Tuesday, January 27, 2009

door-to-door ding-a-ling

A man dropped by the house this morning offering to show me his meat. Seriously. I saw the small pickup with the refrigerated camper coming up the drive and Bones started going crazy before I could beat him to the door, standing on his hind legs dirtying the back door glass with his front paws and coughs of slobber.

I won't say outright that the man wasn't trustworthy -- how could I know from our brief interaction? -- but he had a weird kind of energy, like a salesman who does a lot more talking than listening, who seems to think that if he keeps talking you'll relent and buy whatever he has to sell.

He had a cigarette propped between a couple of stained fingers and teeth that looked like they've chomped into a steak or two and haven't seen much floss. He told me the such-and-such cut I would easily pay $60 more for if I got it online than if he brought it to me personally. When I told him I don't eat meat, that he could leave a card for the others in the household, he headed for his truck, turning back halfway, exclaiming, "I wanna show you my meat." I smiled a sort of resigned smile and said, "Since I don't eat meat I wouldn't really be interested in seeing it."

"Seafood?"
"Nope." To be honest with you, I do eat fish now and again, but I'm trying to cut it out of my diet, and this guy didn't strike me as the kind of person I wanted to buy anything from.

Maybe Bones was right.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

death and rebirth

C called me from his car, on his way to Sunday morning dance. I had plans for lunch with G after dance, but I wasn't planning on going to the dance, but since C was going, and since he called me, I decided I would go. And I'm glad I did. I didn't dance with C for more than a few seconds, but I got a big hug and that was ample. I did dance with a lot of other people, people I haven't seen in a long time. It's nice to leave it behind for a while sometimes; it makes it more special.

G and I ate a macrobiotic lunch at Casa de Luz, after each buying a box of Girl Scout cookies from three persistent girls and their stage mother out in front of the yoga center where the dance happens. We scarfed down a few Thin Mints and Samoas (the two most popular GS cookies, according to Wikipedia) on the way and had a nice high fructose corn syrup buzz going before we ate the deadly nightshades, ginger sweet potato tahini soup, etc. All good. Intense conversation.

I've decided to just be who I am around the men I love. These are the soft, straight men who are as attracted to me as I am to them. Naturally, the attraction is different for each of us, but it is strong and it is nice, and I'm not going to shy away from in. I'm diving in. Clench your fists! Hold your horses!

Life's too short. I had a realization today at the dance while L and I were locked in an embrace on the floor sobbing, her likely for her recently passed father, me for my recently passed cat, both of us for the other's broken heart. (I had an image of her heart, a cartoonish vision of it, broken in two by a jagged line, coming back together and the line disappearing as my left ear then right lay in the middle of her big bosom.)

C saw us embracing. He later commented that he saw us, but he wasn't aware of the tears, just the embrace. He was at the same moment that he saw us locked in a metaphorical futuristic embrace with a thin woman he had met at this very dance. He told me about it; he shares deeply with me, and I with him. Recently we had a very deep conversation and I fell in love with him, right there in his pecan shell colored eyes. I told him so. He smiled. I don't want to get into his pants, but I love him. We have become very close in the last couple of months. Since Christmas, I guess, when he came over for our Orphans' Xmas Brunch.

Maybe I shouldn't post this online for the world to see. I've been bruised by my candidness before. (I've gone back and "changed the names to protect the innocent.") But I also have been having a hard time blogging. Since Timmy. I haven't been completely warped by sorrow, but I have had my moments. I'm in mourning. I noticed in the midst of this that this feeling feels very specific; it is not similar to the feeling I get when I am depressed. It is pure sadness. It isn't attached to any deep hole that depression is. Timmy is very real; and now he's gone.

I've been distracting myself a bit. Or trying to. During these exercises I did a bit of writing again. I've been stuck on chapter 10. But it seems to be cranking up again. This is a very good feeling. The summer before I turned fourteen a great calamity pulled me from my gritty sheets to the door across the hall from my bedroom. The summer before, my half sister, newly pregnant, and Marco, the Cuban who had done the deed -- the man who supposedly belonged to our mother's best friend -- left Black Lake in the RV named Lady Liberty. She sailed out quietly like a houseboat under the full moon, left lot number ten empty except for the succulent weeds and a rusty barrel barbeque pit. Now the sun was in place of the moon, just as full but many times hotter, and another boat-like creation was floating into Black Lake, much bigger, like a brown and white ship, pulled behind a noisy truck on big wheels belching blue smoke. I stood in my underwear and watched the commotion until mama stirred coughing on the sofabed, still asleep, a hand reaching for a cigarette. The TV was on, playing music to accompany the cartoons I normally would find myself sitting in front of.

