Tuesday, May 21, 2013

I just woke up from the most heavenly nap of my entire life, I think. I woke up and I didn't know if it was daytime or night time or if I was in Lloyd or in Cozumel or in a bed I've never before known in my life but it was so perfect, my skin cool with fans blowing on me, my mind quiet and peaceful, smiling. Can your mind smile? Mine smiled and I didn't care where I was or when it was and even when all of that came back to me, I was perfect and I drowsed a little more, not even checking the time and I haven't even washed this morning's coffee pot, my husband's cereal bowl and I don't care. Who cares? It's okay. The crickets are buzzing, they are like an orchestra, their wing-voices rise and fall, their conductor is the temperature, the air, the sun/humidity/light.

I went to the dermatologist. Do you remember this whole story? I have these things on my face, everyone does who grew up in Florida or on the water, little rough patches and they may or may not turn into cancer one day and so the idea is to eradicate them now, you know. There are options and two of them were chemicals and one involved light and one is freezing them off, fast, fast. I chose that one because the one chemical that sounded least harmful cost $750 and forget that. So the doctor came into the room with a full, unopened tube of that chemical, the $750 one and he gave it to me because a patient had been given it by the VA, way too much of it, and he brought it back and so I guess I am a charity case now, and am going to be using government paid-for drugs and that is fine with me. I asked the doctor if this chemical was better (forget the cosmetic situation of having the things frozen) and he said it was because it got to all of the places, seen or unseen, felt or unfelt.
We shall see. And feel. I guess.
I told the doctor he had restored my faith in many things and also, that he has beautiful skin.
He really does.

After the doctor I went with Lily and the boys to a new pizza place and I got a whole-wheat crust pizza with vegetables and no cheese and the guy behind the counter asked, "How does that taste? With no cheese?" as if it were the craziest thing he'd ever heard of, and I said, "Fine." And it was. We ate, all of us with our nice little pizzas and then we went to Walmart and it was horrible as always and I showed Owen a hideous fake flower arrangement in colors of red, white, and blue for people to buy in order to express their patriotism, I suppose, and I told him, "See this? This is crap. Do not buy crap."
Then I bought him a Thomas The Tank Engine beach chair.
It's crap and he loves it.

And then we went to Costco (we are getting ready for the island) and the boys were whiney and we didn't know what we were buying and so we got a watermelon and some peppers and two chickens in a bag and sun screen and bug spray, etc. At least the employees at Costco seem cheerful and they wear what they want and I hear that they start people off at better-than-average wages and offer good benefits. I hope so. They do not appear to be barely breathing until their shifts are over at the Costco, they are open-eyed and they smile and they talk to you. Gibson waved the divider thing around at the check-out like a young, pudgy king, and the cashier said, "How you doin', Little Guy?" and Gibson grinned and showed him his teeth, his perfect little teeth and I thought, "Oh. That is my grandson."

And then I came home and unloaded everything and lay down on the bed in the room where we are sleeping which doesn't have one bedroom thing of mine in it, still, just the printer and the sewing stuff in an old dresser and the scattered VHS tapes of kid movies and we sleep in there so well that it's crazy and I'm almost afraid to move a thing but when I walk back into our old room, our "real" bedroom, that still feels like our bedroom so I don't know. And it doesn't matter. Like the cereal bowl- so what?

So what, so what, so what?
Nothing matters and it all matters and we do the best we can and we get through the crazy-terror times and we don't exactly know where they come from and we hold on as long as we can to the sweet, cool moments of nothing short of bliss and we don't know where they come from either but they do.

That's all I have to say tonight. I am a woman alive on Planet Earth in the 21st century and I have been alive for close to 59 years and I don't know shit, but I am here.
And so it is.


8 comments:

  1. Well, the only thing I'll say to all that is you made me laugh out loud! I share a birthday with Obama and Louis Armstrong, apropos of nothing, but your last post made me think about that.

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  2. So, if you sleep better in that room, why not just move your bedroom into that room? Me, personally, I don't shop at Walmart. I don't approve of their business model and I refuse to put one single penny of my hard earned money into the pocket of the Walton's.

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  3. i love that you teach you grandsons really important lessons in life, like the difference between useless crap and crap worth having, which makes it not crap at all. i love the serenity of your waking from that nap. wishing you many more moments like those.

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  4. e- That's interesting. I used to share a birthday with Jackie O but she died.

    Ellen Abbott- We may do that. Gradually. Who knows? I never usually go to Walmart either but Lily had bought something there which she needed to return. it's virtually right across the street from where she lives.

    Angella- He listened to me very seriously. I'm not sure he knows what crap is but if he hangs around with me for long, he will. That nap was amazing. It was a highpoint in my life. I'm not even kidding you.

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  5. Well, pizza w/o cheese is just that. Pizza w/o cheese. Not as interesting or tasty (at least to me) as a pizza with cheese, but, hey, whatever.

    You and I are pretty much the same age. It looks like we are about five months apart, if the Jackie-O reference is right ... ( Me: 12/28 )

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  6. Life is mysterious but I do love reading about yours. And I really love Costco. Like, really. No matter how things are going, I walk into Costco and feel like I've joined the One Percent.

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  7. So funny that the guy at the pizza place would be incredulous at the thought of pizza without cheese.

    And I love the crap-flower-arrangement story. I hate WalMart and Costco. I hate shopping generally.

    I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by global tragedy all of a sudden, so it's nice to come here and read about your nap and a corner of the world where things are quiet and cool in Lloyd. And yeah, I think you should just move your bedroom. (I think you already have!)

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  8. Lynne- Well, of course cheese on anything makes it more interesting and tasty. Cheese, is wonderful. However, it is incredibly calorie dense. Which I really do not need at this point in my life.
    Yep. July 28, 1954.

    Ms. Vesuvius- Haha! The 1%! And we could buy all that sparkly jewelry they keep right up front. Right? ALL OF IT! Plus, they give us free food at Costco. Which is delicious and sometimes can substitute for lunch.

    Steve Reed- Well, we've moved where we sleep. We haven't moved our bedroom stuff. Who needs bedroom stuff to sleep? I am having to rethink my entire life training about bedrooms, which, let's face it- we mostly don't see any of the stuff in because we are asleep.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.