Just a day, just an ordinary day
August 15, 2005
Today was one of those random, perfect days. The flow of work has been steady but slow so that by the end of each day we are caught up with whatever is on the table for that given day. Nothing spilling over into the next day.
At around 3pm my mother called me--she'd spontaneously decided to take my aunt, who is currently visiting from Libya, and her daughters to our beach house on the North Coast. This means I'll be spending the next two days alone, until I go join them on Thursday afternoon. My mother and I saw each other briefly before she left. We were both rushing off, but she managed to toss out, "You wanted to live alone...well, here you go!" It's funny how just when you get the thing you think you want, you start to realize what you've got ain't so bad.
Ten minutes after mama got out the door, I set off to meet up with PG who is finally back from two+ months in the UK and Greece. I have definitely missed him. It's funny to think that around this time last summer I was just getting to know him. PG came armed with gifts for me and Mini. He gave me Green Day's American Idiot, and a little clay lantern. We were trying to figure out what it does. He just liked it cause it looked pretty (it really is very pretty), but Mini and I wanted to know if we rubbed it hard enough, would a genie maybe pop out? In any case, PG is no doubt an excellent gift-giver. If you date him? He buys you an MP3 player for your birthday. And if, while you're dating him, you pass your comprehensive exams with flying colors? He gives you a bottle of champagne. I shit you not. It was very painful for Smin to give PG back all those gifts when they broke up.
Anyway, it's really great having PG back. It took us ten minutes or so to get warmed up again, but pretty soon the innuendo and double entendres were flying right and left. This is what we do best--find sex where there is none (yes, this is a metaphor for our entire existence in this country). Mini once dubbed us the "Pentium 5.0" of gutter mind. And to top it all off, a few minutes after I arrived PG looked at me and said, "Oy, sis. It looks like you've been getting to the gym a lot. You look...really good." (Keep in mind that all must be read with a posh English accent.) He also gave me his UK sim (mobile) card, which I will be needing and using in EXACTLY ONE MONTH FROM TODAY.
So after Mini had to take off and go home, I lingered a bit with PG. I hadn't considered that he might want to come to art therapy with me, but seeing as he lives downtown anyway we decided to share a cab there. PG really had nothing else going on, so he decided to come along to art therapy. Turns out he really enjoyed it. It doesn't hurt that he met a really hot girl there.
Art therapy was quite active today, and for the first time there were a bunch of kids! That was really neat.
PG just totally let loose with his paintings. Dr. M told him to shut his mind off, and PG said, "My mind's been off for over two months now, so that shouldn't be too hard." He sat down and got right to it, and proceeded to paint a picture of his half-sister which Dr. M saw as really sad, and a cry for help on the part of his sister. I think that weighed heavily on PG. Later he mentioned that he wouldn't be able to sleep for worrying about her.
I am *really* happy with what I painted today. It was just really, really soothing to do, and I'm down with how it turned out in the end, even though for some reason the depth and variation of the colors (my favorite thing about it) don't really show up in the pictures.
This is how I painted it:
But this is how Dr. M hung and interpreted it:
It's kind of just more of the same--the swirlies are all these people huddled together, or my emotions, I guess, looking for support. The repeating squares on the left side are the abyss I am trying not to fall into. And the bottom part is my base...even with all these issues, I've got a solid foundation.
I stayed later than I usually do, and it was fucking crowded out when we left. PG walked with me in the increasingly hot heat (up 3 degrees centigrade! yowza!) for nearly 30 minutes as we looked for a cab that would take me home. I kept telling him to go home, but he wouldn't leave me until he'd seen me safely into a cab. He really is a Perfect Gentleman. Then -as he later texted me- he couldn't find a cab for himself, so he ended up just making the 20+ minute trek on foot. Usually it would be a really nice walk, but today it must have been killer.
I came home to an eerily quiet and empty house. Zenith described our house as "palatial", and though I don't agree in general, it seems a hell of a lot bigger when there's only one person at home. It's been a little scary, but also really nice. I rewatched some episodes of SatC, season 4 (my absolute favorite!), and ate some dark, dark chocolate with these delicate French butter cookies that Di brought me back from Paris. (Someone please remind me to fire her as my friend.)
Well, if I ever plan to make it to the gym tomorrow I should probably go to bed NOW. Night all.