There is, or there was, or there will be a full moon, I can't keep track, but the moon has been huge and sitting heavy on the clouds. The lake tides have been unnaturally high all week. That's not actual, that's a metaphor. People have been tapping on the glass. Also a metaphor.
So of course we tapped back, and they tapped back, and it became a game, and then a code, and then we all went outside. I'm not good with codes. I need things spelled out, in black and white large clear font, with footnotes. I have just started wandering around blissfully self involved, ignoring the tapping, letting others figure it all out. There are all sorts of emotions swimming behind my eyes, and I don't give a crap. I spend my mornings wishing for bread to dip into tea, that's how weird things have been lately. It's probably because I've started reading again, it makes me a weirdo.
In celebration, January became a month of sobriety and sunshine. It's not January I'm worried about, it's all those other months waiting in the wings. February. March. They are using January to soften us up. We melted like margarine at first but I want to be wrapped up and protected now, I want to sleep in warm places, with warm things. This weather sets off sprinkled pricklings in my spine of storms to come. It is beautiful and calm and threatening. How unprepared I am, to be put away for winter.
Between the sunshine and the deadlines and the full moon, I feel like this year is going to take forever and a week. We were all quiet that day, and I think we were all tired.
Halfway through the day I decided I need to drink tonight, I'd had a bad couple of days if you couldn't tell from my last couple of faux zen bullshit posts. So I convinced Jason on gchat, easily, to have food with me at ABC. Tara then texted me, so she came up too. We talked about ageism, and Todd laughed at us. We decided to go to Happy Dog, and Jason said he needed to wrap his girlfriend's birthday present since he was headed to Judie's afterwards, so somehow in between him getting up out of his chair and him leaving, an executive decision was made that Judie's present, which was an 8x10 print, had to be wrapped in a foil swan like they do at fancy restaurants. Jason was instructed to bring the foil to the Happy Dog.
We get to the Happy Dog, and it was classical music night, so like I walked in to a violinist, which let's be honest, is the best way to enter a hipster hot dog bar ever. We immediately devoted the next hour to making the Swan. Brandon came up, and he even knew HOW to make a foil swan, so that was sort of USEFUL. It turned out amazing, here it is.
WE MADE THAT.
Then this group of guys was playing this amazing gypsy jam music, with clarinets and oboes, and Jason left to take the swan to Judie, but we had this cardboard roll left from the wrapping paper we stuffed the entrails with, so Oliver the Centipede was born.
And Jonah the amazingly nice bartender who didn't scold me for using all his bar straws emailed me a picture of Oliver titled "cool thing". Tara and I had a minute talking about boys, oh so much talk about boys always boys boys are so amazing sometimes and cute and jeez, and then this other amazingly awesome band came on, that was this deep down folk blues chill down your spine making sound, and we moved closer to the staqe and I yelled in the Happy Dog, which let me tell you NEVER HAPPENS. It was this duo Brown Bird, which if you hit that little button above, you are listening to now. When they were over, we bought CDs immediately, me once again thanks to Jonah, god Jonah whoever is sleeping with you tonight should be extra nice to you, and when they came over to the bar they told us the story of their crappy introduction to Cleveland through a crappy booking at Wilberts, and then Brian Straw bringing them there to this bar randomly, and MorganEve was SO nice and beautiful and the guy David had the best beard ever, I wanted to marry him right then and there, the way he stomped that drum. Then when the music was over someone put on a shitload of ABBA, and I sat there dancing finishing my drink, fishing around for the cherry at the bottom, and I was so happy, I thought to myself this is what life is, going out just to forget awful stuff, and then ending up on a trip that is full of bar straws and foil and super smart people and really good music, and driving home listening to a bluegrass band from Rhode Island you never knew existed before that night. And I'm so thankful my parents raised children who could appreciate magic in bars, actual real tangible conjured by cellos and boys with beautiful eyes magic.
Oh, and happy birthday Judie! We sent a shitload of love your way tonight. Now I'm going to listen to Roy Orbison until I fall asleep, and try not to think about the boy I like.
Edit: I wrote this while pretty drunk. You can tell because I used the word amazing 5 times. And honestly, there wasn't a single cherubim present that whole night.
