Nailed!

You know those promises you always make with full sincerity while secretly hoping the lip service is enough? I made such a promise recently to Marina, when she wanted me to get a manicure/pedicure with her. Yesterday, she collected on the promise.

"But," I pointed out,"it's raining out. We can't get manicures/pedicures while it's raining, right?"

I was incorrect on this point.

It isn't that I think manicures/pedicures are unmanly. I'm evolved enough to know that questions of manliness are the refuge of the insecure and the stupid. It's just that I've never had a manicure/pedicure before. I'm not insecure, just subject to the inertia of my lifelong habits or lack thereof.

We went to Glen Park Nails, on a little side street in the Glen Park neighborhood. It was quiet, clean, and easy to park close, which was good due to the rain.

Let me just say that now I don't know why anyone would not want to get a manicure/pedicure. We escaped the rain, put our feet in hot water, sat in a chair with a massage feature, and were swarmed by a gang of Vietnamese and Cambodian women as if we were a stock car making a pit stop. What part of that is not for everyone?

Plus now my fingernails look buff and smooth and fascinatingly free of dangling cuticle fragments. And it helped win a pennant for the Giants, so that's good. How do I know it helped the Giants win? Well, last year, I did not get a manicure/pedicure and the Giants didn't win the pennant. Yesterday, I got a manicure/pedicure and the Giants did win the pennant. Q.E.D.

Would I do it every week or every month? Probably not. But every time the Giants are in a Game 6 against Philadelphia in Philly, up 3 games to 2 in the National League Championship Series, I will get a lucky manicure/pedicure. Anything to beat the Phillies.

Man's Sense of (Im)Mortality

I made an appointment with a dentist yesterday.

This is much more interesting than it sounds. It is the culmination of a long period of evasion and denial. The last time I went to a dentist was in Montana before I moved, when I had my wisdom teeth pulled.

It isn't as though I haven't had dental insurance. My job provides good benefits. For some reason, I've never actually called a dentist to ask to be taken on as a patient. Of course, I never did with a doctor either; when I recently switched insurance coverage options to Kaiser, they went ahead and assigned me a general physician when I dilly-dallied on selecting one myself. I thought was very helpful of them.

So far I've taken advantage of vision benefits to get a new pair of glasses. For some reason, I had no hesitation in doing that.

There is the theory that men in particular avoid going to the doctor because we think we are immortal. I think that is not quite true. I think we avoid going to doctors and dentists because we are all too aware of our own mortality and don't want to find out what is wrong with us, even when we know we have cavities, high blood pressure, or whatever other nagging health concerns lurk in the back of our minds.

Think about it: dentists always nag you about flossing more. That's not exactly a message that stimulates the ego. It's much more fun to pretend nothing's wrong and eat another doughnut dipped in beer.

But there comes a time when you realize you have to figure out how to make your own dental appointments: you're 30 years of age, for god's sake, and your teeth aren't going to miraculously maintain themselves. You're not a superhero, after all. Plus, even superheroes need dental care--although if Superman wore braces, and the rubber bands snapped, that would be the most dangerous bit of orthodontia ever, because a rubber band traveling faster than a speeding bullet would be bound to cause some collateral damage.

Sometimes, you must stop evading the facts and do what needs to be done if you want to accept that you are 30 and technically an adult. Yes, I know: the tooth can hurt.

Yes, I went there.

Writing To The Heart Of The Matter

If I have not written in this forum of late, it is because I've been channeling my writing into an Introduction to Creative Writing class through SF State's Continuing Education Program. In other words, I'm trying to learn to write a short story.

I know the general idea, of course, but I never seem to do so. I always get stuck. The neat thing about this class is the focus on the basics, starting small and building from there, and I think that's what I need. It's been enjoyable, and one of the first exercises was to write a writer's manifesto. I found that to be a fascinating experience, so I thought I would re-post it here. There's no real form to the manifesto, just a general statement of my thoughts and hopes for the class, bad grammar and all:

1) I am a writer. I want to say that without qualification, without feeling silly in doing so, without feeling pretentious. I am a writer because I write, and I want to embrace that.

2) My strengths lie in attention to detail, a love of language, an ability to evoke moods and places. I have read a lot in my life, and I write a lot.

3) My weaknesses are perfectionism, a challenge to develop a plot on which to base a story that I don’t feel is silly or contrived, to create a realistic character, flaws and all, and to write good dialogue that sounds realistic.

Goals: I want to become proficient in rewriting drafts to find threads that I feel good about. I want to find ways to put words down on paper when I don’t feel hopeful and be able to push through writer’s block. I want to find a seed of a plot in what my generative voice creates, and use my editorial voice to sharpen the plot to sustain the organic writing around it.

How do I get there? Work within the structure of a class setting to bring discipline to my writing. Learn different exercises, develop good writing habits of writing every day and not ignoring my writer’s voice, turn off the TV. Try new places to write, try re-reading drafts and re-typing, find a trusted reader. Listen to people on the bus and in the street. When I feel uncomfortable writing something, write more about that in greater detail. If I think to myself, “Should I really write that? Would that offend someone?”, I want to write it without hesitation. My writing is for me and no one else.

Focus on the basics of writing, developing characters and plots that make sense. Start small and let it grow from there.

I'm looking forward to see what I can produce through this class. The structure of a weekly class has been encouraging and inspirational, so that's a good sign.