v.t. phone home

completely unconnected to the title of this post, i recently discovered i'm on imdb! i did a tiny role (looking a mess, too) in something still in post-production, but unexpectedly found it and myself on imdb; i'm tickled...
so i disappeared again just as i was getting back into regular posting because we drove to vermont last week (12hours each way) which required a shitload of prep (clearing of desk before deadlines that would pass whilst away) and, apparently, a shitload of recovery, since shit came up while i was gone that needed immediate attention upon return, but we'd brought back shit also needing immediate attention.
it was grims' last trip home to sort/repurpose/eliminate belongings before we leave the country for good but since he's hurt i went to halve his carrying (not at his insistence). then, midnight-ish, after the 12hour return-drive, i realised i now had to clean off shit that had sat in an outdoor storage unit for 3years so it could enter our house. i'm seriously asthmatic- no question it all had to get cleaned before it could come in my house because it's life or death for me. we'd done the full 12hour drive on sunday so grims could teach monday morning, so unless we brought it all back to leave on a d.c. gallery for bandits, it had to be done before i could go in for the night. by the time i finished that, come to find out about the deadline-related shit that'd come up, i got straight to work without sleep.
but i think i'm caught up, except for the last of the cleanup (dishes with 3years of gack still in the sink; multiple washings necessary) and think i can say that the trip was as painless as one could possible hope for, under the circumstances- the circumstances being 24hours driving (injured) in 4days for forced clearing of remnants of a previous life while meeting parent's new significant other and making decisions about who/what to see/do when visiting the place originally called "home" for the last time in some ways, and cold (my cross)- purge led efficiently to closure without recrimination (mostly), significant other seemed good, days were pleasantly, surprisingly warm, even if nights were abysmal.
the drive wasn't nearly as bad as i anticipated, not even for the injured grims. noticed a bunch of signs along the p.a. turnpike(?) using a new font, or at least a different version/spacing of the previous font- like the difference between times and arial to my eye. while reading sometimes i notice the font or letter spacing change and continue in the new font/spacing, and it drives me bananas but nobody else seems to notice. the signage made me ask grims if he ever sees that and he says no- but i can't be the only one catching this in books (spacing-change in newspapers too, sometimes)...
i learned that springfield (n.j., grims?) is both dangerous and redundant- as we crossed into it, the 1st green roadsign with white letters simply listed the name of and mileage to each of the 5(?) area hospitals, apparently all within a 25mile(?) radius; the 1st building neon i noticed was for a local newspaper, proclaiming itself daily+sunday. also, quite stinky- proclaimed not by neon, but by my nose.
speaking of which, skunks are apparently much smaller than i thought, but do look exactly like pepe le peu. very endearing. but more importantly, the reason marijuana is often described as "skunky" is that diminished skunk stink smells like fresh green- i mean, i guess i kind of figured as much, but didn't think it smelled exactly like it- dude, exactly. it woulda been nice to see a live one though.
speaking of which, i thought it was a sign the trip was lost when i lost a half-spliff in the deck the 1st morning, nearly ruining the whole spliff+tea-on-the-gallery-overlooking-the-lake-on-miraculously-warm-vermont-morning but i found (and smoked) it 2days later, so even that turned out better than i thought.
all that, plus coming back 15pyrex+lids, several excellent toys, an etch-a-sketch, many books and other random treasures richer and maple syrup+sweetie stocked makes me think maybe still not seeing a live skunk (or moose) is liveable-with (the latter less so). and i did meet a cat with 5toes on each front paw. that counts for something, right?
and last "catch-up" (v.t. unconnected) for the record, salvia divinorum tastes like shoes. very old shoes. the effect can be briefly enlightening, and thankfully the shoe-taste+smell fade quick+clean, but beware the 1st mouthful...
walk good.
ps: american tv+movies use bells or similar sounds to signal the end of college classes- i never had bells in university here- did anybody else?

does that make me crazy?

just caught a piece of a commercial for some drug called "veramyst" for seasonal and yearlong allergy symptoms that actually needed to run on-screen (and i quote):
"the way veramyst works is not entirely understood".
ages 2 and up.

walk good.
ps: to clarify, i saw the commercial again, and it says "ages 12 and up" but the website, where i went to confirm that i'd heard+read right before blogging, says ages 2 and up...

