swept up in the flow…

today is the first day i’ve been tired…
really…
i’ve been swept up in the flow of the city.
i arrived at 3am on thursday
a punk-muslim kid drove me from the airport to the apartment
we had conversations of travelling the world…….
he helped me carry things up the stairs
and seeing that he was charging me 50$
i let him carry the heaviest
but he did!
five flights walk-up, yeah…
Bathtub in the kitchen
the colours…
Bridget making placards for teaching kids at the PS303 about Permaculture…
eating the fine cheeses i brought from Rainbow, ah, mon petit Rainbow, au revoir!
and chocolate
catching up
listening to Feist
laughing
we went to sleep sometime after 6am
the sky turning beautiful blue already…
in my room
there was a candle of Elegua burning…
i slept in my clothes on top of the blankets
woke around 1pm
scurried around the house
looked at email
went to try the mailbox key…
which wasn’t the mailbox key
(mercury retrograde)
— i mailed myself books and essential oils… how will i get them if i can’t get in the box?
i walked around the block three times
not stopping
looking at people
a little nervous:
where i am?
Oh My: Delancy street..
the williamsburg Bridge
look at it streatching out like that…
i’m i the neighbourhood…
Help Wanted at the fashionable clothing store
there’s a converted church thing, what’s that?
not stopping
walking
doesil
around the block
take it in
now i can smile
i can look people in the eyes and say Hello…
i do
there are some giggles
i’m here in the neighbourhood
Hello.
back upstairs
take a shour
45 minutes
wash out the west coast
i rarely wash my hair
wash it twice
condition it
it’s so long now i can just tie it up upon itself…
brush it out
braid it
as i’m running down the stairs
up the block
up to the fountain…
Oh, i was supposed to meet him in Union Square… i was thinking of Washington Square…
i have much more affection for Washington…
but we have cell phones these days
and i make a change of course
he’s walking down University to meet me
on the west side of the street
and as i break onto the block
i look right:
no
but left
there is the glowing orange bag
i run after him
huge boots thumping the ground
sidewalk opening before me
behind him
he feels me
hears me
turns around
and just falls into my arms.
Hello Nayland.
but he’s not feeling so well
we walk
we imagine the places we could eat
but he’s not feeling well
just get soup and go home…
fuck that
grocery store: i’ll make him soup.
we ride the train back into brooklyn, under the park…
another step to coming home
feeling home again
a simple night of soup and sleeping
… some video games…
what happened to the Aqua Team?
but the morning? the morning…
he’s run off
i have all these messages to check on my cell phone
and
serious
i’ve got almost 300 un-dealt-with emails
Grrrr
i set off into the day to meet a guy i’ve talked with on line who lives down-town brooklyn
he takes me down the promenade: i’ve not been here since my first time in NYC
with the heroine addicts
i rememer us all laying on on the floor
falling into holes
xanax crushed up, mixed with the white powder
..thedaysmyfriends..
19
the Promenade
the statue of libert
there’s manhattan
here i am.
we have excellent italian food
yum
italian man
beautiful energy
conversations
the little hopes and trickeries
nothing straight forward
some fear and wondering
am i whispering?
new friends?
sometimes it takes a while to get to know…
how will i squeeze the whole city into a week?
i will learn.
but from there to give a massage way out in brooklyn
back into manhattan on the 2 train
change at Fulton to the 4
change at 14th to the L
ride it out to Dekalb…
one of my favourite things about massage work
is it drags me all over town
to places i would have no reason to go otherwise…
after the session on a nice philopino man who suggests heartily that i visit his country
walking down the AV back to the train
i get a call from a stranger
who welcomes me to New York
Thank you
yes
Thank you.
so
this day is friday the 25th
the day of the full moon
i get back to Clinton at nearly 9
B is still in session
i go to my room
knock at the door?
it’s Aresh:
my new friend
land lord
Bridget’s Friend.
beautiful kid
he takes me up on the roof
and we climb down a ladder
run from roof top to roof top
all the way to the street corner
the bridge…
the full moon
here i am.
that night
we go out walking
all three of us
but first
we all sit around and drink absinth
they talk
i’m unpacking
putting myself in spaces
— will my clothes live there? where books?
still piles on the floor
not much floor…
where ?
we go out into the city
to a crazy japanese restaurant
open all night
LD took me here
i call him
but don’t reach him…
we eat duck, chicken liver, mushrooms, oysters, sake (con absinthe), yams and tuna with some asparagus…
we head out into the street
we’re walking down the avenues
we want to find a dance party
Aresh gets excited as we walk by Two Boots Pizza
and we rip open a warm bag of garbage to save the Pizza…
yeah
save the Pizza
i’ve never dumpsterdived
never eaten out of a trash bag
a few bites, alright
alright!
where are we going?
