is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fire! �But Officer, I Have a Priapus!�
Fire! �But Officer, I Have a Priapus!�
Fire! Last Thursday night three buildings on my block were on fire! It was a huge fire, with flaming pieces of wood and stuff flying through the air onto the street, and five or six fire engines and lots of firemen and emergency people running around. I was up most of the night waiting to see if my building would be evacuated, and asking myself what I would bring with me if I had to leave. Right away it was clear that I would bring Hans Blix (TCNTUNWI, whose new name is �When Puss Comes To Shove�), my computer and mobile device, wallet and passport, insurance policies. But then what? Some of my answers made me laugh. Pink motorcycle boots, blue suede boots, new high heels and some other high heels, and some really good dresses. Photo albums and some jewelry. It is funny how some things are simultaneously meaningless and very meaningful. In any case, no evacuation was needed. But there are now thirty fewer living units on my block than there were a week ago. I feel bad for the 60-some people who are now without homes and who have lost so much of their meaningless/meaningful shit. The good news is that no one was seriously injured, as far as I�ve been able to learn from the news and neighborhood murmurings.
Over the weekend it was like I was out of town without having to go anywhere. I woke up early on Saturday and took the ferry out to Vallejo. I love the ferry on the weekends! It�s a lovely 60-90 minutes of bookreading and Pepsi-sipping. My mom picked me up in Vallejo and then I spent the day with her and my sister in Benicia. We ate Chinese food and I did laundry and we sat around and talked about funny things like the age-old girls-day topic �WHAT is WRONG with men?� and the equally eternal question �why is �country crock churn style� such a disgusting-sounding name for a margarine product?�. I remembered to secure for us a supply of Recchiuti brownies at the Ferry building, and we ate them with strawberry ice cream. That made us very animated for awhile and then we crashed and became tired and dopey. This all took about seven hours. So I had a Pepsi and my sister drove me to the BART station in Pleasant Hill on her way back to the highway to drive to Monterey, her home base at the moment.
Then I went to Oakland and hung out with Marco and Evany. We went to see Scout�s band Firecracker play, and then a bunch of us went back to Marco�s and sat around drinking bourbon and talking about music and other things until five in the morning. It was epic and funny, and Marco took lots of good photos. Then I slept on Marco�s couch. The next day we all woke up hungover, so Marco took a nap and Evany and I watched like 18,000 hours worth of that weird show �Blow Out� about Jonathan the arrogant haircutting dude. We also watched a show wherein crazy crazy chefs competed to make patriotic sculptures out of chocolate and sugar, and then also bread products. Then we went over to the Mellos� house and ate more food and sat around talking some more. Sandra made home-made ice cream, and it tasted like that really great vanilla custard you get at a county fair. Then we went back to Evany�s and watched three hours worth of Firefly. So I guess I got myself another 24-hour+ date with M and E! And in the meantime I even got some flirting action from some of Marco�s BFs. Not a bad weekend at all. When I came home Hans Blix was Very Angry with me.
Today I had lunch with my old friend Chas, and I need you to know that I LOVE HIM. He just wants to be friends, because he�s married and all, but I LOVE HIM. As a friend. There are so many people in this town whom I no longer see all that often, but who I still really really love having in my life.
Last weekend Caroleen and Jeff had a BBQ in their newly gardenified and be-chickened backyard. The food was excellent, as was the company. Perrone was there, and he tried to talk to me for a bit too long, in my estimation, but I appreciated the fact that he was doing it to make peace. Unfortunately I still have been unable to move him from the category called �person whom I tolerate because we have friends in common� to the one called �person whose company I enjoy.� It�s too bad. Perhaps I am not always such a forgiving person. Or perhaps I just know how far it is possible to push a person and still retain their friendship. Time will tell.
The next day we went to Evany�s house for lots of chocolate and smores and viewing of fireworks. Wendy Dembo was in town, which was fun. Heidi drove Wendy and I back to my place post-fireworks, and Heidi, who is fascinated with all gas-saving car technologies, was talking about how you can use the carpool lane in a Prius (electric/gas hybrid car) even if you don�t have three people in the car. I made some joke about how Prius sounds like Priapus, which would be a GREAT name for a car, and was pleased to be in a car where everyone knew why that�s funny. A Priapus is a greek god with a huge erection, statues of which are often placed in greek gardens to fill the function that a scarecrow would fill in a garden with no penis statues. My favorite line of the extremely inane conversation that followed my observation about the Prius/Priapus overlap was the imaginary hybrid driver getting pulled over by a cop for using the carpool lane without three riders: �But officer, I have a Priapus!� Ha. I had to follow that up with �Press My Head!� Silence. Heidi and Wendy both knew what a Priapus is, but did not know that throughout Greece one can buy little Priapus statues that hold signs that say �Press My Head!� When you follow the directions, out comes the erection.
In other news, Kant needs more cowbell.
6:35 p.m. - July 11, 2005
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
