it’s been a nice few days
i’d have to say
coming off the fast
getting over the cold
feeling better
but just as i’ve been enjoying eating the food
walking around the village
and getting things for my apartment
something else has been hanging around..
what is it?
today was going well
a morning visitor came by to drop a load
and some silver cups and saucers for tea…
then, off i dashed
up to Washington heights
enjoying reading the book on the way up
eating a scrumptious sandwich
and discovering that my local post office is so very close
(though i do recall standing in line and having the imaginary conversation with my euro-fag counterpart saying:
“you know, dear, simply creating perfunctory things is just NOT good enough… there has to be some beauty in things, you know. ugliness is barely permissible in temporary things, but really, this post office has been here for decades already.. shouldn’t there be somethings prettier than formica and aluminum to stare at while you’re waiting on such kindly services?”)
but something happened after the acu-puncture treament i received…
was it just walking around Chelsea?
or was it where it ended?
after having been looking for Housing Works for three quarters of an hour (and enjoying the search, mostly)
to be stopped at the door by some chipper little queen saying “10 dollars to shop! it’s the first day of the fall preview!”
one of those new york fashion things that i just don’t understand and find vaguely offensive on principle
… well, yes, there are millions and millions of shoppers here…
but why TODAY, at exactly This hour (as i saw on a sheet, it just started) are you charging a $10 cover to get into a second-hand furniture shop?
i stared at him for a moment, trying to will him out of existence
but knowing failure was mine when the somewhat crazy negro (sorry, i’ve been reading old novels) blurted out
“you know it’s worth paying for if there’s that many people inside already!!!”
i walked to the “floor coverings” store next door
to see a rug i would have loved for my place
had it not been $3500
i was struck, again, with that terrible feeling that i was completely out of my league
and shouldn’t i just be getting on back to kansas again?
deflated
the day just kept descending
to the point where the dinner Jorge intended to cook for me was not only changed
but insistent and impossible:
we didn’t know where the supermarket was
and when i took him to the one i liked
it didn’t have what he needed
and everything it had was difficult
and he is never decisive
and i certainly wasn’t feeling so
we saw Edmund read from his new book tonight
at Barnes and Nobels
and i saw some cute&happy queens talking with him and inviting him to dinner
and i, again, felt like some sort of mockery of a person
feeling even less confident and directed in my life than that girl
and wishing i were half as charismatic
maybe i am
but not tonight.
Jorge and i drifted around
until my nerves were completely fried
as they’ve been on a steady burn for months now
even his loving and endearing nervous character is irritating me now
and at some point tonight i found myself solidly stuck in The Spoiled Brat aspect of my personality:
Oh, that old thing again…
absolutely nothing was good
or could possibly be
by the time the soup was served
and i’d burned my hands on the bowls as he was pouring
i only brought the searing hot spoon to my lips just barely
before i set it down again
and slumped there
wishing the windows were higher so i could satisfyingly jump out of them
… or at least turn to a block of ice there on the rug
or something
Leo called: back in the country
and i had nothing good to say to him
so we made it quick
about that point i began to believe i had scabies as well
and try as he might
Jorge couldn’t convince me otherwise
a few hours of searching on the internet and talking with Jorge
and i was utterly convinced
another plague i’d never yet experienced
given to me in new york city
it really has been trying to tell me, i know
i can’t say i haven’t been warned.
and i just got an offer to move to Southern Indiana and be a Yak herder
10 thoughts on “What, this old thing?”
dennisatl
yeeee
and to think I’ve been worrying about my snoring bothering YOU!?!
separate tents, separate bedding… sighhhh
Anonymous in reply to dennisatl
Re: yeeee
I lived in Georgia and his snoring never bothered me…
dellwood
Scabies 101
Incubation period: 4-6 weeks. So if you’re itching now, you got it from something that happened over 4-6 weeks ago–which most people can’t remember. Easy to treat but you need a prescription for Elimite cream. Actually a little more contagious than head lice. The itch is not due to the fact that they’re crawling–your body develops an allergic reaction to the numerous craps they’re taking and dumping in your skin.
Are you coming to Short Mountain next week?
dominicvine in reply to dellwood
Re: Scabies 101
… Yeah
i knew it was something like that
i can’t remember exactly
but i think i first noticed that my left hand was itchy (and had red bumps)
last week
but it was while i was fasting
so i assumed it was some reaction…
the voice saying “maybe this is scabies” was just dismissed as paranoia
anyway
it’s being taken care of
but it’s still slightly infuriating
because i am a communicator
i’m emailing all sorts of people not with accusations but
“um, i think you may have scabies now: be on the look-out”
and yeah, i’ll be at short mountain
around the 23rd
want me to hold off on the creme and give you scabies?
i mean, will you be there?
dellwood in reply to dominicvine
Re: Scabies 101
I’m going to come down on the 23rd or 24th. I have some friends that live close by, Neal and Garth. Maybe I’ll see you there…I’ve already had scabies once. I don’t want it again. BTW, the itching lasts for about 1-2 weeks after you treat yourself. It takes time for the allergy to fade.
broduke2000
about that point i began to believe i had scabies
My favorite moment with scabies:
When you got a beard in many cities, it’s a license for a cop to pull you over. It was 1970. I was just a kid, and the LA Free Clinic had given me a tube of Kwell. Mostly it was gone, but after the cop spent 15 minutes frisking and detaining me, I told him the truth as he headed back to his patrol car.
“OH! I forgot to tell you. I have scabies. I don’t know how contagious it is, but it really makes you scratch. Hope I didn’t give you anything.”
With that, he had an automatic response. He scratched his chin as he sat back down in the seat.
I laughed all the way home!
dominicvine in reply to broduke2000
louse as weapon
that’s a good one…
when i lived in California
i almost always had Crabs
(i often stayed at the faerie house in SF)
a friend told me today that scabies are much easier to get rid of than crabs
so i’m relieved
but where the fuck did i get them from?
the million beds or sex parties?
i can’t imagine.
s’alright
it’s just frustrating.
skin is skin
but having all this hair, ya know
crabs are a nightmare.
on that note…
— have you ever met Damon from Arcata?
broduke2000 in reply to dominicvine
Re: louse as weapon
Nope, don’t know a Damon.
I think scabies is spread by skin-to-skin contact, and infected cloth such as towels and blankets that’s shared between two or more people.
That may account for why I’ve only had it once. As a greasy biker, I rarely take off clothes when I’m fuckin’ around.
And once, when I was running Club Mud, I asked a doc if mud was a way to transmit HIV. His response: “I don’t think anything can live in those jeans you’re wearing. When was the last time you had a bath?”
I do wash towels and blankets, though.
fj
Now There’s One That Hasn’t Popped Up On The Jobs Meme
Yak herder?
What on earth are there yaks for in Southern Indiana?
dominicvine in reply to fj
Re: Now There’s One That Hasn’t Popped Up On The Jobs Meme
one of the guys i went to Mongolia with in 2001…
i found him through googling something else:
— we hadn’t talked since the trip
and in the first email he sent me
(we were talking about cultured milk)
he told me he believed the yogurt in mongolia was so good because of the Yak Milk
and he has a farm in southern indiana that he wants to stock with yak
but he has no one to take care of it
thus, he said, “If you weren’t recently ensconced in NYC i would ask if you wanted to go live on my farm and start the Yak farm”
such opportunities!