Crossing Houston
buzzing…
over to Ludlow
Bridget must have rainbow cake
we walk inside
and the turkish man is so energetic
he turns up the music and starts clapping
and we’re dancing in the deli
the turkish man and the rest of us
we’re all dancing
this is the best dance club in the city
i grab the ketchup and jam off the shelf
and they dance with me
people from the street are looking in
some come in and dance with us!
we give them cookies
we dance
we dance for a very long time
from turkish/folk/pop songs
to strange 70’s music
eventually we’re tired
we’ve got everything we wanted here
we walk home with cheese blintzes
and get to sleep around 4am.
Saturday?
i didn’t wake up til nearly 2 am
i’m not doing a great job of getting on this time schedule
B runs out, A and i decide to go to the farmer’s market
wait! before B leaves, she finds the mailbox key
so on the way out
i decide to go pick up my package instead of farmers…
i get the key’s copied
then walk down into china town
(bristling with joy)
make it in the last few minutes
jump on the F train back up to Delancy
and then ask the neighbour if i can pay them $10 a month to borrow their Wi-Fi
good deal: i’m getting myself set up.
put myself together
i’ve got a client at 6…
but i get a call as i’m about to leave from a guy who wants to fly me to montana to give him a massage
!?
and be his companion
Hmmm
i’ve often thought about doing this
but never have…
i weigh it in my head
and decide it would be a satisfying life experience
give it the go
we’ll see if it happens
he said he’ll call me back
Alright.
Massage client down in the west Village
– nice chin
i take the 1 train up to 79th street
and work on a client i worked on last year
didn’t realize it was the same guy
both these guys tonight have the same name…
then
i’m to meet this guy, SBB, who’s been talking with me after he saw me in BUTT magazine
except that he’s been talking at me more
specifically not finding out much about me
and not telling me much at all about himself
he sends me poems every day
almost
it’s like an on line journal: but only for me.
soon, i’ll make a book of all of his poems and see how they fit whey they’re together.
mercury retrograde
and i forgot i was supposed to meet A&B for The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind down at Pioneer Theater
so SBB and i arrange to meet on Christopher street
i dally about
buying juice on 79th street
and this boy is smiling at me
he says
“you’re going healthy: i’m going Self-Destruct”
i tell him Beer Can Be Good for you
but only when it’s real beer
best when it’s microbrewed and not pasturized, etc…
we’re talking
he wants to play me music
Mars Volta
i’m bopping away on his headPhones
“i’m dumb: i just listen to music that i like… my girlfriend is a critic: she gets me all the good stuff”
which is good
but i’ve got to be going
i still wait at Christopher street for nearly 20 minutes
and time is up
so i walk to 6th ave
and jump on the F back to the lower east side
call A and see where he is:
we both arrive at the same time (late) at Two Boots
the movie has already started: no Previews
and they’ve never seen it before
it’s not the kind of film you can see if you haven’t seen the beginning
so A calls his friends
they walk over
we sit down and nosh on pizza and talk
E is this girl from Poland who grew up in London
she’s really confused about Americans
doesn’t understand
that everything outside of the US for us is just a gray blur and non-real at all
“in an important statement about Israeli life they leave out Palestine!”
yes… and so much more!
but i’m also trying to defend our country
just getting it clear
SBB arrives
we’re all talking
i’m really tired
and active!
dancing? NO
we head back to the house
and it’s talking talking
healing on A
and B and i look at her Chart
she was born a year before me
but saturn is in the same place!
she’s the saturn before the retrograde, i’m after
but we’re on the same degree
which means two years of Return for us
— we’re happy to be together now for that
yeah, lucky us.
they go to the roof
i have conversations (as best i can)
with SBB
but i can’t feel intimate
so i crash out
sleep
wake this morning at 10 to this feeling i got an email from Nay
and it’s true
just as he sent it
it woke me up
HEY: we’re Ch-ained.
i decided
no massages today!
some guy called
and he lives just around the block
Oh, Ok. i’ll work on him.
then i’ll go buy some things
and then i’ll head up to the bronx
or something like that
we’ll see where the day takes us
but i thought i’d do my best to catch up.
i’m alright
HUGS