Archive for August, 2006

August 31, 2006

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

My first date with Steve 16 years ago in San Francisco – we went to Olive Oil’s on the water – I remember we both ordered and never touched a bite – we were part of a threesome – Steve, Doug and I worked and lunched (read: margaritas) together often. Doug couldn’t go to lunch that day. (He ended up being my best man.) Steve and I were at the bar waiting for our table and he was telling me about this woman he had a crush on, who was living with a photographer he had designed a studio for, we got our bloody marys and went to our table – after we ordered, he got very serious, and he said, “I’m thinking about leaving the company.” I was shocked. “Why?” He said, “Because I am in love with you.” That’s when our food arrived. The train got on the tracks pretty swiftly after that – he took me back to the office and insisted on driving me home after work – I used to ride the Number 42 bus home to my hovel across from the whore motel and the methodone clinic. On the way home, he said he wanted to show me some things so he took me by a Maybeck that he liked so much, then he knocked on the door of the photographer’s studio to show me what he had done to it. Then he dropped me off at my apartment. I was married to my second husband – had been for 4.5 months – it was not going well – obviously – the total marriage time was 5 months. I knew it was going poorly when I got on a plane to Spain and sat next to a guy name Zane and realizing my new husband’s name was Gayne – I felt like I was in for a lot of pain and cried as I looked out the window – “alone again, naturally.”

I never learned the art of dating – nor did I learn the art of breaking up. Like a coward, I moved to the next relationship without finishing the last. Reminds me of that song by Amy Rigby – “The Trouble with Jeannie” which concerns the ex-wife of a present husband and she says “how can I pick up where she never left off” – it’s a great song – “we’re like a club of two who’ve seen him with his clothes off” – the “trouble wth Jeannie is she’s all right” – “can somebody explain to me this modern life.”

S asked me to ask G how she tells a guy on the first or second or whatever date that things are not going well – G, a self-professed professional dater, said she sucks at it. She usually takes it all on herself and says “Look it’s me” when she really means “ick!” – I don’t have the answer either. In the book SuSu sent me that I stayed up last night reading, the author says “I could never break up with anyone, so I cheated to get out of relationships.” A universe of cowards.

Gender inequality

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

The latest census reports that men still outearn women in every state and every region. In my industry, women make 55% of what men earn. There has been talk of our company being a boy’s network before – I brought this to the attention of J a couple of years ago when Nick Z was hired and was unfairly paid more than us gals who had been working there for a while. I brought the article to his attention today and he bristled again at the mention – me thinks he bristles for a reason. I’m just stating the obvious.

The setting summer sun

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

Walked around the bayou and picked up my tiki torches – a woman on the porch called to me as I carried the three to the LaLa – “are those your beacons of light?” – yes I said, do you live there? – no I’m babysitting, my daughter lives here – I said I’m working on the house right around the bend, the interminable house – she said “this is an interminable house too – the porch is halfway done” – there it is, I said – yep, she answered.

The sun was setting in a big fiery orange ball on the horizon – last days of summer.

I was headed to the Ogden to see Bob Andrews tonight and last minute after getting dressed, blew it off, to stay home and read my funny book SuSu sent me that kept me up all night and my latest garden books by Edwina von Gal. Tomorrow is Italian night, tonight needs to be tranquil night.

Marble Floor very pretty!

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

The 18 x 18 Carrara tiles are down in the master bathroom – gorgeous – C said I could come in there in my socks and have a slippery slidey party. L said he has never seen anyone lay tile so meticulously as C. I said that is why he gets the big bucks – he’s one of three people in Louisiana who know how to set glass tile.

Taking it out in trade

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

L called me to come look at where I wanted the faucet on my tub, when I got there W was deep into the guest shower putting the PVC drain pad down. He said he is envious of my tub. I told him he could use it when it’s all done. He then offered to come live with me and be my house husband, he said he’d get my cocktails for me as I sat on the front porch and that he was basically low maintenance and was very handy around the house. He’s young and cute, so I was thinking maybe if I do just have sex with every tradesman who comes through the house, progress might pick up.

Then again, as my friend Gomez likes to lament: I can’t fuck everybody.

Cool front blows through NO

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

The temp has dropped a few degrees here and oh what a difference it makes!

