one of the only invitations I've gotten all month...

I just got a letter from the ICA inviting me to be the director's guest at a special members-only preview for the next exhibition if only I pledge a year of membership and indicate as much in the enclosed envelope. What do you think? Should I take him up on it? Should I start calling and asking to speak with him, and being like "I just want to know what time he's picking me up! Okay, okay....just tell me this: is he going to wear brown or black, because I'm wearing green, but it's more like a black-green than a brown-green."

In the letter, he also reminded me that the ICA was "one of the only places in Boston where you can see contemporary art (or something like that)." This is like thing with the cheeses. There should be an algorithm by which one can determine whether a thing can truly be said to be "one of the only" of its kind. Or each conceivable geographical location could have a master book of the numbers of things in it. Or the ratio of the number of things generally allotted to the category and things actually in it.

At any rate, I'm hoping to talk this over with the director on our way to the opening.

Legacy

One hundred and fifty years ago in Calabria, Italy, when crops failed, farmers reasoned that at least the 'Ndrangheta wouldn't get them. Yesterday, when a great-great-granddaughter in Boston's attempt to highlight her hair didn't work, her first thought was that at least they didn't turn out badly.

No words were harmed in the attempt to make these highlights.

Highlights

I tried to highlight my hair the other day, and there's this little brush you use to sort of paint them on, and it occurred to me that I could use it to spell words across my head. And then I remembered that while my hair is slightly wavy, sometimes I try to blow-dry it straight (but can't get it as pointily so as the stylist did the first day, of course. Never in the history of the world has a woman's hair looked the way it looked the day she got it done) and sometimes, when it's rainy or misty, it gets ringlet-y. So if I chose words whose letters had certain shapes and calculated the, um, sine and cosine of the various waves my highlights could feasibly display one word when my hair was wavy and another when it was straight.

suggestions?

My sister's baby is due on May 23. We know it's a girl, but the name has been kept classified, until last night, when my dad told me that he knew it, and that my mom did, too.

I knew it started with an "A" because for her baby shower she asked for (ha, I'd originally typed "ordered") one of those giant Pottery Barn wooden "A"'s, and I thought I knew my sister and brother in law: Ava. I was 99% sure. I really thought they were Ava people.

But it's not, according to my dad. He then tolerated a few yes-or-no questions, during which I learned:

> it's not monosyllabic
> it's neither extremely uncommon nor extremely common
> he and I do not know someone in common with that name

and here's the interesting part: I asked whether it ended with an A, and he said he didn't think so, and asked my mom, who confirmed that it did not. So. What is a name that starts with A, is polysyllabic, of moderate modern usage, and may or may not end with an A.

I should say that I don't think they're the type to go in for things like "Mathilde" and pronouncing it with a slight A on the end.

P. thinks it should be "Alice" - or "Ollis," really, which is funny if you know their last name.

and another thing

Micky Dolenz back in the day? Greatest voice on earth. Can I put an MP3 on here? Also? Dreamy. I had such a crush on (the 1960's) him when I was little. Having a crush on someone's past incarnation was tragic, but I guess it's kind of like little girls getting all worked up over horses. You know, investigating things without any danger of, okay, no more posting tonight.

Maybe all of our crushes are on past incarnations. CDeW, if you're reading, I feel like that sentence wants to run away from home and join your blog.

"remuneration"

is the worst word. Because it has to do with numbers, so people think "numer" as in "numeral" but it's not "renumeration."

I also just realized that the person who has commented here as "Anonymous," whom I privately outed, is the only person I know who has witticisms attributed to him on the internet. It's like raaaiiinn, on yer weddin' day.

Also, due to city-limits signs, my movie-going, frames-shopping, snack-buying walk took me from Somerville to Cambridge to Somerville to Cambridge to Somerville.

post-it note

> remember to have brought in flowers