forty-four

Sunday was my birthday. I received two phone calls from people on Saturday wishing me happy birthday, thinking the 27th was my birthday. One of them was from E1*; he made up a silly song "Vagina Free" in honor of me (on my voice mail); I played it for S1 and he said, "You have to be friends with this person," meaning because we're so much alike. It was pretty crazy; I haven't erased it yet.

I also got two packages in the mail on Saturday, one an intentional birthday package from M5, a CD of songs by Sean Hayes, whom she refers to as her "new boyfriend." He is cute, and his songs are nice. The package came with a card in it with a woodblock print of an olive over the word "YOU." (Get it?) Inside was a super-sweet message from M5, things I really needed to hear (or read), and she knew it because she reads this blog. (But she would've said those things anyway, to be sure, she just apparently thought the timing was right, and so it was.)

The other package was from J4, returning my copy of the Junebug DVD which I'd loaned him. He sent it back with a bunch of silly promotional stuff from his and M4's life in art. (Probably worth something...!)

I got an email Hallmark card from A4, a silly little couple of characters singing a birthday song (but messing up a lot first) which made me laugh. A4 is funny, well on her way to be a goofy old lady, though she's got years to go; she sent us a handmade Halloween card with two little pieces of petrified wood in it, wrapped in butcher block paper, with our names on them, which she had picked out special for each of us, though I can't for the life of me figure out why those particular rocks spoke our names to her. (Both S1 and I thought the little packages were candy...)

When I went to bed Saturday night -- or when S1 thought I was in bed for good (and I did too) -- he put out a chocolate cake with a walnut topping that he made while I was away. Unfortunately, I couldn't find my phone (which I need by the bed to tell me what time it is when I wake up in the morning) and it ended up being in my jacket in the kitchen. I tried to ignore the foil-covered cake pan when I walked through that room several times, but finally fessed up. "I don't want to spoil the surprise on the table," I said. "I won't look at it, I'll just know that there's a surprise waiting for me!"

On Sunday at 11, S1 and I went to Casa de Luz (a vegan macrobiotic restaurant) for brunch. I treated myself to a 11-meal card and put both mine and Steven's brunches on it (he's po'). I had twig tea, creamy zucchini soup, brown rice, sesame tempeh stir-fry with carrots & leeks, sweet potatoes, garden salad with raspberry orange dressing, spelt & barley pancakes with fruit syrup of peaches, apples & cherries. I wanted kale but the bowl was always empty. I had seconds of some of the above stuff and was full. When we got home, we were too full for cake yet, but after a while, I made a pot of coffee then went and bought a half gallon of natural vanilla bean Blue Bell, both of which lubricated the cake quite nicely. S1 said the cake was an experiment that went extremely well; he had to use a lot of brown sugar in the cake batter because he ran out of granulated, and the topping was a made-up walnut praline concoction. He was right, it was/is moist and delicious (last night, we froze most of the remainder because it's just too much...)

We went to see Into The Wild, a beautiful, devastating movie. We hardly said a word on the way home, we were both so taken by it.

I dropped S1 off at home and made my way to South Austin, to C4's house, where he was having a birthday gathering of his own. I hadn't talked to him in a while, have been feeling a bit estranged from all of the people I've met at the Dance, but knew he would be calling around our birthday. Last year, we did paint ball with a bunch of friends; I wasn't up for that, and since that time, I've decided (or realized) that his friends are really not so much my friends. C4 has fans; he's one of those people that everybody loves (myself included). I didn't really want to be around his fans this year. When he called to invite me to the gathering, it didn't sound like it was a celebration of us, but rather that it was a celebration of him that he really wanted me to come to. And I believe he wanted me to come to it -- and I don't think we have to celebrate our birthdays together every year now and forever -- but I just didn't feel up to it. Still, I tried. I got to South Austin but then couldn't remember exactly where his new house is. I tried several times; I'm pretty sure it's off of South First Street, I turned into the neighborhood at three or four different lights, but as soon as I got off the main street I knew I wasn't in the right place. I could have called, but instead took it as a sign which I readily went with. I drove back home, picked up my notebook and went to Magnolia for dinner alone.

I sat in a booth at Magnolia for two hours working on a new chapter I've been trying to get through for a week or so; it's a new chapter six that became necessary when I was working on what was previously chapter six. S1 said there needed to be more between Diamond (formerly Nedra) and Randy. I knew he was right, but it took me some time to breath life into the story. It started happening at Magnolia, over a plate of spinach fettucini with sauteed artichokes and mushrooms. I came home and wrote for two more hours. It was a great feeling.

Now my schedule is off. Or maybe it's right on. I had such a hard time working yesterday (job work not creative work). I wanted to revisit new chapter six, wanted to transcribe it from longhand into the computer. But I really need to make money too. Last night I started a new transcription job at 10 and finished at midnight, and I decided that today I would alternate between job and novel. But first I felt like I needed to catch up on a little blogging.

So there. Another day older and slightly less deep in debt...