Well! What do you know about that.
So, i was waiting for the bus a couple weeks ago, and this old guy is waiting there also. He's got a navy baseball cap, and he's pushing a little wire cart full of groceries, and his skin is brown and weathered and covered with purple sores and scabs, and he's all in white, and he's smoking a cigar, if that don't beat all! and i think, "what do you know about that. i'm soon to ride a bus with the good Papa." he's standing next to a lady and she's got her shirt up over her nose and mouth and he's sort of apologizing to her, putting his cigar in its plastic zip-top bag, saying "look, it's out." i don't think she's even thinking about him, i think she's just cold. and, anyway, it's *not* out, it's burning a hole through the bag, and i'm thinking You are so great. so we get on the bus, and he sits in the front because he's old and has a cart, and i sit in the back for anonymity, and the bus goes on like buses are wont to do, and i spend the trip thinking about how great it is, how lucky we are, to be sharing a bus with this one. This is a holy bus, i think. This bus could bring greatness to the whole of Stevens Creek. Did that old guy know that he was Papa Legba? Implausible! but I knew it, so that's alright.
a couple days ago i dreamt that i had to escape this huge trapped house. it was some kind of museum, like the Winchester Mystery House, or the large museum with the hall of buttons, or the windmill; unlike the museum between the walls. all the rooms were empty and sandy, like the room with the dinosaurs, but unlike that room these rooms were trapped. there were various dangers that one had to avoid or disarm before one could pass. my mom had engineered the whole thing, which seemed kind of unfair. I was doing ok, though. most of the time i didn't know what i'd done to disarm a room; i just had a feeling it was ok. i came through a room that was ok, cautious, because i had no idea the rules or likelihood of attack, and in the next room, at the mouth of a hallway, the lady of cats sat with the jackal-guide and a tall old man in a white kalasiris and a wispy white beard stood by. i greeted the lady, and we both acknowledged that i was hers. then the old man spoke up, What about me? and i looked at him and he had tough brown skin and only one eye, so i knew that he was Odin and the good Papa both, and i said Of course, i am yours too. Don't you know that? and because it might not be obvious, i leaned down to Anubis and told him I'm yours, too, because we help the dead find their way. we all felt pretty ok about that. i went on, and i knew that they'd help me.
today on the bus it was a little crowded, not so crowded, just enough that sometimes people sit by you on the two-person benches; i'm always careful to leave enough space that someone feels welcome. a man in a clean white shirt and pants, i don't know what they're called, the so-Indian style, with the simple rounded collar standing up against the throat and the simple straight lines, cool and elegant, and a herringbone grey vest over top sat down next to me. i did not stop reading _the Sound and the Fury,_ but i thought it was nice that he chose to sit with me. as the bus emptied he did not get up, which is one popular choice when the bus empties: you can either get up and sit far away, on the theory that your benchmate wants their space and so do you, or you can remain sitting on the theory that you've already sat down, so what's the point in moving? and anyway it would be rude. so he sat, and i sat, and i thought This is nice. it's nice to sit next to this dapper old indian gentleman. it's nice to live in a place that dapper old indian gentlemen sit next to you on the bus, which we are all riding for various reasons, but which is a great gift in that it takes us all pretty far down Stevens Creek. then it was my stop, and someone pulled the rope, but my benchmate did not notice that and reached across me to pull the rope also. he wasn't very big, so he had to reach a long way, and he said Excuse me so i looked at him and smiled to show him it was alright, and his skin was deep brown and folded like leather, and he had amazing false teeth over a wiry white beard, and his right eye was clear and brown and his left eye was all eyelid, with nothing under it at all. Well! i thought. What do you know about that! How lovely that we're sitting here on the bus together, after all we've been through. He held the door for me as we got out, which was unnecessary, as the door is automatic, but was very gallant.
found Sarah McIntyre on the internet: http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/rileyruns.shtml she's done a children's book about Madagascar. clearly she's done her research: i can identify many species of tree and animal. neat to see someone applying what i'm learning now!
a couple days ago i dreamt that i had to escape this huge trapped house. it was some kind of museum, like the Winchester Mystery House, or the large museum with the hall of buttons, or the windmill; unlike the museum between the walls. all the rooms were empty and sandy, like the room with the dinosaurs, but unlike that room these rooms were trapped. there were various dangers that one had to avoid or disarm before one could pass. my mom had engineered the whole thing, which seemed kind of unfair. I was doing ok, though. most of the time i didn't know what i'd done to disarm a room; i just had a feeling it was ok. i came through a room that was ok, cautious, because i had no idea the rules or likelihood of attack, and in the next room, at the mouth of a hallway, the lady of cats sat with the jackal-guide and a tall old man in a white kalasiris and a wispy white beard stood by. i greeted the lady, and we both acknowledged that i was hers. then the old man spoke up, What about me? and i looked at him and he had tough brown skin and only one eye, so i knew that he was Odin and the good Papa both, and i said Of course, i am yours too. Don't you know that? and because it might not be obvious, i leaned down to Anubis and told him I'm yours, too, because we help the dead find their way. we all felt pretty ok about that. i went on, and i knew that they'd help me.
today on the bus it was a little crowded, not so crowded, just enough that sometimes people sit by you on the two-person benches; i'm always careful to leave enough space that someone feels welcome. a man in a clean white shirt and pants, i don't know what they're called, the so-Indian style, with the simple rounded collar standing up against the throat and the simple straight lines, cool and elegant, and a herringbone grey vest over top sat down next to me. i did not stop reading _the Sound and the Fury,_ but i thought it was nice that he chose to sit with me. as the bus emptied he did not get up, which is one popular choice when the bus empties: you can either get up and sit far away, on the theory that your benchmate wants their space and so do you, or you can remain sitting on the theory that you've already sat down, so what's the point in moving? and anyway it would be rude. so he sat, and i sat, and i thought This is nice. it's nice to sit next to this dapper old indian gentleman. it's nice to live in a place that dapper old indian gentlemen sit next to you on the bus, which we are all riding for various reasons, but which is a great gift in that it takes us all pretty far down Stevens Creek. then it was my stop, and someone pulled the rope, but my benchmate did not notice that and reached across me to pull the rope also. he wasn't very big, so he had to reach a long way, and he said Excuse me so i looked at him and smiled to show him it was alright, and his skin was deep brown and folded like leather, and he had amazing false teeth over a wiry white beard, and his right eye was clear and brown and his left eye was all eyelid, with nothing under it at all. Well! i thought. What do you know about that! How lovely that we're sitting here on the bus together, after all we've been through. He held the door for me as we got out, which was unnecessary, as the door is automatic, but was very gallant.
found Sarah McIntyre on the internet: http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/rileyruns.shtml she's done a children's book about Madagascar. clearly she's done her research: i can identify many species of tree and animal. neat to see someone applying what i'm learning now!