S says he likes it -- I read a bit to him last night. Maybe he's being gentle so as not to discourage me, but I think not. I don't think he would lie to me. Definitely not about this.

I wrote what I wrote at home, on the front porch. I had tried -- and may try again -- going to a nearby coffeeshop (20 minutes by bike) to write. I have been trying to create a schedule for myself. I carried my entire novel, all 35 chapters and some notes in the big European bicycle basket to the coffeeshop. But I was distracted. I had gone hungry, and then overate. It wasn't even four o'clock and I wanted a cigarette. And J called to ask if I could pick P up from school. I couldn't. --I could've, but he didn't want to pull me away from what I was doing.

I wasn't doing anything.

The day before, Inauguration Day, the first day I didn't feel like crying since Timmy's death, I took my truck to the mechanic, and thought I would find a coffeeshop and sit while it was being worked on. I carried my entire novel in its bulky three-ring binder, plus other necessary items, with me. But I needed to stop by C's work for some Chinese herbs. C is an herbologist. He recently gave me a salve that markedly reduced the spider veins on my right ankle (caused mostly by my 11 years as a transcriptionist, relentlessly pressing a foot pedal), so when my shingles scars -- I had shingles when I was six years old -- started flaring up, I thought to ask him his opinion. He rattled off a list of Chinese words that sounded like a song. Pills and another salve. I told him I was taking my truck to the mechanic a few blocks from his office, and he told me the hours he was free, so I carried my entire novel the many blocks (more than I thought), and I've had a crick in my neck since then.

I got the meds and headed on to a coffeeshop and ended up at a cafe next door to his office. We wound up spending the afternoon together enjoying inaugural events, visiting a shop where he bought herbs and I bought white sage, which I used to sage my bedroom, the house and yard, and cried even though I didn't think I was going to that day.

At the cafe, I did what I'd been trying to make myself do for a while: I put the chapters of my novel in chronological order

3, 10, 17, 24, 31, 4, 11, 18, 25, 32, 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 6, 13, 20, 27, 34

which is the story of Randy Reardon, then the story of the title character's parents

5, 12, 19, 26, 33

then the performance art pieces that the title character writes (supposedly)

7, 14, 21, 28, 35

S finds all of this numerological stuff boring. Or at least my fascination with it. I think he understands that it's important -- and necessary -- for me to play with the order of the chapters (which directly affects the story itself), but when I start talking excitedly about it, his eyes glaze over like I'm talking in depth about the latest features of a Texas Instruments calculator.

But now I only have to carry around five chapters at a time with me.

I dressed, made my way to the kitchen and carried a box of Fruity Pebbles out the front door with me to watch the new home being backed into lot number ten. Several men, darker and skinnier than Marco but with the same oil black hair spoke their foreign language over the noises of the truck and the complaining parts of the trailerhome all morning until I reached the bottom of the cereal box and was sticking tongue-moistened fingers down in to the bottom for the last bits of multi-colored sugary dust.

A day or two after Timmy died, P came home with the head of a gray felt cat she was working on at school. I don't know if the project started before Timmy died or if the opportunity to memorialize him came about suddenly, but I was definitely touched by the final product, and particularly by the fact that she insisted on naming him Timmy.

The top picture is the headstone for Timmy's grave. I liked the quote by Anatole France so much that I used it on his stone (though I didn't give credit to the person who said it).

Thursday, January 15, 2009

ugly little gift

I hate that I am so neurotic about my neurotic cat, Timmy, but that's just the way it is. I can't help it; I am totally in love with this cat. I read a story in the current issue of Sun Magazine the other day called "Baggage: A Love Story," by a woman who was dating a man who had a cat that had some health issues. She was a little worried about loving a man who was so in love with his cat. I can relate.

This morning, I woke up to find Timmy not at the foot of the bed as per usual. He likes to go out at night, and being the neurotic Timmy lover that I am, I often have to wear earplugs because the cat door is kind of squeaky, and it's above the air conditioner in the window next to my bed. It's not totally annoying, but I sleep light, particularly when I'm thinking about Timmy and hear his coming ins and going outs.

