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November 3, 2007
Danny California
I have said before that my taste in music is awful.
I am a great organizer. One of the best. I am a decent cook, especially of healthy foods, especially on a budget and fast fast fast. I am a pretty girl, capable of looking better at 33 than most women look at 21.
But I know nothing about music. Nothing. And I'm usually okay with that, except that today the job interview for new guy (who is about to get his own blog name) veered into the direction of music, and he knows a ton about it, as does the husband of the president of my union (First Gentleman?) and they set out on a long convo about the guitar while I contemplated how I would tell my newest organizer who also happens to be a classical guitarist that he has to cut his nails.
I told him. He stopped walking and said, "Are you crazy?"
Well, the answer to that is of course yes. I am as mad as a hatter who has been sniffing the hat making chemicals for twelve years. How else could I be the best organizer in the country?
He stopped walking. We were taking a walk. I kept walking. I knew he'd catch up.
We agreed on a nail length that would allow him to play the guitar while still being taken seriously by nurses in Philadelphia.
Later on, after the Pres had okay'ed him (she loved him, actually, as I knew she would, though she wondered what was up with the freakishly long nails. I explained that it's a guitar thing. I tried to remember why I know that. I think I learned it at Interlochen.) I called him when I was on my way to get my nails done. I let him pick my color. Dark matte burgundy. I figure, if I'm making him cut his nails, he should be able to pick the color of mine.
There's just something about this kid. I keep forgetting that he wasn't there during my Yale sit-in of 1996... he would have fit in so well.
Sure enough, April CR is a radical. She is definitely not an anarchist, and she doesn't want to go to your Revolution if she can't wear cute shoes. She does not quote Emma Goldman. She expects her staff to quote her.
She is a great organizer. She is kinda thin and gets the RDAs of most things most of the time. She lives with a man who wishes she got more RDAs and ate fewer calories. She is currently making him eggplant pizzas with fat free mozzarella, tomatoes, asparagi, and capers. Flax and olive oil will top said pizzas. There are a lot of them.
She just wants to organize, and to be young and well enough to do it.
She does CR. She is the director of organizing of the last truly independent union.
She just hired this kid whom she's going to name Danny California, after the Red Hot Chili Peppers song, because a) everything she objects to has happened in California, so she loves the line "California rest in peace" [correction: I am very happy that CNA exists, and that happens on a regular basis in California] and b) he has been everywhere and done everything and deserves such a name... I met him seven years ago when we were in the midst of a rather, uh, stressful organizing campaign of another sort and c) he would probably be really annoyed to be identified by such an obvious pop music reference. And she lives to annoy those who once annoyed her.
Now time to eat dinner with the love of my life. Eggplant pizzas. Amazing how versatile capers are. Amazing how misplaced modifiers can make it look like eggplant pizzas are the love of my life. They are not. I do like them. But the love of my life is MR, the Prophet of the Biotech Rapture, the skinniest man I have ever seen, my exotic Canadian sex toy who would marry me if he had to in order to get me out of the country if they outlaw unions.
Mental note: ask Danny if he's got a plan for getting out of the country. I suspect that he had a plan long before I did, cause he's the kind of person who really needs one. But just to be sure.
She has completely lost her mind.
She cooks with capers a lot.
She is fairly sure that within 18 months, she will have led the campaign to organize the largest hospital in Philadelphia.
She is nothing if not an organizer. She loves her nails, she loves her skinny yet well-proportioned (er, hum!) body very much. She loves doing CR and talking about CR and blogging about CR and blogging in general and writing and cooking and lilacs and pumpernickel bread and obscure Carly Simon references that no one but her mom would get. Except for maybe other people's moms. Carly Simon is definitely a mom thing, which makes it quite odd that she (meaning me, as I'm on this third person kick for all the wrong reasons) loves Carly Simon so much.
But she loves organizing most. And she feels the magick brewing now. Now, in a way that means you'd better freakin' train some folks to be ready because the floods are coming. And now that I have Lisa an Susie and Danny California, I am sure we can handle it.