monkey see, monkey do (edit 3.45pm)

one thing i notice the mentally unstable have in common is in not believing they're crazy. so does the near-constant worry that i'm losing my mind mean i can rest assured i'm safe?
walk good.
ps: speaking of monkeysee, while revising my noir yesterday i invented (according to spellcheck and the oxford dictionary's omission of it) a word. i went with "pruny" instead of pruney" because the former seemed to have a visual onomatopoeia...am i right?

dracular myopia

now, i know i'm not the target audience since grims is watching american football. but even for those who like this thing on tv, i'm sure the response to advertising that claims "only in l.a. could a vampire be the good guy" is: "only in your sadly limited imagination".
walk good.

daily betraeus

i've had iraq me, dave petraeus stuck in my head since the 1st time jon stewart said it the other night. except i'm stuck with the whole song. of which the only lyric i know is,
"...iraq me dave petraeus, dave petraeus, dave petraeus, dave petraeus, dave petraeus, dave petraeus, dave petraeus, dave petraeus, dave petraeus, oh-oh-oh, dave petrae-us, come on, iraq me dave petraeus..."
walk good.

excuse me, did you say finnish harmonica quartet?

3canal (neither finnish nor harmonica-playing; quartet no more) performing @ womex this year, in seville. the only reason it not killing me that we not going is, we'll be in barbados that week...
'ray for dani getting married!
walk good.

you know they running outta names

when taco bell advertising the "new cheesy beefy melt".
walk good.

holding secrets too tight

nobody told me because nobody really knew it meant something to me.
i read of it and cry, much too long after the fact, too caught up in my personal drama @ the time.
my grandfather took me there during my "old people's project". a whole day of family stories, trekking around carapichaima with him, posing for pictures with my younger (half?)aunt and her cousin(?) on her mother's side (unrelated to me), so cool in my mother's bellbottoms rolled up to show a little leg and white high-top reeboks, the soft caribbean school jersey still in heavy rotation nearly 20years later, sea breeze whipping gently around shins to caress the backs of calves walking across stones way out to the little doorway, 1st wondering why he built so far from shore to do the extra work of bridging but somehow becoming worshipful along the path over the water, the sadhu's story of persistence and not knowing how privileged i was to hear it from the sadhu himself, the small colourful interior of warm deities, never wanting to leave those 2 old men or that place of stories...
i must believe you can go home again.
walk good.

land of the free...

...to conform. that's a grimsism, though; i can't take credit.
why, if a physical isn't absolutely required, can the fucking eye people refuse to let me buy new glasses with a prescription over 2 years old when i unintentionally break mine? if i'm willing to work with a prescription more than 2years old for whatever reasons and can pay for my glasses, why can they to force me to take an eye exam?
this populace seems to want to be relieved of the burden of personal decisions. i have no idea why.
walk good.
ps: i realise that if one goes to the doctor for some random strangeness and hasn't been before, the doctor will do a physical, but they don't charge you extra for that shit.
pps: i know i should get over this because it's been weeks, but this is the shit that makes me grind my teeth!

goats+monkeys

so the b'day weekend was unbelievably successful- grims made me brownies and just inhaling the marijuana butter made him forget completely to butter the dish, plus he almost forgot to add water, too...
he made french toast with the eggwhites left from my making guinness icecream friday, and got a case of coconut water to offset some of the drug-intake with something healthy as well as tasty. stellar.
between marijuana brownies, homemade guinness icecream and coconut water, catching a coupling marathon (always brilliantly written- what friends would've been, had it been remotely smart or funny, which makes it ironic that they later made an american coupling which failed miserably, as evidenced by viewer comments on those imdb links) to vegetate to and discovering top gear following it was bonus!
walk good.
ps: how could i forget- can't speak for rest of the piece because i never had a second to breathe, but i think i delivered a strong iago saturday night and am feeling good about what i achieved with the character in a short time. and i'm not sure why the top gear imdb link says 1978, but i promise it's the right hosts and timeframe in the actual details.
pps: the subsequent acquisition of some haze in the wake of brownies might be the best cherry-on-top ever!

fortune-ate?

2nd only to what must be the lamest fortune-cookie-fortune cop-out ever, is one the szechuan bakery provided the other day: "culture and customs of china attract you."
what's the lamest fortune-cookie-fortune cop-out ever?
walk good.
ps: that's the most i've ever typed "fortune", and it might've made it another word-gone-weird.