orange you glad I didn't say banana?

I went to Houston on Friday and actually enjoyed myself for a change. I think it probably had to do with the fact that I didn't see my family, and because I had some plans that panned out nicely.

I went to take A3* back to the airport. Her visit with us was good; short and exhausting, but good. We took the 290 route to Houston this time; it took a little longer to get there, we arrived in Houston right at 5 p.m., but being that there were two of us, we got to take the HOV lanes all the way through. I've never done that in Houston before; it was cool because they're higher than the highways in most places so it's very satisfying to see all the slow-moving traffic below and the big city above.

I dropped her off at the airport about 5:30 and called J4. He had bought me a ticket to see Howe Gelb at the Orange Show (which I shamefully admitted I'd never been to in all those years I lived in Houston). J4 gave me directions to his friends J5 & V1's house in the Heights, where he was. He met me outside and said, "I love these people and as soon as you step into their house, you'll know why." They moved to Houston from Baltimore in 1991, their house was built 100 years before that, and in the 17 they've been there, they've managed to fill almost every space with the work of self-taught artists; amazing stuff, including early Howard Finster (which is the only artist of that style that I know by name), paintings and signs and bottle cap art and toothpick art and folded-paper art, etc. When I commented that they were almost out of room, J5 said, "But not quite!"

J4 gave me a beer, asked if I was hungry, and when I said, "I will have to eat before the concert," V1 and the two Js starting listing off what they could serve me! V1 made a salad ("Do you mind if I use my mother's vinaigrette?") and J5 did something to some black beans in a pot that made them lip-smacking good. There was Mexican rice to go with it. J4 left to pick up his son from Odyssey of the Mind and V1, J5 and I talked about all kinds of things artistic. They were curious about me, about what I do, and we talked about my novel a bit. V1 went to Rice University a couple of years after one of my characters went there, and I picked her brain about school life. J4 returned and jumped in on the conversation, saying we should go to Valhalla, a bar on campus where they serve cheap bear.

E1 showed up with his camera and a sample of his latest batch of kombucha. It wasn't as good as the stuff a woman in the dance community makes, but it wasn't bad. Shortly, S2 showed up and we were making our plans to go to the Orange Show to see Howe. I forgot to mention that M3 wouldn't speak to me when he and his dad first arrived. J4 insisted that he shake my hand, but it was perfunctory at best. Suddenly, when we were getting the van seats situated so that we could all seven ride in it, M3 decided that he and I needed to sit in the back-back together. It was an odd turnaround, but I was delighted. We dropped him off at Discovery (a gymnasium babysitting place) and when we got there, he insisted that I get out with him. I told him I couldn't, but then, when his parents spotted one of M3's friends arriving and said so to him, he ran over to his friend and said, "Come over here; you wanna see something cool?" The friend of course did. They climbed into the back of the van, M3 pointed at me and said, "Look, he's completely bald!" The friend's eyes lit up. "Cool!" (Later, J4 told me that on the way to J5 & V1's he had told M3 that he would get to meet me, that I was his friend, an artist, and bald -- and that I might let him rub my head, which would bring him luck...)

The Orange Show is worthy of a long description, but I don't feel like it right now (though you can click the link and see what I could never say). It has the feel of a carnival in the middle of a neighborhood. Howe Gelb (also worthy of more) is a quirky musician, adept at guitar and piano, kind of a Tom Waits sound at times, but even more fitting in the carnivalesque atmosphere. When he played the piano, for instance, he would occasionally reach up and pluck the strings inside the instrument, and almost always plucked the right ones. He meandered through cover songs, mishmashing one into another and then a line from a third and then back again; it felt accidental but was well executed every time; and he sang a song he wrote about a train and because it was an open-air concert, took a long time to sing it because he waited for a passing train whistle to accentuate a certain part of the song every time he got to it. In short, he was as weird and delightful as the Orange Show itself.

When we first got there, I ran into a woman who had tried to seduce me way back when I was leaving Houston to go to New York City. I told her I was going there to be with a man, and she said, "So what? Come on! It'll be fun." But I didn't go, because I didn't want to cheat on my new boyfriend, my new life, and because she scared me a bit. I always liked her, and when we passed her and her husband and J4 said, "Hey," I walked over to her and she recognized me right away." Pretty cool.

Plus, I spent most of my time at the show sitting next to E1, talking about boys and things. I can't tell if he's a potential boyfriend -- can't tell if he's interested, can't tell if I am -- but at the very least, I feel like I've got a new friend. We enjoyed each other's company a lot. After we got home at 11:30, J4 suggested the three of us go to Valhalla (for research). We did. It's an interesting little place. Originally, beer was 5 cents, then it went up to a dime and then was a quarter until the 1950s and 50 cents until the '80s. Now it's 95 cents, which isn't really all that cheap, but it's a great place to know about.

The three of us walked across the campus, looked in on the Rice University Gallery, and climbed up on top of a sculpture called 45-degrees (well, actually, it's one-third of a sculpture called 45, 90, 180, but of course, we could only get on top of 45). When we got down, I scraped the hell out of my wrist, which looks like a pretty lame suicide attempt, but I didn't feel suicidal at all this weekend! I did feel a little bit of a let down at one point when we were sitting on top of 45 telling stories, making each other laugh, when E1 said to J4, "He and So-and-So would make a great couple." Sounded to me like E1 wasn't interested. But then, halfway back to Austin, I realized E1 had called to see if I wanted to come over (I missed the call), and then a couple of hours after I got home, he called again to tell me he's coming to Austin next weekend for Maker Faire, asked if he could get me a ticket, and if he can stay at my house. (He knows we have an extra bed...) So, who knows; one step at a time.

J4 led me out to his and M4's warehouse, where M4 & R3 live, where J4 & M4 do their artwork, and where they keep an extra room separate from the living quarters for guests. I stayed there. It's a fascinating house (the banister leading upstairs was made by them and is embedded with glass eyes, all of them with sunshine yellow irises, just for an example). Yesterday morning, I got up and spent an hour or two with M4 & R3 drinking coffee and talking on their back deck. Then I came home completely rejuvenated.