"Off" Is the New "On"

7254 Steps

I read this on the subway on the way home. It was a ConEd advert for saving energy. I thought it was apt for me to read. I feel like I have been ON for so many days straight and I really need to switch OFF for a bit. But I love ON. I have a hard time with OFF. And OFF is so key to peace of mind. But ON is so key to feeling engaged in life. But then so is OFF when I think about it. I am living in one of the most ON cities in the world. But even here, there are places to be OFF.

I went to the Commercial Closet Association Corporate AdRespect Honors at the new Times

Center at the hot new New York Times building. It was a fundraiser for this media watchdog group. I had wanted to get Commercial Closet and its founder, Mike Wilke, to do a panel at Outfest this year, but I had no budget to fly him out. I met him in LA and saw him here tonight. There was a cocktail party and a presentation. Absolut Vodka was one of the recipients of their "Award of Courage" or something. They have helped gay people do really stupid things for 26 years now. I was a guest of my friend Tom at the New York Times. Met some nice people. It was a lot of print media and on-line media types. In fact I met the Publisher of Passport Magazine who is interested in sponsoring our Pride Month in June. I am going to connect him with the marketing people. I also spoke to this on-line guy about writing freelance. He knows my boss. I got his card.

I Excel'd at work today. I have a presentation with my boss and the GM tomorrow on a schedule roll out thing. I have been getting headaches lately because I do not look away from the computer screen. My friend, and adviser to the incapable, suggested I program a reminder in Outlook. How daft is that? I did it and it was great. I have a recurring, M-F @2:30pm that says "Get up. Look away. Stretch." Thanks, Lisa.

Left the event tonight and got a subway at 42nd Street. Oooooh. Lights! People! ON. In all the flurry I felt so content. So peaceful, yet so stimulated. I have to say New York has the most fascinating people visually. I know other cities have visually fascinating people too, but this is like taking Toyko, Sao Paolo, Berlin, Springfield and Cote d'Azur and forcing them all to take a Christmas photo together in an underground moving box. There was this older woman with long, grey hair that got on the subway. She was wearing an orange knit cap with some sequins. Her skin was weathered so beautifully like she had it "done" by the top dermatologist in an Irish fishing village. Her husband was wearing a proper hat. They looked so beautiful. But their beauty was enhanced in that knobbly, woolly Benetton way by the black guy with the cool goatee and the corduroy coat and the the Asian dude with the i-pod wires hanging down from his ears wedged next to them on either side. This tableau was disrupted by the insane poet guy who rode between cars and yelled at the top of his lungs one word blasts like "DESPAIR" and "FINAL" and "TERMINAL." He was interesting looking too in that skinhead, angry, mass murderer kind of way. ON.

As I alighted from the station I checked my phone messages. 8. ON. I got home and opened mail. ON. Made dinner. OFF. Cleaned my apartment for the progressive dinner we are having in the brownstone tomorrow night. ON. Ate dinner while watching a doc for work about child molestation in the Catholic Church. ON.ON.ON. I cried it was so sad. ON/OFF.

Next stop Slumberland. OFF.