I peeked out of the curtain and didn't see him on top of the a/c outside, but it was kind of foggy. I started making up the bed, getting ready for my day. Like a mother, I could've sworn I heard Timmy meowing somewhere in the distance. I checked the doors at the end of the hall past S's room, which were closed. I opened them, but Timmy wasn't in the other part of the house. I came back to my bedroom and looked out of the window again and saw only fog again, but heard his distinct little voice outside, sort of a quiet meow, not a real sound of distress.

I went outside and he was sitting on the ground beneath the a/c. I picked him up and noticed that he was a little bit floppy, but he's always kind of floppy in my arms; he gives himself over to me fully. That's part of the reason I love him so much. Who else gives everything over to me so fully? Nobody these days. So I brought him in, lay him on the bed, examined him a little bit. He seemed fine. --No, wait, he seemed to be kind of not using his back legs. He started to get up and then lay back down. He wasn't crying as if in pain or anything; he was just sort of being his usual mellow self.

Then I found a wound, sort of a gash on his back left leg, the ankle area, and another smaller wound on the side of his foot. I picked him up and noticed the floppiness, noticed that this wasn't the floppiness of giving himself over to me, it was more sort of the fact that he wasn't using those legs. I called my vet. The doctor wasn't in -- it was 7:25 a.m. -- but the assistant told me to take him to the emergency clinic, which is open 24 hours, and is actually closer to our new address than the vet.

Timmy usually hates riding in the truck, but he was pretty calm -- maybe lethargic is a better word -- and only meowed a couple of times. As long as I kept a hand on him, he was calm, purring even. My guess was that he had been hit by a car, but I also thought that he might've been attacked by a wild animal or a feral cat. I wasn't sure which was a worse scenario to think about, except that his not having front claws would make me feel pretty bad if he had been attacked, and having not updated his rabies shots (which were due early December) could fuck with me, too.

In my defense, Timmy wouldn't have put up with being trapped in the house, even though he has no front claws. He is neurotic, poops on the bed, pees on furniture when he's upset. I would rather something tragic happen to him than have him for 20 relatively unhappy years.

The doctor's best guess was the same as mine: hit by a car. He did the tapping thing on the more limp of the two legs and didn't get much of a response. This was likely the cause of spinal injury. But of course he wanted to take x-rays, do blood work. They wouldn't know anything definitive until all of that was done, $260.60 later. The worst case estimate was something like $1,550.00, but they only require the best case estimate as a down payment.

They gave him a shot for pain, took him away, sent me home, called back in less than an hour. The worst case estimate was shy of what they found. He had a cracked pelvis, a dislocated hip bone, et cetera, et cetera, more things that I can't (and don't want to) recall right now. He was also dehydrated. The doctor said he definitely needed surgery to put the hip bone back into place. There was also a broken tip of some bone that was pushing into his intestines or somehow obstructing him organs, which could cause problems with defecating.

He said that sometimes with cats having cracked pelvises they can be caged for six to eight weeks until it heals. But I knew would be the end of Timmy. I don't think I'm being selfish saying that; I just know my cat.

Surgery isn't something they do at the emergency clinic. He said they could refer me to somebody. I told him I would call back shortly. He said okay. I hung up and sobbed. I knew what had to be done. Considering the many thousands of dollars it would take to right the problems -- money I don't have -- with possibilities all along the way of things not going right, or not going well, and knowing how difficult it would be for him to deal with healing, and how difficult it would be for me emotionally, financially, et cetera, while he heals, I called the doctor back and told him the most difficult I could possibly have had to say.

S offered to go with me, which I so greatly appreciated. It isn't an easy thing to do with your closest friend at your side, particularly having been at each other's side in more than a couple of similar situations previously, but doing it alone would have been unthinkable. They asked if I wasnted to be present when they euthanized him; I did.

I told M&J on the way out of the house what was going on and asked if they would dig a hole for us in the pet cemetery (next to our future shipping container house); Jeff was just finishing up when we returned.

Timmy didn't seem to be in pain. They brought him into the Exam Room #3 with a bulky bandage and catheter on his front leg. He was still a bit in shock, I think, and trembling a bit, because of that, or maybe because he was also feeling pain. So I didn't wait long before I pushed the little doorbell the assistant had put on the exam table and said to use when we were ready for the doctor.

