So in the middle of our big project launch meeting the other day my boss's cell phone started ringing and ringing. She has one of those newer phones with full electronic orchestration, so for a moment we all paused to enjoy the sudden Musak.

She had to answer it, and while we were waiting for her to finish, the head client lady goes, "That was Carmen." Overall Client Lady is/was a very nice lady, but she was quite wrong about this, so I shifted to stare at her in bemusement. Partly I was staring at her because my mind was already occupied in replaying the music in my head to figure out what it actually was, and partly I was taken aback that she was trying to turn our project meeting into a teachable moment.

Then I figured out that the tune had actually been "Bolero," and I moved on with my life. But afterwards at lunch my friend and I were reviewing the meeting (especially the part around Hour Two when we both began mentally making over everyone's outfits), and she said that she could completely tell that I thought Client Lady was wrong. She even modeled for me what the look on my face had been: a perfect example of "I'm smelling something slightly unpleasant but am too polite to say anything." So clearly I need to work on my poker face.

And, of course, none of this explains why my boss has "Bolero" as her cell phone ring in the first place.

There was a hugeass storm the other night which was knocking electricity out right and left. We were okay because we unplugged all large appliances and went to bed once the TV picture started to get wavy. Middle sis was not so lucky. She lives in an apartment complex with a center courtyard thing, so she had a front row seat to the pageantry of her neighbors' lives when all the power in their building went out. She told me there was a big crash, everything went black, and then this lone voice cried out, "Damn you, ComEd!" Which is kind of awesome and a perfect example of what I miss about city life.

She could see flashlights bobbing around in everyone's windows, but she was like, "Screw this, I'm going to bed." And she did, but then she got kind of hot because the air conditioning had gone out too, so she opened the window. But it was still raining, so then she was pelted with rain as she tried to sleep.