How Old I Am! And How Long in This City!

I'm soon seeing my *third* Madonna tour, since living in the city.

First was her Hard Candy tour (actually named "the Sticky and Sweet tour", I believe).

Second was her MDNA tour.

Now third is her Rebel Heart tour.

I also saw her Confessions tour long ago, in a different city.

That makes four Madonna tours.  I wish I had gotten turned on to her mastery of stadium spectacle much earlier, so I could have seen more.  They're simply marvelous and so memorable, and totally worth the $.

This time, I got $350 seats!

My parents would be appalled, but I think it's totally worth it...  

I traded up last time with some people who sold their more expensive seats to me and my one lawyer friend from Missouri at a discount (we in turn sold our seats to people outside wanting tickets), and those better seats are totally worth the $.

First tier, mid-stadium side, baby.  :)

A Pleasant Side to Having Bed Bugs:

As you take 3+ hours to steam clean your mattress encasements etc. at the rate of 1 inch per 2 seconds, you can listen to Madonna's studio albums, sequentially, and get through them in about 3 steaming sessions.

Odd Initial Reactions of Neighbors to Bed Bugs:

1) The dad of the upstairs couple seemed oddly lacksadaisical (sp.?) and said he'd "get around" to calling the landlord about the bites that have appeared not only on him, but his young son.

(Wouldn't you want to get that solved for the sake of your child as quickly as possible?!).

2) After the stoner downstairs told me that he had gotten a mosquito-like bite appearing suddenly in the morning after getting out of bed and I had said it was probably bed bugs, he was like, "Man, what can you do?", and then after I outlined all the tedious self-treatments, he was like, "But man, what can you do?".

(He wanted an instant answer, and otherwise won't do anything?).

Striking Roman Catholic statistics on men and women in religious life...

...via the National Catholic Reporter:

According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, in 2014 the United States had about 4,300 active religious brothers, while religious priests numbered close to 12,000, diocesan priests about 26,000, and religious sisters nearly 50,000.

Did you add those numbers up?

That's 50,000 women in religious life, versus 42,300 men (= 4,300 + 12,000 + 26,000).

Just another way of highlighting how restricted roles for women is crap, esp. considering how numerically they contribute more.

Thanks from a (black) (female) pharmacy worker.

The other week, I was at the pharmacy and needed 3 really random things, and so I asked a (younger) (black) (female) pharmacy worker where they were, and she just rattled off the aisle numbers.

"You know," I was like, "That's really impressive how you know that for all the store.  I don't think I could do that so easily."

"Thank you, hon," she was like, and she seemed to genuinely appreciate the appreciation.

2 beach happenings, over Labor Day weekend:

1) A group of small children in the water start chanting, "Got in, go us! Got in, go us! Got in, go us!".

(Because they thought that the water was cold?)

2) A (Mexican) ice cream vendor asked for three dollars for an ice cream sandwich, but when I only had two singles and he would have had to break a twenty, he just took the two singles and told me to get him the other dollar next time.

(I think he increased the price b/c of the holiday weekend, but I don't begrudge that, since he does such hard work in hot weather.)

Very Inspiring Fellow Adjunct.

That same (black) (female) adjunct who had said I was hilarious, had mentioned how she finally got to meet the president of the small college where she teaches, and how she asked him a few questions.

“You really asked him that?”, I was like, after told me the blindingly obvious questions she had asked.

“What can they do to me?”, she was like.  “I got a WIC card.”