He came in, said some comforting words. Timmy was pretty alert, head up, looking around -- pupils very dilated. The doctor injected the pink solution into the catheter and Timmy's head drooped down to the towel he was lying on, his eyes stayed open and he was looking at me as he drifted away. Then the doctor injected the clearish solution, checked him with the stethoscope and said, "He's gone."

It was a gift that Timmy made his way from whatever road he was on, whatever car he'd gotten in the way of, dragged himself home with a broken pelvis, dislocated hip bone, et cetera, et cetera, cuts on his better leg, to let me know where he was. I can only imagine the emotional agony we all would have gone through had he just disappeared, or worse, had I found him dead on the street. So, thank you, Timmy, for that little gift.

I know he loved me as much as I loved him; our neuroses were quite compatible.

We put the blanket that he usually slept on at the foot of my bed (the same one he would knead and suckle if I had it opened and pulled up to the top of the bed) in the bottom of the grave; I lay his still warm body, eyes still slightly open, facing our future house, my bedroom; then we put the top of the blanket fold over him and covered him over with dirt.

And now, it's very, very quiet.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

there are 168 hrs in a week

Here's the problem: Money work comes slower this time of year; there are other things that are going on in-house (in New York) that I can't (and frankly don't want to) be a part of. So I have to babysit the computer to see when work is available. It's like a game of sorts (though not a very entertaining one), trying to grab the work before another satellite or in-house support staffer gets it. Whatever... yawn.

But that's not the whole of the problem. I did get some writing done the other day, but I have no regular writing schedule. Yesterday, I was sitting on the porch smoking a cigarette thinking to myself, Why am I so bored? Why do I feel so overwhelmed? How can those two things be happening simultaneously? I feel like I'm not doing anything, but at the same time, I've got a lot on my plate. I'm in a performance this Friday with my friend M. She's reading letters that she's written to different companies -- complaint letters, mostly, and one letter of compliment -- and the outcomes of the issues she's had with them. She asked me to write and perform a theme song. Or she asked me if I wanted to be involved in some way, and my involvement became the theme song, "To Whom It May Concern":

To Whom It May Concern:
I'm the little guy who just got burned,
So I'm writing you this letter
In hopes that you can make it better.
I didn't get 100% satisfaction
In my most recent transaction,
That's why I'm writing you this letter,
In hopes that you will make it better.
What can you do for me?
Well, you can start with an apology;
And if you want to give me something for free,
That would go a long way.
I'm only saying this because it is true.
Why should I give my hard-earn money to you?
To win me back, what are you going to do?
Come on, I don't have all day...


And then M does her presentation, and I play the chords of the song in the background each time she reads a letter. And then I finish up the show with a reprise:

To Whom It May Concern:
There's a lesson here that could be learned.
That's why I've written you this letter.
Thanks in advance for making it better.
Sincerely, Me!


M sings the "Me" at the end. It's a cute show; it's part of the FronteraFest Short Fringe that they do every year here. So, I'm busy with that.

I'm also taking (or I should say retaking) the comedy improv class I took a year or so ago. It's free because I've already taken Level 1, and M is taking it with me. I felt kind of out of place the last time I took it. Having M there give me an instantaneous bit of confidence; having someone to bounce my feelings off of, and to hear that I am not the only one who is terrified is very helpful. I also think there are a lot more good people in this class than were in it the first time I took it, more varieties of people, ethnically (last time they were mostly 20-something straight white guys), so it just feels better.

I'm also trying to rewrite the first draft of my novel. I sat with it one day a week or so ago, took out the last thing I'd written, and read through the first couple of pages, marked out a word and put "as if" in its place. "As if," that's all I wrote that whole day! I thought that was kind of telling. A couple of days later, I got an idea and did some good writing, longhand, which I haven't transcribed yet. I feel like I need a chunk of time (or chunks) to work on the novel, but when I'm waiting for work to appear that I can grab, I have to be ready to jump on it -- which just happened, incidentally -- and I can't work with interruptions looming.

I think maybe when S goes back to school (Monday), I'll be able to better create a schedule I can live by. I tried creating a schedule but just came up with a list of things (WORK - 30 HRS/WK; WRITE - 10 HRS/WK; EXERCISE - 5 HRS/WK; SLEEP - 56 HRS/WK; PLAY - 20 HRS/WK) and no timeline for any of it.

