Summer Colds & Weddings

I've spent most of the day, at work and after, battling what seems to be a summertime cold. I'm not bad off yet and hope not to be. This is a cold that apparently arrived on the plane with my sister, who was here last week. My mother's had it, and I've felt poorly all day.

There's nothing worse than a cold in the summertime.

Got an invitation from an old friend to his wedding, which is in August. The quest for someone to accompany me has now officially begun. Going to weddings alone is horrible.

Also talked to The Girl tonight. She's as happy as a clam. This, of course, was after a week of phone tag. I heard a brief report on the radio today that mentioned the pope's saying (and I'm not Catholic, despite my Italian last name) that sometimes life was so hectic that it made it impossible for people to pray and think about things. (I am sure the pope put it better than that, but his basic sentiments I won't disagree with.)

In fact, I read an essay by Mark Helprin, "The Acceleration of Tranquility" an eternity ago, and I thought then it was an epoch-making essay, in that it summed up nicely the problems with the age we're living in. Most of what he said then is more true now than when he wrote the essay.

That, in fact, is one of my favorite Helprin essays. Another, which was the first Mark Helprin I ever read, is "Against the Dehumanization of Art."