Why Don't You Give Me a Call When You Decide You're Willing to Fight

For what you think is real
For what you think is right

To me, Ani Difranco speaks to the essence of who I am. She is my Bob Dylan, my Joan Baez, the woman I look to when I can't seem to articulate my crazy. Somehow she finds it and she puts it in a way that makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time. Maybe just because I'm in a Winter Clean-Out phase, but a lot of changes need to happen in my life, and I think I want to learn how to play guitar. Though, taking into account my freakishly small hands, perhaps I would be better off learning the ukelele.

I mentioned that I needed more Ani and true to form with all the amazing love and support I've been blessed to receive, not only now, but my entire life, Marina sent me 3 Ani mixes from D.C. Thank you, Marina. It has set off ANI BINGE FEST 2005, and it's all going on Billie and I am currently singing it at the top of my shattered lungs.

That must annoy your cubicle-mates. Ah, no; fret not, friends. I took a sick day.

I've been feeling somewhat poopy all week, and to be honest, it's been both emotional AND physical. I keep losing my voice; it could be the weather, it could be all the crying I did, or it could be some sort of fun voicebox-eating bacteria. Who knows? But I lose my sick days at the end of the year, so this was as good of a time to use them in my opinion.

Ah, but something looms on the horizon tomorrow that could throw everything into a tailspin.

The MTA has threatened to strike. For those of you not fortunate enough to live in New York, the MTA runs the public transportation system here. I don't know if it's a nationwide thing, but it's safe to say that a good means of public transport is the majority of how us humble New Yorkers meander around this great city of ours.

I don't know what they're pissed off about, but I've seen their uniforms and it ain't pretty, folks. No matter what they're upset about, I hope they added new uniforms on their list of riders. Because if you're going to shut down the heart and soul of this city, let's throw some good-for-the-soul demands in there as well.

If they strike tomorrow, pretty much all of us are fucked. I'm nowhere near any of the alternate things (mainly the Long Island Railroad or the PATH trains). Everything else, the buses or the subways, are going to be non-operational. So it could be sick day #2. I'm going to try and see what I can do, but you can imagine that cabs are going to be hard to come by, and car services all over the city are already booked up. And beyond that, my only option is to walk about 2 miles into work in below-freezing weather. And if I'm getting sick now, I can't imagine that doing that can be at ALL good for my health. So we'll see.

I don't know what they're fighting for, but it's got to be something pretty good to shut down the whole scene here. And I say to them, do what you gotta do, man. This city's rough and your uniforms are hideous. And I'm secretly fighting for a snow day. So there you go. We all have a cause near and dear to our hearts.

And let's all be willing to fight, shall we?