Anyway, work now, figure life out later.

(photo from Wikipedia)

Thursday, January 8, 2009

here comes the fudge!

Night before last I got restarted on the chapter I was working on before the holidays, before the move, before the out of town guest came and went. I feel good about it. I don't feel like blogging much. I'm still trying to get routine in my life, but at least I'm doing all the things I want to do, just not with any consistency.

Today and last night I've been cleaning house and depooping the yard. I also raked a little bit around the big tree out front, because it looks nice and because it's easier to see the pig poop that way. Our housemates/future landlords are coming home tonight. I think I'm gonna have a lot of extra time on my hands because I won't have all the chores that I've had while they've been out of the country, particularly the feeding of the animals and depooping of the yard.

But now, I'm showered and should work a bit while there's work to be done and I have the energy. S and I have plans to go see a movie tonight -- a documentary-in-progress called DIG, about a band, I think. But I'm feeling an urge to work longer, and maybe do some grocery shopping, although I'm flat broke. I accidentally paid a credit card bill twice and a bunch more shit bounced in my bank account, costing me $140 in fees. This is a repeat of what happened a week ago or so, but not because of double paying a bill. I feel like I've lost control of my finances! Ugh! Fortunately, in my current living/working situation, I should be able to recover relatively quickly, but still, I hate the idea of just giving $300 to Bank of America. They don't need it! Well, these days, I guess they do, but not from me...

Friday, January 2, 2009

a $2.50 problem

Dear Alamo,

On Monday, December 29, 2008, I visited the Alamo Ritz to see Wonderwall, but couldn't enjoy the movie because I was distracted. Earlier that day, I had looked on your website to confirm the time of the show. While there, I saw this:

Music Monday Specials: Free large popcorn with purchase of a bucket of beer at all Music Mondays! Free large soda or $2 Alamo Ale w/ purchase of a pizza!

I have visited most of the Alamo locations numerous times in the three years I've lived in Austin (in fact, I just looked at my bank account and see that I spent $543.94 in tickets and food at the Alamo in 2008 with my credit card, and another fourth or third that amount in cash); I became a member of Austin Film Society because of my love of Alamo...

My waiter that night was C. I wrote on my order card: WATER / WILD AT ARTICHOKE HEARTS PIZZA / ALAMO ALE. When C picked up my order, I commented: "That's the $2 beer special, right?" She said, "Oh, I don't think we've offered that special in a while." I said, "I saw it on the website today." She said, "Well, if it's on the website, of course I'll give it to you, but I'll check with my manager."

When C returned, to my surprise, she said the manager told her to tell me "Because the offer is so outdated and we haven't been doing that in such a long time, he isn't going to honor it tonight. But he would be happy to give you a complimentary soda, if you'd like." (As an aside, I had to reorder water before I got it.)

I couldn't decide how to respond, and was thinking about it throughout the movie. My final response was to give the waiter a less-than-normal tip (I usually tip 20% or more, but left 15%, which I know is acceptable by many people's standards, but not my usual). Over the course of the past few days, I can't get this experience out of my mind, so I decided to write to you.

I'm writing to let you know, number one, that the "Music Monday Specials" offer is still on your website; and secondly, to let you know that I have already declined two offers to go to a movie at the Alamo since then (four days ago). I'm not saying I'm boycotting your theater forever, but that warm fuzzy feeling I used to get whenever I heard "Alamo Drafthouse" is definitely a little less warm and a little less fuzzy.

Sincerely,
JDJB


--

JDJB: I sincerely apologize for any confusion regarding our specials. Since my tenure began here at the Alamo we have offered specials for our discount programming (Music Monday, Weird Wednesday and Terror Thursday) which have been a free popcorn with purchase of a beer bucket and a free soda with purchase of a pizza. The later is the special I told the server we were offering. Only later during that night did i see the special you were referring to. While this is in fact an outdated special had i known it was on the website I would have honored the print. We are now in the midst of correcting this issue. We would love to get you back in a seat at the Ritz on us! If you would send me your address I will mail out some passes and card for a couple of free beers. Our customers always come first here and it really bothers me that we have some diminished our image in your eyes.. We want that warm and fuzzy feeling back. Best,