In Twilight Regalia

*SPaRkle* ::SplooSHH::

In sympathy to my last post, my bachelor and partying friends up in Seattle took good care of me these last few days…. made sure I had a legitimate holiday with all kinds of important moments, including all the essentials: A poolgame, an adventurous and bizarre drink or two, a travelling New Years party pubcrawl with three bands, a disco ball and a bubble machine (also including copious photography of gratuitous boob shots of some chick named Mandy who sang 99 Luftballons and was so nearly falling out of her dress that every guy in the room was praying for a Janet Jackson moment), and many great meals, in beautiful places with chefs who showed us their bravado.

On New Years’ night, they took me to no less than four different bars in an evening, and presented me (yes, like a package) with a delightfully cute Japanese guy who was working on his English (Thanks Miotch, he was a cutey!); they made sure I got sufficiently walked about in the drizzle and had lots of chats with overly drunk amateurs outside smoking. They were all great and took cabs the whole time (that’s the main difference from the years back when we were in school), and managed to hold their liquor without puking and without even much of a hangover. I was totally proud of my menfriends. They did a credible and responsible job of rocking out while savoring their out-of-controlness.

This was all rather amusing to me since their lives are moving forward in a rush, and I’m the sober one watching all the antics from a sidebar.

One’s having a great time in a new relationship with a woman who brought a bonus toddler into the deal and he’s got instant parenthood; another is building his freelance business slowly into a solid reputation; another is jetting regularly across the country to be with his girl who’s a mom of two boys and they’re saving their pennies to move back to the rainland and be together as a family; one is finally admitting he’s tired of bachelor antics and really just wants a nice girl. Another who used to be in debt and friendless now has a great girl, a huge house, and looks like he can afford to marry her next year. (Amazing to those of us in California. ) The eldest one just recovered from a bout in the hospital with a blood clot and swears it hasn’t made any change in his life-attitude. He knew he still had stuff to do. They grow ‘em tough up there in Port Townsend.

To some credit, I was trying to be more fun, purposely. I usually refuse playing pool because they have such serious attitude about it and they are usually in teensy claustrophobic bars getting roaring drunk while instructing my every move. This time we went up to Port Townsend, where every bar and building is a quaint delightful work of folksy wierd postpunk art. High cielings, cushy chairs and surprisingly gourmet food were de rigeur; so being all rosey and calm in it, I actually played a mean game of doubles pool (only missed two shots, and they were near misses). This would perhaps have been normal if I were living up there again, an everyday event to some. But it’s just not me, the usual. It’s me the exceptional. I was quietly having a lovely debut of daring on a pool table that was conspicuously propped up by a bunch of newspapers on two of its legs. Some perilously drunk guy was watching like a madman from the corner and it didn’t bother me in the least. Fun to watch the balls sink away and have my best friend pat me on the back.

And my girlfriends!

My acupuncturist/artist friend is coming to a balance with or without marriage and doesn’t really give a damn; she’s getting content in her surrounding relationship and I note that her carrot hair which we all love is going paler and smokey white with time. She has her life in pretty good order and I feel so happy for her. She worked hard for this and lived through a lot of questioning. I hope her finances hold — she still questions, but it’s gotten calmer.

Our Lady of Perpetual Jetsetting has moved about so much she never got my Christmas present. Paris just isn’t good enough, she had to come home to be an aunt and a good daughter as well, but no time for Seattle….or L.A… Oh well, she’ll have time for it later. We text CALL ME, CiAO, etc. That’s how we work these days. I feel a bit like Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life by contrast….

My friend of many colleges together is going through a dire winter. There’s no money. Her husband has been laid off twice in as many years, she has a mortgage, two little boys and no teaching certificate. My heart goes out — she is doing a more complex version of the dance I did two years ago. I don’t know what to recommend. YO, anyone with a job in Seattle for a guy who knows how to run a Heidelberg is appreciated. At least I think that’s what he does… I don’t want the Seattle economy to suck the life out of that little family like it did me.

Bev, down our former hallway, has mellowed and levelled out and we still love her insane palace of animalia, a tiny one bedroom with birds, 2 favorite pugs, cat, and EEEk, a snake. And she actually manages to take care of them all very well, while we just hope she takes care of herself. She also makes a mean crocheted baby hat. I guess new nieces bring out the best in us.

Actually this trip was about visiting animals, trees, and nature too. I hugged every dog I could get close to (about 5) and had a great time with Christmas lights and cold rainy atmospheric fog. It’s close enough to Christmas weather for me.

There was the disaster moment of the trip however, fortunately near the end. One always wonders if it’s karma or just an over-zealously polished restroom floor that sweeps your boots out from under you so fast. My tailbone was in serious hurt for the last day, but fortunately standing and walking was not the hard part, only sitting was. When I announced this accident upon my return to work, my attorney, true to form, said “SO, do you own the restaurant now?” Nah, I said. It’s just a bruise. It’s about five days later and I still wonder if I should go sit in a theater to see Narnia, I might not be able to stay seated that long. ooch.

Then there’s the Me Being a Dunce moment that’s inevitable. I took my friend’s only key to his apartment with me tucked into a corner of my purse to L.A. after I locked up and left. Once again, he demonstrated his Spider Man capabilities up to the second floor window. Sorry Mikey.

I kept missing something. Oh yeah, my husband. I’m not sure how that’s going. We’d arranged this trip long before the tussle, and when I got back nothing was any worse, better, or different. I had hoped absence would register fondness. Well, not really. I guess I wasn’t gone long enough.

But: I have resigned myself to reduction (spent all my giftcards on new workout gear - OH GAWD it’s come to THIS) and I plan on raising an eyebrow eventually. Some way. Any support appreciated.

I always wonder what all these people think of me in this circular madness of friendship that keeps swinging around each year, morphing a bit with each cycle. Perhaps it’s better not to know, and better to smile with the glitter and rain, and be grateful. What it’s made apparent to me this year is that they’re all taking care of themselves, and I’m needing to do better at that. Henceforth, I follow their cheery lead.

Thanks my dears.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 8th, 2006 at 11:49 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.