I wake up with a slightly "scraped" feeling above my dimples from doing the Riveria "Hi! Happy to see you!" kiss-on-both cheeks (you know, that odd facial maneuver you see European heads of state doing in newsreels). Feigning delight in the presence of the occasional poseur or fraud is not one of my strong points. I think I said a neutral "So, here you are again" to two people yesterday. Then again, I was sincerely glad to greet a good two dozen other folks.
It is wonderful to see one's colleagues from all over the world and to trade meaningful insights about the essential tenets of cinema and coruscations of craft ("Jesus! Who did X sleep with to get THAT level of accreditation? The last time she wrote anything was during the Paleolithic Period." "Z looks great. Too bad I hear his movie sucks." "The rental agency promised W an apartment with a terrace and view on the water. He got an airshaft with a "view" of the puddle formed by a leaky air conditioner. I hear it's a pretty big puddle, though.")
Those evangelical folks with the French-language equivalent of ASK ME HOW I LOST WEIGHT EQUALLING THAT OF THE SMALLER COMET IN "DEEP IMPACT" pinned to their loud lapels were beaming in a cluster by the train station yesterday. I feel like I should retaliate by having big buttons printed up with the slogan "Seen Anything Good?" Or maybe T-shirts emblazoned with: "My Journalist Parents Went to Cannes and All They Brought me was their Repetitive Stress Injuries.
Before I enter into two weeks of bliss parsed by gripes, I would
like to sing the praises of the folks in customer service at a firm
whose name I was cursing last week and who I can't say enough good
things about this week: PSION, makers of my incredibly groovy
palmtop computer, the Psion Series 5. Without a frantic scramble on
their part to help me out last week, you might not be reading this.
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