Organizing is my life. It is who I am. Maybe I will weigh 110, maybe I will weigh 98. At the rate I am going, I will weigh 98 in six months.
It's not about weight. It's about who you are in that body. I feel confident that I am a person who should be alive in many years. To organize.
To make some sort of fundamental change in our politcal system.
And that Danny California and Lisa and Susie will be right by my side, and will be better organizers than they ever imagined they could be. That their names will go down in history as the great organizers who changed the map on Philadelphia and throughout PA in 2008 - 2010, and that anything I could teach them will have been great, but that I will learn how to get out of the way and let my girls and boys do their magick.
And if I was the magnet that pulled these people together, then it will have been worth losing the ability to tell a funny story about the anarchist who was living on my couch seven years ago. Besides, he was really living in the guest room.
Posted by april at November 3, 2007 8:43 PM
Comments
Aw April, you're great! I love when you let it all come through!
Posted by: Stepha at November 3, 2007 6:00 PM
This entry honestly reveals that you are a lunatic. I have no problem with CR -- sounds great, and you do a good job. But "I am a pretty girl"?? "[I live] with a man who wishes [I] got more RDAs and ate fewer calories"?? You told a guy to cut his nails? Honestly, maybe people wouldn't criticize your documentation of CR if the way you defend your lifestyle weren't so alarmingly ridiculous.
Posted by: Wilson at November 4, 2007 10:23 AM
Hey, girl! If you like Carly Simon, Springsteen and Billy Joel, your taste in music can't be all bad! JD :-)
Posted by: Judith at November 4, 2007 11:36 AM
Wilson,
a) What's wrong with saying I'm a pretty girl? Is there something wrong with being one, or just with saying it?
b) What's wrong with living with a man who wishes I did even better CR so that I could improve my chances of living a longer, healthier life with him?
c) If you saw how long this guy's nails were, and you knew that you had to employ him in a context where people's snap judgements on first impressions are the difference between winning and losing, you'd tell him to cut his nails too. Seriously, they were a lot longer than mine. And mine are long. It's like telling a hippie kid with long hair that if he wants a serious job he's going to have to cut the hair. He understood, and it's all good. He is a lot more mature than you are.
That being said, go away and never come back. I am sick of jerks like you commenting on my blog. Go to McDonalds and eat cheeseburgers.
a
Posted by: april at November 4, 2007 12:39 PM
Excellent retort! Go FireCat! :-)
Posted by: Judith at November 4, 2007 1:27 PM
>>>"That being said, go away and never come back. I am sick of jerks like you commenting on my blog. Go to McDonalds and eat cheeseburgers."
Ah April, you made me cry with laughter! Good reply! Well done!
Posted by: Lindsay at November 4, 2007 2:26 PM
I love lilac too. White lilac in particular. Delicious in the rain.
Posted by: Sara at November 4, 2007 3:58 PM
Wilson is ridiculous, but seriously A, your blog entry was way out of whack with what you have posted previously. You have never been so forceful and vociferous about how beautiful you are, or how skinny, and now you are (one of) the best organizers (ever), and going to change the world. All probably true statements, but the personality is so different. Good to be confident, you've just never expressed confidence like this before (at least expressed it in your blog, that I've seen.) Best wishes.
Posted by: Fred at November 5, 2007 11:34 AM
Interesting to see how people are shocked by the mere expression of self-confidence. The post is great.
Posted by: Marianne at November 5, 2007 3:34 PM
April,
Today is the first day I have ever heard of CRON. I've spent the majority of the day on the internet reading everything that I can about it. I'm intrigued; however, I feel overwhelmed with all that I read. Is there a specific book or site that you would recommend for beginners? Should one get a blood test prior to starting a program like this to determine if there are any nutrition deficiencies? Thanks in advance for any information you can give me.
/Denise
Posted by: Denise at November 5, 2007 5:42 PM