(11:50 p.m.) I should have known I was in for a thrilling week-end when I noticed that the people we were visiting had the exact same picture of naked chicks in their hallway that we do. See, all this time, I'd made myself not comment on the picture, because I thought it was an original. Nope, turns out it's a print, like everything else in our damn house. We are high-class rednecks, that's all.
I learned a lot about myself this week-end, through Mike, Cathy, and their sixteen-year-old son, Shaun. These people were old friends of the family, back when we lived in Italy. They were in the Navy with my parents. The difference is, they stayed in the Navy, while my parents got the hell out while the getting was good. They have an older son, Jerome, who I was supposedly betrothed to. It was a joke, mostly, and it isn't even that now, since he's shacking up with some chick in Colorado. Anyway, he looks a lot like Howdy Doody, from what I've seen in pictures, and he's shorter than I am.....he also probably has the personality of dishwater, but I'm trying not to be prejudiced.
The drive up was miserable. Ten hours through holiday traffic. And folks, that famous George Washington Bridge in New York is just a huge nightmare. The one interesting thing was looking at New York City from I-95. It's about 4-5 miles away from I-95, and there aren't neighborhoods or anything between the City and the Interstate. In fact, there's nothing. It's a sea of man-high plumed grass and a couple rivers. No buildings, nothing, just the couple bridges crossing that vast expanse of nothing into the city. It rather reminded me of a huge spider. The rest of the ride was downhill from there.
Rhode Island is a scary place. There are a LOT of graveyards, and they're jam-packed full of bodies. We got to Mike's place at about 5 p.m., and went out to eat as soon as Cathy and Shaun got home from work. The highlight of the evening was Cathy and Mike bullying my parents into getting me a Kaluah Mudslide. We got home, and I talked to Shaun in his room until two in the morning.
I don't know what to make of Shaun anymore. When I met him last summer, he seemed incredibly mature for a fifteen-year-old. I'm sure this impression was helped by the fact that he's really tall for his age. But his maturity level, if anything, seems to have gone down in the intervening time period. He felt a need to tell me that his sexual experiences were limited to "one night stands". He said he wasn't into commitment, and he wished he could find a girl who wasn't a slut, but who wouldn't get attached just because he slept with her. Whoo buddy. I don't know if he was trying to impress me with his level of enlightenment, hint at something, or what. All I know is I sure as hell wasn't impressed. But he's good to talk to (away from his parents), and he's really good at listening. For the record, he looks like a young Marlon Brando. He has no idea who Marlon Brando is, however. That boy just wasn't raised right.
On Friday night, I had an interesting dream.
C-- had come to visit me. He was riding the bus into D.C. with me, on my way to work, because he wouldn't be in the area for long, only a couple hours. Oddly enough, instead of a Metro bus, we were riding a standard yellow schoolbus, and we weren't sitting next to each other. He kept talking to me, and asking me how I was. He got off with me at my stop, but immediately told me that he had to leave to go to the airport. I felt really cheated, since this was the first time he'd visited, and we'd barely had a chance to hang out. So, I offered to drive him to the airport, even though it would make me at least 2 hours late for work. He just stood there, looking sad for a moment, then said, "That wouldn't be a good idea. Familiarity breeds contempt, you know." And he turned and walked away.
I woke up from that feeling disoriented and completely alone. I don't know what to make of the dream, other than the fact that I've been feeling as though there's absolutely no-one out there for me to talk to lately. I also had a strong urge to call C--, but it isn't as though I carry his number in my purse.
Saturday was fun. We went shopping in Newport, which was on the verge of closing up for the winter. Most of the businesses are only open during the summer, because Newport's a big tourist town. One shop was dedicated completely to things made of ivory. Now I, like anyone else, am morally opposed to ivory. After all, a huge intelligent mammal is killed for the sake of this white stuff, and they're endangered as it is. But you can't argue with the sheer richness of the stuff. It represents a level of decadence I doubt I'll ever achieve. Rockefeller, baby. Anyway, there was this carved ivory lion for $750.00 that I would have loved (although I'd have preferred it in jade or lapis). They were also offering up a gen-u-ine Mammoth Tusk. It looked suspiciously like a curved brown piece of polished wood, but what do I know? Anyway, they wanted $18,000 for it.
I ended up buying myself a glass bottle made in china or japan (no, I cannot tell the difference between the two types of writing), that had stone lids and paintings on the inside. Apparently, they're meant to be snuff boxes. The one I got for myself had a green background and a picture of birds and branches. I got a smaller one for Dirk, with a yellow background and a picture of a cricket, a flying bug, and a praying mantis. This was to comemorate Dirk's disgust for crawly things.
We ended up eating at an Irish pub. When we got back to Mike's place, I called Dirk, and found out that I'd neglected to leave him the keys to the practice space. So, he was a little stressed, and he had to go up to Richard's (the guy renting us the space) house to get an extra set. As a side note, the Foo Fighters use our rehearsal space. Suck it up, guys.
Then, we ate dinner, and I watched Shaun make a complete ass of himself. Cathy said that when he and Jerome were younger, they'd accidentally broken her nose while roughousing. Now, when they make any movements towards her face, she flinches. Shaun tickled her for a while, then amused himself by making her flinch. After fifteen minutes of telling him to stop, she gave up trying to be nice and whacked him one in the nuts. Shaun collapsed, and looked to my mother and I for sympathy. Instead, we pointed out that he had it coming to him, and anyway, he hadn't turned green or even broken out into a sweat. Shaun then started whining because I was sleeping in his room and he had to sleep on the floor. Not like it was my idea.
Anyway, I spent Saturday night talking to Mike, after his son had whined himself to sleep. Mike's amazingly easy to talk to (must be where his son gets it). He also spills his guts at the slightest provocation...okay, I gave him a lot of provocation. I'm one of those people who feels no shame in discussing family business, like finances and the fact that my parents are mean to me. Mike said I should be a standup comedian, because I have my "routine" down pat. See, I begged him to let me live with them, because "my parents are only nice to me in front of company, and they're going to be mean to me as soon as we leave." I also pointed out that I'd need Dirk to come live with us, because I cannot possibly do any work that requires physical effort. Dirk has to do it for me. I had Mike rolling, I tell you.
We stayed up until 1:30 talking, and I had to wake up at 4:00. I feel a little self-conscious now about talking to him so much. I can't help but wonder what he thought of me.
I got dragged out of bed at 4:00 this morning, got dressed, hugged everyone in the house but Shaun, crawled into the truck, and took a long nap.
The ride back was miserable, the traffic was horrible, and here we are.
Nice to know that Dirk missed me. For reasons only understandable to him, he got me a pair of black socks with brightly-colored christmas designs on them. I'm wearing them as I type this.
(1:57 a.m.) I'm sure this entry would be more enlightening without this, but I am never one to pass up gossip. Krisco's boyfriend, Billy, dumped her. Apparently, they just couldn't make the relationship work.
Yes, for the record, that does make me feel a little thrill.