55 Fiction Friday: Therapy Edition

Friday moves out of the house, so you move next door.

Your shouting rattles the print on the wall – the one we bought at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. (Remember admiring the array of tulip bulbs at the Bloomenmarket? And the ridiculous amount of beer we drank that night?) I close my eyes, but it only intensifies the sound, somehow. We were so happy once.

O.P.P.

(or The Post Where I Turn into my Mother ..... AGAIN)

Dudes, I am not dealing well with O.P.P. (other people's pregnancy.) TBF is 8 mos pregnant and on bedrest. This means, ideally, she is up for 2 hours, and then rests for four hours. Repeat. TBF has two settings: 0 and 90 mph. She has no "slow and steady wins the race" mode. This bedrest thing - so hard for her.

So, I've been trying to be a good friend and call her a couple of times a day, just to check in. I gave her a call, and didn't get her. Strange, left her a message. And called a few hours later. And still didn't get her. And left a message. And called later. And left a message.

I've become my mother. My mom pulled this on me a couple of weeks ago. She called a few times, and I was really slammed with work and couldn't back to her. The refractory period between phone calls shortened. When I managed to talk to her, she told me that she had concoted some kind of "fallen and can't get up" scenario for me: that I was sick and in bed ... and alone ... and with no one to take care of me ... and couldn't get to the phone to call for help.

Mmyeah.

And I did that today with TBF. All kinds of worrying, all kinds of fearing the worst, but trying to be all rational and shit. (Humor me and tell me I had good reason.)

TBF called me - everything is FINE. She just had a number of doctor appointments. She saw my three missed calls and knew she'd best get to dialing, because I have never called that much.

Sigh. Like I said, I'm not down with O.P.P.

Also, my boyfriend on my other boyfriend's show. It's just too much.

Labels

So, I'm going through and labeling old posts. The labels are self-explanatory ... to me.

• fifty-five friday fiction : my collection of 55 word microfiction posted on Fridays. Well, usually posted on Fridays, and usually "fiction."
• haiku you: any and all posts written in haiku, related to haiku
• how you livin' : weekend updates!
• mememe : any time I participate in a meme
• self-indulgent navel gazing: okay that one really is self-explanatory, to any self!
• tawk amongst yourselves: whenever I write about snippets of conversation (which is more often than you might think.)
• travelogue: posts written while on the road
• which way to the bar: Bar exam prep posts

Operation Head & Shoulders

...you can go and brush your shoulder off...

- Jay-Z

So. Enough is enough. SJM swears its a Bay area thing. Personally, I think it might be an age thing. Whatever it is - I'm done with people flaking on me. A number of behaviors fall into this rubric. They include:

• Never RSVPng to invites
• RSVPng indicating attendance, and then not showing up
• Calling and canceling shortly before we were to meet up
• Being consistently late (more than 15-20 minutes)
• Not getting in touch to firm up tentative plans when the ball is in your court

Because I am done with this behavior^* - I am launching Operation Head & Shoulders. Part of the reason that flaking has become so acceptable in this area/age group (depending on your point of view) is that so many people do it - it's like it's not rude any more. Well, I still think it is. So, from now on, when people flake, one of two things will happen. The first time (or when I start to notice a pattern), I will call them out on the flaking. "Calling someone out" involves pointing out that they flaked, and that the onus is on them to make plans next time. The second time someone flakes, well - no more invites.

This goes against my very ethos: invite everyone to every thing. But, there you have it, my attempt to reduce or eliminate flakes.

^* This isn't to say that all cancellations etc. are unforgivable. Occasionally, you get jammed at work, or traffic is a bear, or a friend from out of town suddenly plans a visit. Things happen, the question is whether it's a pattern of behavior.

Miel

"Thanks, sweetheart."

Come again? I know that the guy at the running store did not just call me 'sweetheart'! I have packages of couscous older than him!

NB: If you are a diner waitress in Baltimore of indescribable age, you can call me 'hon.' If you're not, don't even think about it.

Three Little Birds

Be grateful: I nearly wrote this post last night after my wine class (i.e. 1/2 a sheet to the wind.) But, I thought, "No! My readers (all four of them) deserve better! They deserve nouns and verbs. In the same sentence, even!"

Weekend update! (on Thursday, but hey - at least it's happening!)

I had an awesome weekend, and by awesome I mean I mostly did nothing, and a lot of it. Perfection.

Friday night, I took Jay-Z out for drinks to Iberia, a Spanish joint around the corner from chez moi, to celebrate her last day at work. The sangria there is fabulous, and strong! As we were leaving, I ran into a blog commenter! What's funny is that we met up once before .... at Iberia! We joked back and forth about "how come you didn't call me? I thought you had a good time on our date", etc., while her patient boyfriend rolled his eyes.

