The giving tree

...in Dallas for a weekend break. Today, entering a large room filled with orange balloons, I could feel a drop or two of accumulated stress drip away. At the height of my anguish last night at 4:00 A.M., I found myself reading aloud The Giving Tree to Israel. I was surprised he didn't know it, and I searched to find it online. (I found only the text.) I explained that I didn't mean to imply that he was the boy - or that anyone was in particular - but that I certainly did relate to the tree. I guess that's what you sow when you work all week like a dog at two jobs and try to maintain demanding goals. (In truth, the boy and the tree are like many dichotomies; the more you can claim one position, the more likely you are to be able to claim its opposite.) In reviewing the past couple of months, I can see how much I needed a break. The boss has kept me solo on my current project. I think he really likes the look of it, and doesn't want it spoiled by someone else's sense of design or lazy habits. But this makes for very intense days. I'm afraid in the midst of stress I broke one of my cardinal rules this week: Never show contempt for another person in a business meeting. No one said anything, nor did I make any overt statement. But in review, I think I was less than collegial with someone I'm scheduled to work with soon. Most people must contend with difficult others. It's not their report card we should worry about but our own. An incapacity to tolerate fools is a trait that most people over the age of 40 should have dropped.

(no subject)

Just woke up. The dream still in my head. I have just been to a dinner party in L.A. with 10 or 11 people at a friend's house. Barbra Streisand was one of the guests. She was a funny raconteur, but other than that, unremarkable. There was an elegant display of apples in the bathroom. At one point she emerged chomping on an apple. I did like that.

But OMG - what decade am I in! I was really never a huge fan. I remember when I was twelve my dad brought back an album from a business trip to NYC: Je m'appelle Barbra. That was the first time I had ever heard of her. For me her career went downhill from there.