Scheherazade

Scheherazade is the name of the musical piece that Evan Lysacek skated to in his gold medal performance last night. How well he skated had to be left up to the judges because right smack in the middle of his performance, my screen went blank soon to be followed by loud announcements from the The Department of Emergency Preparedness that they were conducting their mandatory monthly drills followed by all kinds of warbling. Dudes!! In the middle of the US Gold Medal performance? Comcast...you suck!!!! But in the small bit I was able to see before the rude interruption, Evan looked impressive and I liked the snakes wrapped around him. Scheherazade is the Persian princess who successfully broke the cycle of a certain king who would marry one day and after the wedding night, would behead the bride and then marry another. For 1001 nights, Scheherazade would tell the beginning of a story but conveniently couldn't finish it until the next day ensuring her survival. I assume one of these stories involved snakes.

Scheherazade was also the first musical piece I put on my budget, tinny stereo 33 years ago when I first invited Steve back up to my place. He immediately was able to identify it (we shared an appreciation of classical music) but thought it was an Italian word pronounced similarily to 'scherzo' (which we learned was a joke in Italian 110 but also is a musical term). Nope, she wasn't Italian; I knew the backstory. Also, in the same visit he remarked how messy my house was. Dear Readers, I had cleaned and cleaned in anticipation of this night. But as I soon found out, it certainly was compared to his carefully arranged furniture of his apartment. Suffice it to say, some compromises were necessary over the ensuing years. And we won't go into our 1001 (now closer to 12,000) night experience, equally memorable.

As for Evans, the local Evan Bates will skate today in ice dancing. I first met him as a tow-headed toddler running along the sides of the soccer fields. His older brother is one of Josh's best friends whose family invited Josh to come to Vancouver. He declined against my advice.

Yesterday, the temp went over 40 and it looks similarly nice today. Do I run outside in the sunlight trying to make up for my very low mileage of the first half of the month or do I hit the Y and work on those muscles. Decisions, decisions. Yesterday was spent driving Naomi around to here and there. Later my friend came over to watch the Olympics with me, which as it turns out, she had little interest in.

I will go out with different friends today.