| a small bonfire. |
[Jan. 1st, 2003|06:42 pm] |
It's 2003. Where's my goddamned rocket car?
I think that butts are inherently funny, as a body part. Like "chicken" is an inherently funny word, a butt is an inherently funny body part. It's especially funny when pants are riding just a bit low, and I think I could just barely manage to drop an ice cube down the back of her pants, right between her butt cheeks, possibly from an impressive height. She doesn't see the humor here. Someone back me up on this---butts are funny.
We went out to see Rachel last night so that Lee could fit her corset. They vanished to do girly things that would, I suppose, involve the uncovering of boobies, and I was left to make nice with Rachel's parents. Like I've said before, my ability to make nice with parents and other figures of adulthood has suddenly come into full bloom. It's a little weird.
Lee and I took Rachel out to the Pearl Garden for some tasty vegetarian Vietnamese food. I hadn't been there in at least four months (probably longer), but the waitress recognized me and asked after my parents. Now that's impressive. Lee and Rachel became very full; I also became full, but for me, that's a relative term, liable to go away in fifteen minutes.
Rachel accompanied us out to the New Year's thing, which was in the back woods of an unpronounceable town in the northeast corner of the state. My father used to have a practice there, back before he stopped trying to make it on his own. It's an economically depressed backwater; it's where our rednecks live. On the other hand, land there is cheap, so Eric's folks have a great deal of it 'round back of the house.
Chris was surprised to see us; I don't know if I'd actually said I was going to be there. Spontaneously, we ended up having eleven people there, trekking out to a bundle of dry wood that Eric had set up earlier. On the one hand, I felt a little bad bringing Lee and Rachel to a place where they didn't really know anyone. On the other hand, I was too busy having a fantastic time, with the warmth, with the silliness, with the laughter. Glowing camaraderie. I can't think of anywhere else I'd want to spend New Year's.
And the whole compromise thing didn't even turn out to be necessary; I got to spend it with both Lee and my homies. I apologized on the walk back to the car about dropping them in a camp-circle of unknown people... but everyone'd had a good time. Win-win. Go me.
The driving, on the other hand, was positively evil. It was unexpectedly warm, so fog had risen up in random stretches of road, without rhyme or reason. We were slowed to a crawl; the drive from Eric's place, to Rachel's place, back to my parents' place took nearly two hours. Two damned hours of staring through an impenetrable white mist. When we finally got back, and I could stop being responsible, my head flopped over to one side, and my eyes snapped shut. I've driven in worse, true... but it's never really fun.
Rachel and I had a talk while Lee slept in the back seat. About Lee, about Nate. Am I "glowing" about him, as Lee had said? Possibly. Truthfully, I couldn't ask for her to have a better partner (well, maybe pointy ears); my concerns are with her. I remember when Lee was trying to cut Rek out of her life for not ditching Nathan, and now Nate making out with him on a regular basis doesn't even merit a mention. I remember when Lee was going to leave Oberlin to get away from him, and now she can't wait to move into Harkness and live in the same damned building, with the big groupily naked showers and all.
I've written all this plenty of times, but it was somehow validating to say it out loud, even while Lee was sound asleep in the back of the car. And it's gratifying to know that I'm not the only person in the world who's known Nathan and isn't falling over themselves to apologize for being so mean as to try to separate themselves from him. Good talking with Rachel. I should do that more often; now that she's living in this time zone next semester, that might even be feasible.
I should make it quite clear that I had a really good time; the angst was more of a talking-it-over type, which was cathartic and didn't dig up anything particularly new. The food was good, the driving was bad (but I'm used to that), the fire was good, the friends were good, the talking on the way back was good.
Real writing was called for last night, but I was too bloody tired. There's something inherently... adult... in being the one who drives when all the passengers are fading in and out of consciousness. The buck stops with me; I'm responsible for the safety of everyone in the car. Is this why Lee doesn't want to learn to drive? I have a feeling that it's going to be like my father teaching me to drive---when I started to learn, he had me drive all the time; now, he'll tell me "It's okay, I'll drive", even when I ask to.
Today, we cleaned things. Lee scrubbed the upstairs bathroom. My father and I fixed that leaky pipe, though the mushrooms that grew under it are big, brown and mean-looking. Maybe they'll dry up and vanish if we ignore them. The basement looks much, much better. It's an incremental task, and I don't know if it'll ever really get done. I'll try to do the best I can while I'm here; it's not like I have a job or anything.
Tomorrow: In which I go to the math department and demand fat wads of cash money. |
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