I’ve been having my half bagel with cream cheese, capers and smoked salmon again – what a delicious way to start the day – anyway Charlie Trotter now sells a wild salmon smoked with tea and ginger – can you say YUM! – I get it at Whole Food.

Fingers Crossed

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

The LaLa is humming with activity – Louie and Walter are putting in the shower pans, Christian and Sean are laying the 18 x 18 Carrara marble tile floors and then starting on the glass tiles. Richard is getting me a quote to install the glass that I am getting for $1800 instead of the $8500 he quoted. I also ordered an Azure colored glass for my clerestory from the living room to the master and am leaving the bathroom to master bedroom clerestory unglassed. Vic is installing the roof on the addition. Ken is finishing up the trim inside. Randy is coming on Saturday to replace the two master bath windows. Steve’s sons Payton and Tony are finishing the sanding and priming of the exterior to the main house. Whew – hard to believe what a difference a few men and a day or two makes.

Back in the saddle at work – busy bee. Two disturbing things I read in the NYT this morning – the cigarette mfgs have been steadily increasing the amount of nicotine in cigs – making them ever more addictive – I am so glad I quit that nasty habit. A young man went over to his neighbor’s house and stabbed him to death after learning that he molested his 2-year-old daughter – and he is being charged for murder! Excuse me, but I would have stabbed the guy and then left him to rot on the front porch steps to have his remains pecked and eaten by live birds of prey. When I read about the internet group of pediophiles that lure young children into their web it makes me feel murderous and unnaturally righteous.

SuSu sends a surprise

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

She sent me a book that I can’t put down and so now I am not sleeping – it’s called Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants by Jill Soloway and it is hysterical – first of all the card she sent was great – it said “When our story is told, and it will be told in song and fable and interpretive dance and puppet show, people will weep with joy, and through sobs, say, “Today we have witnessed love. How can our lives not be bettered by this?” Inside it says, “Okay, the puppet show response may not be so strong. People may not be ready for puppets.”

She says she sent the book because it is a memoir and very confident on the sexuality and (she is Jewish) so I think you will like it!

The book is a riot – it has footnotes and my favorite is footnote #12 on Page 78 “Have you ever had a penis in your mouth and thought, “What in the hell am I doing? I have a penis in my mouth!” – I almost wet my pants laughing so hard.

In the book, she talks about going to college and suddenly having a zillion new best friends – it hit home – my “Miracle Child” niece called from Suwanne where she has just started and the whole time she is talking to me “Aunt Rachel, just calling to say hi!” she is having a zillion conversations with her zillion new best friends – Hey Susie, see you at the whatever. Oh you Katie, you’re funny. Similarly, E sent her daughter K off to school and said that she flew there with her husband and her daughter wouldn’t even go to lunch with them because she was hanging out with 100 of her new best friends.

Hey Taur-Babe, want to do some dancing in the sheets?

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

Today at high noon after getting back from Home Depot with C and a lot of mortar, K asked me what my sign is – I said what? – your sign, I bet you are a Leo. No, I said increduously (not at his lack of zodiac radar but at the question itself), I’m not a Leo. “A Scorpio,” he said. “No, not a Leo or Scorpio, not even close,” and I’m thinking I can’t believe I am having this conversation on the front steps of the LaLa with the “dead animal” smell that is coming from the trash pile in front (J was in jail let’s not forget) and I turned to get in my truck and he said well? and I said Taurus, okay, I’m a Taurus. “Ahhh,” he said rolling his eyes back in his head, with some sort of nirvana look washing over him.

Maybe I should tell K that I sometimes dye my pubic hair so the rug matches the drapes, and of course, I might add that is when there is anything to dye – you think the work at the LaLa would go faster, harder?

What’s your sign, little girl?

Our Man with a Plan – Lt. General Russel Honore

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

Seems like Honore’s message to us is just what you would expect from this great man:

New Orleans is going to be a better city when the massive rebuildling effort is completed, he is quoted in the Times Picayune as saying – but it’s going to take years of hard work.

What the storm undid in 24 hours took 200-and-some-odd years to develop – We need to remember: If we want it bad, we’ll get it bad. But if we want it better, better is hard. Better always takes time.

May I add – we want it better and she will be better. This fair city is where I intend to spend my better life that I am already engaged in, and you know what? getting to the better life is harder than I imagined, but the better life is better than I imagined and growing sweeter every second I take a breath.