Ring-a-ding-ding

"Out with the old...in with the new...ring-a-ding-ding."
-- Shirley MacLaine as Fran Kubelik in The Apartment (1960)

I put the Pedro Delgado DVD away this morning, probably for good. I put it in the section with "Grizzly Man", "Super Size Me", "Startup.com". Not because I don't necessarily want a reminder that it's probably the coolest gift anyone's gonna give me this year - not because it's kind of wistful to watch Steve Bauer lose the yellow jersey to Delgado on the Alpe D'Huez - just because. There's no reason to pull it out again, because I know that I won't see Jesús again. And it was fun watching the video with him, getting to see him be passionate about something aside from getting laid, but it's a historical document. Water under the bridge....

I turn 40 in just over two weeks. I've pretty much assumed that I'm going to be turning 40 with a small handful of the most faithful friends I've got - those being Lu, Scott and Toño - and I'm kind of just thinking about cancelling the whole damn thing and turning 40 by myself with a bottle of champagne and a big tray of sushi. I can't postpone turning 40; having a small army of friends with me on the 4th is not likely to make the blow any easier. The Americans are all going to an election party at the Circulo de las Bellas Artes. I'm not American, and couldn't give a toss about the election. I just want to ride, and would have ridden had I realized how out of whack the weather forecast was going to be.

I'm in a right royal mood today. It struck me this morning that I've spent so much of my adult life being alone that cycling is probably the only sport that wouldn't frustrate me. I don't mind riding alone. I wouldn't mind riding alone now, except that I've got to meet someone in half an hour for a drink. This said someone is the second person to tell me that she gets pissed off when friends find their soulmates and let their friends fall by the wayside. The other person who told me that, who is male, got married yesterday.

September seems like a much more appropriate month for making new year's resolutions; after all, we do it for ten to twenty years when we attend school. I was thinking of this watching "The Apartment" for the nth time the other night - Fred MacMurray and Shirley MacLaine drinking quaint cocktails on New Year's Eve, and the look of boredom in Shirley MacLaine's eyes when she realizes that, in spite of Fred MacMurray having been tossed out on his ass by his wife, things are not going to change. Out with the old, in with the new...ring-a-ding-ding, says Shirley. Two minutes later, the other shoe drops; she takes off to Jack Lemmon's apartment. There's no guarantee that this relationship is going to work out, either. But at least she's taken the reins and made a decision to excise the crap in her life that isn't working.

Jack Lemmon: I love you, Miss Kubelik. I absolutely adore you.
Shirley MacLaine: Shut up and deal.

Indeed.