22 October 1998
 
  First We Take Manhattan  
 
    It's late and I'm beat.  So what else is new?  I've forgone a lot of my internet activities lately in order to catch up on my badly lacking rest.  I don't like being dippy and tired.  El Prez thinks a lot of my memory problems are due to nutritional imbalances, but I've been a lot sharper this week for the rest, so that must be part of it, too.
    I'm one of those who really needs eight hours of sleep per day for optimum performance.  This is a drag when your days are as full as mine.
    There isn't much I feel like saying about today.  Again I wish I'd taken notes, as there were several intriguing and profound thoughts that breezed through my head but of course are long gone now without residue.
    I am having financial problems.  I got a call today from Citibank that wasn't particularly pleasant.  Somehow or other a payment somewhere along the line got missed and the limit was overshot and, well, they aren't very happy with me, and won't be until after payday.  Even then they still may not be 100% happy with me but I can at least handle some of what I owe them then.  It will be a matter of choosing which bills get paid this time, and which must wait.  When you take a job that pays five grand less per year than your minimum for survival, you have to get used to these things.
    I'm ashamed to say that it's been the intervention of another that's kept me going.  Those last few days before payday when the bread and milk are gone and the kids are sick of corn muffins and the very cheap chicken fried patties I find at the store, I find a bit of help, and am greatly appreciative.
    I'd hoped that the job would grow to support me, and I still believe that it will.  But winter is upon us, the lean months of the beverage business.  Prosperity won't return until spring.  January we begin our plan of attack, for the summer is indeed a battleground.  We have a helluva product, though, and enough cleverness and inventiveness to insert that amazing product into every strategic location and handy outlet imaginable.
    [This is the part where her eyes glaze over and she gets fanatical.  "First We Take Manhattan" is playing in the background.]
    We will conquer the hot city, deluging it in refreshing rivers of Green Apple.  We will infiltrate the quiet halls, planting Diet Chocolate Egg Cream among the nostalgic dreamers.  We will splash Raspberry Ice Tea across the fields and roads of sweltering Jersey.  We will infuse delis and cafeterias, restaurants and pizza parlors, hot dog stands and auto shops, student union stores and snack bars, supermarkets and craft shops, comic book stores and video rentals, hair salons and tattoo parlors, and by god we will take every commissary, BX, PX, shoppette, Four Seasons and Toyland in the entire US military system.  And then we kick ass.  We'll slaughter every thirst that comes our way, and they'll buy and buy again.  Bottles and cans, cases and pallets will fly off the shelves, will race through the warehouses.  The trucks will roll, the fumes will rise...
    And I will be able to pay all my bills.
 
 
 
     
P.S.  This party is being very creatively funded.  I won't go into details, but rest assured, I am not depriving my family to throw it, ok?  Still hope you'll come.
    
P.P.S.  I made this today...		 Previous 
List 
Next 
  
Names 
& 
Terms