characters in ATX

one year in the ATX (that's the lingo here for austin, tx) has showed me a great many things ... some of which i'd like to forget! living without a tv sounded crazy to most, but what they failed to realize was the bounty of entertainment the city of austin has to offer, just waiting outside your front door.

my favorite characters this year, who still provide a smile on the saddest of days, are as follows: (the few that have failed to erase from my mind)

-man who rides his bike in a thong & only his thong. really, no one can ride fast enough for that to pass ...

-man who rides his bike with his cat on his bare shoulders. is it declawed? what is it holding on to?

-man with "git-r-drunk" tshirt. no further explanation needed.

-COLLEGE KIDS hahahahahahahahaha

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhah. they crack me up, with their orange UT garb, galavanting around the campus area. fools.

-preston a. patterson

-woman we pass every morning that stepped directly out of 1983. not even the late 80's? really? thick white socks, pantyhose, long floral dress with shoulder pads, sneakers.

-skinny pedicab drivers

-taco bell patrons ... we're in the place that invented the glory of texmex and tbell is still appealing?

-new complex owner that totes around his holster and pistol. EPITOME OF A TEXAN with a bigass belt buckle, expensive cowboy hat, boots, drawl.

*

are we human, or are we dancers?

la la lazy

take a day and make it whatever you want it to be.

like the other day, [remember in the summertime, the days have no names] the pleasure and satisfaction of watching daniel craig on screen was calling to me ... and what happened? i watched quantum of solace. there was also a need for grapes and a good friend; therefore, a bus trip downtown to pick up alexa was in order as well as a stop at HEB for grapes. sometimes it's nice [if you're including others in your day] to care a little bit about what they might want to do, so in addition to grapes, we also bought some marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers for s'mores.

it's jellycones

the aftermath

i am not sure what i thought would happen, certainly not this.

i am not sure how i thought i would feel, certainly not this.

i do know what i've learned and know i'll never be the same; you've left your mark.

[they'll fade with time; from the darkened black and blue splotches that pop against my skin ... fading until they are hardly visible. i'll always know they were there.]

it's surreal

it's surreal. more dreamlike maybe ... or was it an imagination?

it was a beer day, that should have been the first indication. when is it ever a beer day? there was cleaning involved.

and leaving; we were lined up as we jumped out one by one from the plane as it flew us to our separate destinations. in all, a day of consummation.

it was the jackhammer that woke me up this morning. a real one, clearing out the pool we had swam in the night before. and shared our carefree passions for life and warm afternoons into evenings. the pounding woke me from the haze and seeing the clear newness of the day, returned the redbox. and the blockbusters we forgot to return before.

_

the truth in a friendship takes time to discover. a bond is tried with distance and hardship; these things do not come along every day.

it is only when you return to a person and are reminded of their scent, embrace, that little quirk you almost forgot, that it begins to feel right again. and you pick up right where you left off ... there is always so much to say, but in the end, you come to a shared moment of silence in which you realize that moment is the most important thing that has happened since you left.

it is only when you start to pick up the rubble left over that it begins to feel right again. the pieces of a heart, a hope, an endeavor have fallen apart. the big stuff has been propped up, near-ish to its original location, until they can come along and find the missing fragments that hold the unit together. you are no longer a rendition, but can start to become whole again.