Who for such dainties would not stoop?

Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup

Walked downtown along Sixth Avenue after work yesterday and once I got to West 4th, I thought I’d have a hamburger at Julius’. Called my friend David Y. to have him join me since he lives around there, trying to be all spur of the moment, but unfortunately he was in California styling a catalog shoot for Williams Sonoma Home. As I talked to him on my cell, I eyed the bar and it’s attendant cluster of flies across the street. The more I thought about it, the more the notion of me sitting alone in a gay bar while eating a not very good hamburger in the day timeseemed sadder and sadder. Was I going to drink or not? Either way the vibe was dicey: was I goignt o be a fellow barfly, or some goof regarding the whole thing from ironic distance. Ultimaely I turned around and walked back down 4th. I dawdled, browsing menus and then decided on Oni noodle. There I had a murky and rich Hakata ramen. The noodles had just the right amount of bite. I was tucked into a corner table, and had no ironic distance on the meal at all. Afterwards I lost the fight with my better judgement and had an eclair from beard poppa.

Work on clearing and decluttering the office continues. I don’t quite know what to attribute the shift in attitude to but I have had much more success getting a handle on my various piles of stuff. Part of it is that I am trying to change my vision of everything from one where each item has to find its final resting place (the putting everything away model) to one where each thing is in the process of being moved onto the next part of its life cycle (a more “what is this doing, what am I going to do with it?” approach).

While talking to David I invented a new term “fauxganization“. Fake organizing. It’s one thing I’m very good at. When you take all the junk you have, stack it in size order and arrange the stacks in parallel rows, you’ve “Fauxganized”. Nothing is any clearer, no decisions have been made, but it seems like something has been accomplished. David’s version is that he dumps all the accumulated mail in a bag and stashes the bag in a closet, and it’s true – his apartment has always seemed very trim to me. Now i know it was just fauxganized. So it’s a copyrighted term now. Watch for my new books: The Fauxganization Man, Fauxganizing For The Home, and Fauxganization Tips for Troubled Teens – When You’re Grounded Until You Clean Up That Damn Room. Plus if this term really gains acceptance, it’ll boost all of our scrabble scores. After all, it’s a perfectly cromulent word.