and painting. Gone down to 3 shifts a week at the restaurant so I can maybe accomplish herculean house tasks.
I've been running across things I forgot I had. For instance, my Sinead O'Connor cd's, which are strongly connected to my life at college and to my friend E. We used to sit in the stairwell and sing 'Black Boys on Mopeds.' We were pretty darn good. I remember the first time I met her--I pulled up to my student apartment in my 1981 Mustang and she and my new roommate S were dancing to Sinead's 'Mandinka.' It was one of those cd's I'd bought because I thought it would make me a cooler person and I hadn't really listened to it. (I have since grown to love it. And I am a cooler person. Heh.) She was using a cane at that point, and I just kind of stared at the two of them thinking they were all kinds of weird. I had no idea that the two of them would be be deeply involved in my life, and it would be the kind of deep involvement that would take a couple of books to explain. That story would be full of complication, laughter, road trips, disillusionment, some hurtful words, English professors, poetry, hikes on Lookout Mountain, unpaid cell phone bills, late nights. You know, the stuff that life is made of.
I haven't said goodbye to E or S. I may be able to say hello again soon.
As I'm looking at the next couple of weeks, there's a lot of closure coming up. A lot of doing things for the last time, saying goodbye, finishing up. And maybe saying hello to 2 old friends is part of getting down the road to NOLA.
Posted by mike at July 10, 2007 11:17 AM