is missing. I have no idea when I saw it last. . . . This semester's off to a great start.

All geared up and ready for a big hearing on class certification only to find out that the judge is starting a trial today and we've been bumped.

School. I have no motivation. At all.

The period of adjustment after I get a new pair of glasses. Right now, everything looks smaller and the floor is curved when I look down--walking down stairs is a little bit of a challenge.

Do you have a favorite? I mainly know the Barnes foundation stuff.

I love the Barnes Foundation Renoirs so much...

Hey, what's going on with the Barnes at the moment?

They have gotten permission from the court to move to a new building in Philadelphia, but there is no time frame. In the meantime, they are still in Merion.

It is such a damned shame. Without the building there is no Barnes foundation. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

But it was not financially viable in the long term as it has been, right?

But I agree that without that building....I mean of course the paintings are extraordinary, but that space, and the way the stuff is hung...amazing.

The way this whole thing has been carried out has been so utterly mind-blowingly stupid. There were plenty of ways they could have generated enough money but the lincoln college dolts dug their heels in and refused any kind of middle ground. They could have let the pictures go on tour (remember what a mess it was to get the place renovated? Even as the moisture was causing some of the paintings to peel?) They could have allowed some of the paintings to be lent out, to generate publicity and some income. They could have slightly less ridiculous opening hours, with some non-hostile way of dealing with the neighborhood (though granted the average Merion resident is...ugh, nevermind.) They could have sold some of the stuff that's been sitting in the basement archives, unseen, for the past 40 years! They could have god forbid, just dug it out of the basement and shown it once in a while. It's like a game of chicken, both sides dug their heels in and everyone lost. It makes me sick just thinking about it. That museum is a national treasure.

But wasn't the college restricted by the Barnes will?

The college was the custodian of the Barnes foundation.

actually I need to go back and read what the sides were again. By the time I left it was looking a lot like Middle East politics.

IIRC, the college inherited the collection and the building, and is bound by the terms of Barnes' will.

Here is a link to the Barnes side of the story, not exactly unbiased. They fail to mention that the paintings that were to be sold had been sitting in the basement for the past 40 years. I don't think I had the positions quite right in my previous post -- the college was talking about selling, the barnes biddies were freaking out. And then the whole idiotic racism accusation didn't really help things. Yikes. The main thing I remember is that each side basically drew a line in the sand and was unwilling to negotiate. A real shame.

link

The neighbors were also unhappy to have the museum there and made a fuss. I went to grammer/middle school a few blocks away.

Edit: Which, now that I've read it, is what the article says.

Missing a game dinner with matching wines because I had to fucking work until10:00 on opposition to a fucking government motion for summary judgment.