We're in a bar. It's dark and smoky and crowded. It's me and my family, and M6 is there too, but she might as well be family. The nondescript waiter and a couple of other nondescript people start singing. They become quite a bit more descript and handsome as they sing. I'm enchanted. My family wants to leave the bar and go back to our hotel room. They say so in so many words. But I'm enchanted, I think the boys will sing to me and I can sing along."Can't you get around by yourself?"
There was a men's room, which I ducked into with a "Fuck them." I needed to pee. There were two urinals directly across from the entrance and three or four more across from the stalls, which were a short marble hall away. There were no men at the urinals across from the door, but the others were busy-busy, men with plastic bags of holiday buys wagging their weenies at least somewhat desperately. I shrugged, perhaps I gave a little nonchalant "Hm!" and peed, ignoring whatever potential activity was going on; I wasn't interested.
I woke needing to pee.
Yesterday was Thanksgiving. It took S1 and me forever to come together on what we wanted to do. First, he wanted to stay home, just the two of us, and cook a big elaborate meal. That sounded like chores to me. Last year, we went to a shindig at C1's house, which was just wrong. People eating with plates precariously perched on their squatting laps, mostly ignoring us. S1 wanted to avoid that kind of scene; I was with him there. The idea of going "Home" came up; S1 loves the crazy people in my family. To me, it's a little unnerving being so close to the source of my own insanity for an extended period of time. Plus, it would require a six-hour drive in one day. Ugh.
Funny thing is, right after I suggested to my mother that S1 and I might be going there, she started forwarding me all of those stupid email jokes. And then, when I wrote back, a couple of weeks later, and said I wasn't up for the drive, that we had other plans here, the emails stopped. (Doesn't she understand that that sort of snubbing doesn't come off as punishment in my mind?) Maybe it was just a coincidence.
S1 and I went to A2 & J2's house. It was a lovely affair; started at 5 PM lasted till 10. A2's assistant was there with her geeky boyfriend who's half her age. J2's father was there. I love him; he's a lot like J2, a wry sense of humor. O1 & V2 were there. I met them both at the Dance. He is known for being misogynistic and homophobic, etc., I think he's just an undereducated Mexican who doesn't know better. He's a bit of an oaf, but a great story-teller. She is apparently his long-term partner; I had never really talked to her before. She called me by the wrong name (which was common in the Dance because there were three of us with similar names), she's a violin player and was a teacher until recently, very smart and interesting. There was also a woman named Z1 there. She's the coolest, a law professor at UT. She was a female lawyer back in the '50s when it wasn't acceptable. Her husband is a famous documentary filmmaker, his first film was banned in the US for 25 years (so he's also pretty unacceptable!); I thought he was going to be at the dinner, but he's in
The meal was about as unconventional and interesting as the gathered "family." Endive salad with cranberries, honey, bleu cheese and olive oil; turkey, lamb, roasted sliced sweet potatoes, green beans with shallots; S1's succotash, my Grand Marnier cranberry sauce with OJ and pecans (which would likely have been banned at my family-of-origin gathering). No dressing, no mashed potatoes, no rolls. (I kind of missed those things but I'm all the better for it today.)
P1 showed up just after dessert from her day of events. (Dessert, by the way, was apple pie, pumpkin pie, blueberry cobbler, with whipped cream A2 insisted we all beat a little.) P1 brought a skinny little bottle of dessert wine. She and I did a lot of the dishes together. A2 & J2 have a back-to-back double-sink set-up in two rooms -- the kitchen and a converted porch -- with an opening looking on one to the other. That was a nice way to wash piles of dishes (though I won't take credit for doing them all; we did dishes until the dessert wine was opened and it was time for a toast).
The evening ended with A2 & J2, J2's dad, P1, S1 and me huddled in a corner of the kitchen talking. It was nice. But then heaviness come over me. Sleepiness. I guess my brain needed to present me with the scene that started this entry.
This afternoon, S1 and I are going to see the Director's Cut of Blade Runner at the Paramount at 4:30. (I hope the building is heated; it's usually fucking freezing in there!)
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