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july 8, 2000. What a night.
We'd been invited to a barbecue/going away party for Christina the Shameless, and although the Boy was skeptical about going, I was convinced that it would be a wonderful opportunity for excitement. (Malice is exciting; so is leaving suddenly if I want to.) Besides, I knew that as soon as he stepped in the backyard, his resentment would melt like jello in the sun. (My only fear was that he'd enjoy himself too much - we all remember the fit I threw the last time Christina the Shameless was in town.)
I was right. But more importantly, I was wrong.
We did have a good time, for the first thing. We slugged back Steam Whistle beer ("the pilsner of the proletariat!") & ate various barbecue left-overs while the bulk of the company discussed The Old Days. As Ophelia once pointed out, there is nothing more fucking deadly than listing to people talk about the past when you're not in it. But I had my beer & St. Pete's bowler hat and I even got a couple of scathing retorts in, so I was content. Christina was being nice to me, so I invited her along to the Garden when we bugged out at midnight to meet Dirk & Stacy. And it went well. I was wrong in worrying about the Boy's attention - he doesn't have all that much to give anyone outside of his sci-fi/videogame/brian wilson inner world, but I still got the lion's share. And I guess it's finally sunk in: I take him home at the end of every night in the foreseeable future and beyond. He is mine and I don't care how much attention he pays an erstwhile leather queen. Mine.
In any case, since I was having such a good time in my green summer dress, I didn't even change for the Garden. That, plus the continuing series of domestic beer servings, made me very comfortable. Of course, the music wasn't too great, but I've given up on Garden Fridays. Instead I watched Christina interact with some of the older regulars, drank my anti-pretentious Canadian, shouted about Guy Gavriel Kay with Stacy and dug it. Jesse is back doing security, which pleases me. I grew somewhat attached to him over the last year, but our meetings are entirely dependent on 3rd causes. It's nice to be back in the midst of coincidences.
I noticed a bulge in population as well, despite the crappy Friday music on offer. They're getting a lot of traffic these days: part of it is just the bulge in summer trade, but part of it is that Sanctuary has been closed down (get this - they're building a Starbucks on the site, or so the rumour goes. I shudder.)
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The balance of my time in the city was spent with St. Jack, who's at the tail end of his grandmother's funeral trip. There's just something about slouching around in pajamas, spinning magnificent lies & glittering truths that eases my heart.
how much will you pay me to pour this water over stephen's head? * *
From the flotsam of Saturday morning & Friday night, I'm left with scenes from a sitcom they'll never write:
Scene one. I wondered idly about what Jack was looking for in a wife. The answer was intellect & a love for the bush that rivalled his own - in other words, someone who could understand him. Kind of hard to come by - you can usually get one but not the other. Thinking of St. Pete's girlf Princess Leia, I suggested Maritime chicks as a viable substitute.
J: "The problem with east coast girls is that they're obsessed with the ocean. The bush just isn't salty enough." Scene two. I notice a guy playing pool at the Garden & wince; every time I see this guy, he makes a bee-line for my friends, greets them cordially and then introduces himself to me. We've gone through this about 7 times now and I just didn't feel like doing it one more time. Instead, I pointed him out to C the S and explained my distaste. She took a long look.
C the S: "I'm not really sure, but...I was in the first slave auction they had here to get the money for air conditioning and, um. I think he was the guy who bought me!"
Can't you just see this appearing on Friends? (Yeah, me neither.)
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(More wedding stuff to follow tomorrow. It should all be in one entry anyway. alert: not very brilliant cop out.)
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