I'm not exactly sure when I last wrote, but I think that it must be almost a week ago at least. Having a loved one to spend time with far outweighing the need to talk to one's self in a diary. As it is I am writing again because this morning I sadly bid her yet another temporary goodbye and put her on an airplane to LA. It was hard to part; as it always has been, but hopefully one day we can be together permanently.
The past week has been quite busy. I carefully made my way into work on Wednesday morning to make a brief appearance before thankfully soon heading home again. The rest of the day was spent recuperating. I received an unpleasant surprise in the mail with notification that the Personal Property/Liability Insurance I had taken out had been cancelled for no apparent reason. I faxed and then phoned the woman involved but she palmed me off and I haven't heard anything since.
Thursday was 4th July here and I wanted to get Allison out of the house before she went stir-crazy. Anthony rang and asked us if we wanted to go see the fireworks at Bayside Park. We headed out into the stifling humidity about 5 pm and caught the metro rail over to meet them. Anthony and Avi had both had a few daiquiris and were quite happy, and Jill and Richard were there also. Allison hit it off with the boys by talking Star Wars and we decided to have dinner at the classic icon of American tackiness; Hooters.
The food was ok I suppose, the conversation was drunken but fun, but I felt rather sorry for the waitresses. About 8 pm we walked over through the crowds and found a spot away from the worst of the noise on the grass, the mosquitoes were incorrigible but we put up with them. The fireworks kicked off and Ally and I were seated on a towel happily enjoying the show, the National Anthem was played and all the expected things. After the fireworks finished the crowd broke like a flood and we spent some time looking at the food and crafts stall. By this time I was very tired and starting to hurt, but between the crowds and the heavy traffic we weren't able to get home until after 11 pm and I was on the verge of tears from pain and exhaustion. Thankfully we could climb into bed together to alleviate my suffering.
On Friday I spent more time at the lab, but you can be sure that my heart wasn't in it. I wanted nothing else but to escape home which despite delays I did about 5 pm. That night we went down to the Mall to have a look around, brave the hoards of school kids and see Men In Black which was fairly bland.
Saturday was yet another day of steamy humidity and rain. I felt bad about taking Allison out in it as she was definitely not acclimatized to it. We were standing at the metro rail station pondering where to go when Jill called and asked us if we wanted to go to a baseball game that night which had been mentioned as a possibility on Thursday. We agreed and headed to the lab instead so that she could check email and I could take off a reaction. We were intending to go to the Mall to get some things but the humidity was such that I left Ally at home with the air-conditioning and quickly cycled to the Mall to get our stuff.
After recovering from the exertion, we lay about until Avi picked us up around 6 pm, Richard was with him and together the four of us drove up to Pro-Player stadium. Anthony and Jill were running late as usual, but we got our tickets and hot-dogs and sat way up high in the bleachers watching the Miami Marlins play the New York Mets. Anthony was slightly drunk and rather boisterous which was amusing, and I discovered that the "7th Inning stretch" is actually an adjective rather than a metaphor.
The game was rather exciting and eventually the Marlins won. We slowly made our way out of the stadium and after some indecision we drove up to Anthony's house. I was feeling quite tired and sore, and coming off the Lorcet was playing with my head in a bad way. I lay down for an hour in a spare room and felt a lot better. I emerged to find them playing cards, and later I joined in for a game of "Hearts", after which they brought out a Star Wars board game which Allison played and quite enjoyed. Eventually we bade our farewells and began the long drive back home, finally falling into bed just after 4 am. Obviously given our late night adventures we didn't rise until after noon which was perfectly acceptable to me. In fact we didn't do much at all until after 2 pm.
I had been somewhat enamored of late of buying a video camera, to record and document things. I had initially been inspired by "Pixel-vision" a short-lived project from Fisher-Price to market an extremely simple video camera for children in the late 1980's. Nowadays Pixel-vision has a cult following, with a Pixel-vision film festival each year at Venice, not far from where Allison lives. It turned out that since the Pixel-vision cameras have been out of production for +12 years, they now sell on E-bay for considerably more than a standard digital video camera.
Quite probably I believe this fascination might have to do with being in a relationship with a film maker, but I know that I am given to recording my thoughts and life in word and photo and this could be yet another aspect of this desire. We haunted the electronics shops down at the big Mall, and I found a very basic Hi-8 camera for only $227. This however did not include the cost of tapes, batteries, analog-digital converter, sales tax or a computer on which to edit the footage, so despite my burning desire I put thoughts of purchasing this toy to one side. At the moment I need to save so as to have money for after my job finishes on October 31st, so again I will continue to force myself to be frugal. Also, the digital camera were more expensive than the Hi-8 camera, though more practical in the long run for editing.
Anyway, so we spent some time drooling over the electronic consumer goods before heading home again. After some recuperation and dinner we headed out to see "Undercover Brother" a fairly average but reasonably amusing "blacksploitation-sploitation" movie. It might be nice to only claim to go see art-house films, but I'm not a film-major so my care-factor is lower.
One of things I noticed was the fact that we both shed copious amounts of hair. It might be something to do with hormones, but if we want to live together in a small house with a few cats, we'd better get tiled floors. The loose hair was fairly easy to track back to its respective owner, mine is thick, dark and long like trans-oceanic copper cable, while hers is fine shorter and blonde like optical fiber.
On Monday I had to work and leave Allison at home. However I had my one week post op appointment at 3 pm, so I met Allison at the metro rail station. She had hired a car for 24 hours so as to get me to my appointment and her the airport the next morning. She picked me up and took me to the appointment, it was fairly perfunctory, I was able to stop wearing the compression bandage and the surgeon was quite happy with my progress. We came home via the supermarket where we bought an enormous bunch of groceries to tide me over. It was then that we both were hit by the imminent nature of us having to part again. Tears are never easy to endure, and this time was no different. I could put on a cheerful face because I knew we'd be together again, but that didn't make the pain any less.
That night I declined to go gaming, and we went to a Japanese restaurant down the road. We had a huge platter of sushi and sashimi which we couldn't finish. Instead we brought the rest home and hen one last time we let our bodies flow together in love. The next morning (Tuesday) we woke at 4:30 am to the thunder of a torrential downpour. We got ready a tad too slow and by the time we had returned the rental car at the airport we had just missed the closing call for her flight by 3 minutes. This was annoying as she was rerouted through Denver. We stood hand in hand at the gates for the longest time, neither of us wishing to part and each caught up in our own emotions, but alas at last she vanished beyond view and we were alone again.