Crazy long work play day at the bookshop with myself, Steph-o Lyli, Scarleht, Dave, Cora, Heather, Rowan and Dylan, many friends stop by the play throughout the day as I grow more and more exhausted but satisfied and perfectly at home amongst other crazy young parents. Power out all across western war-shington so Oly's downtown is flooded with people seeking hot coffee and breakfast. schools are closed, phones are down, the internet plays hooky half the day just to piss me off. I dash around helping customers and observing my girls interacting with this marvelous multitude of shining souls. They pay me little mind and I pretend to be too busy to notice, so we dance around each other in little increments over the course of this river of a day.
We have extended family dinner at Dave's after closing our cute little anarchist bookshop and sit around sipping wine and watching Lyli and Scarleht and Cora make a disaster zone of Dave's living room. Palenta lasagna and a quiet cigarette. Dave tried his damndest to read a book to Cora and Lyli and Scarleht and me but it's a little advanced for my ladies and they are utterly exhausted from the day's activities. I put them to sleep in Cora's bed as Dave cuddles his daughter in the big bed. This room we used to live in... now sleeping here again. Odd twinges of guilt and raw emotion as I lie here thinking and dozing for an hour as the girls nodd off. Then downstairs to learn pinochle for too many hours of fun with Dave and Doug and Hannah into the wee hours.
Leave my ladies at Last Word with Mama and gang of friends 'round noonish and hightail it down the demon gutter with Hannah, saying hello to the mountains, paying respects to the rivers, smoke and comfortable talk. A refunded ticket in Portland for arriving sans train, nice $25.33 in the proverbial pocket of the mastercard. Quick smoke and romance amidst the bustle of city life, then on board the Empire Builder to all points East. Most social train-ride I've ever taken. Chatty Chatty with the workers and passengers alike, unsure what exactly has put me in this mood but have a hunch or two. I link up with a professional bull rider from Kennewick named Jack and this awesome black dude whose name I can't recall who trains 12 to 20 year olds how to BMX and MotoCross. We talk and joke and drink across Washington, take a smoke break, lose the BMXer to relaxation rather than frantic bizarre conversation, enlist a 17 year old musician/songwriter and force him to play Texas Hold-Em with us for the last hour (actually, he was ready and willing). Talk it up with ladies across the isle. Meet a little boy named Noah and share Pirate Papa with his parents. Matt, the diner car attendant, and I hit it off big and joke the whole trip, thoroughly disturbing the other passengers I'm sure. I love the train. Sometimes I like to shack up and write and read and sleep, sometimes I like to party with total strangers for a matter of hours. I can't wait to take the girls on the train, I suppose I've just been apprehensive for whatever myriad reasons.
Meet up with Pops in Pasco and take the long dark way home, thru talk and fields and silence and smoke. Share some words with Aly, far away. A nice talk until 4 a.m. with Trevor in Hawaii revolving around Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. A movie and vegetation into downstairs futon. No words then, tho I pray a bit for them to come today, however mundane. Tomorrow the grindstone, beautiful bookwork and a few friends. It is cold here. But I am ready.
1 comment:
it feels good to read this post, sky.
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