Saturday - nothing, with a side order of nothing. The big event of the day was making dinner for TBF. She is now 8 months pregnant and on bedrest, poor thing. We watched "Dazed and Confused" - how had I never seen that before?? There are such holes in my movie knowledge.

Sunday - I went to a few open houses in the city. I'm feeling a little ambivalent about whether I want to buy or not, but oddly, I really enjoy going to open houses now. I like learning a little more about the city, parking somewhere and walking around. Something I knew, but that I re-affirmed this weekend: if the listing says fixer-upper, it's a total disaster. "contractor's dream" = "buyer's nightmare." I was in the living room of the second open house when a woman and her husband walked in. We looked at each other and immediately started walking towards each other. It turns out she works for the same firm, but the SF office and we had met once months ago. We talked real estate for a little bit, and continued around the house.

Monday (bonus round, bitches!) I spent the morning in bed with "The Moor's Last Sigh." I've had a much harder time getting wrapped up in this Rushdie than the last, but I think I turned the corner. I finally pulled myself away and decided to hit the cafe. Yeah, noonish on a holiday with beautiful weather? Not a good time to hit the cafe. The cafe has a little sign about doubling up with "unmet friends" when necessary. I managed to suck it up and ask someone if I could share his table. I settled down, and reached into my backpack for the Moor ... only to come up empty-handed. Ick. I ended up chatting with my co-table occupant, poor thing. And it turned out to be a great conversation: we covered real estate, economics, studying languages , entrepreneurship, etc. Unmet friend, indeed.

I did next to nothing this weekend, and yet - every day had its own little coincidence, it's own unexpected conversation. And, sometimes, that's all you need.

55 Fiction Friday: Meritage edition

Friday gets a little bit of a wine buzz on.

She swirled the glass, allowing the burgundy to coat the sides of the glass. Tilting it away from her, she examined the color. Bringing it to her nose, she inhaled deeply and loudly. Then, finally a sip: the small explosion, then a flood of flavor, and finally the finish. She closed her eyes, savoring it.

Those who forget history....

maisnon: 1 sec, someone is in my office
maisnon: ...and he just left
ILTSAE: ok
maisnon: ...after drawing an analogy between the holocaust and turtlenecks - "never again"
ILTSAE: omg. please tell me he's gay
maisnon: nope
maisnon: but he is jewish
maisnon: i honestly love my coworkers

Claire de Lune

WEEKEND UPDATE!

So, last weekend, I headed down to Hell-A to visit one of my favorite commenters (and incidentally, one of my best friends from college.) ILTSAE brings out ... the most obnoxious in me, and that is saying something. Once she came to visit me in DC and was greeted at the airport with a sign that said LOSER. I did it because I knew she would have to walk up to me if she wanted a ride home, or a bed to sleep in. Yeah, I'm a bitch.

Spending time with us must be a little taxing for others because we have so many inside stories (which we can summarize in pithy little comments: "that'll do for now", "not a drop in the bucket", etc.) Also, we are rapier-mean to each other (because, of course, we couldn't love each other more.)

The weekend was largely just chill, which I badly needed. After she picked me up, we wandered fabulous downtown Claremont in search of eats and then home to her cute little house. Saturday morning, I headed to Hollywoodland to meet up with J-money and Roonie for brunch. Roonie and I then took it to the hills to walk it out. Um, if you're thinking of doing a little walking/hiking - pick a trail that doesn't have a stable nearby. Draw your own conclusions.

I drove back to Claremont and swore I would never drive again. My shins actually hurt from all of the stop-and-go. On a Saturday. We met up with some of ILTSAE's friends for fabulous, fabulous sushi. Mmmm. I even sang the sushi song ("Sushi! Sushi! Sushi! I made you out of fish." sung to the tune of "Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel" I'm so mature.) If you are in the area, let me recommend Rumblefish Sushi - the yum! Then - movie night! We watched one of my all-time favorite movies: "The Broken Hearts Club: A Gay Romantic Comedy" (shut up - it's friggin' fabulous! And Dean Cain! And Zach Braff (as a blonde)! And Justin Theroux!) I left "Bring it On" for ILTSAE to enjoy later. GO TOROS!

Sunday. Sunday was a little hard on me. Something I've been really working on is not starting the sulk while the weekend is still going on. I feel that seeing someone can make you realize how much you miss seeing them on a regular basis. Thanggod for cellphones and IM, etc., but there is something about hearing a friend's laugh in person and feeling the full force of their wit in person. I felt like I missed ILTSAE while I was still there, but thankfully - it's a very short flight away.

55 Fiction Friday: Naptime edition

Friday is feewing sweepy.


The splitting and splatting of the rain falling down the gutter spout induced sleepiness. Like a switch flipped, she could feel her eyelids lowering, and her brain putting itself into deep freeze. She was overtaken by an almost instinctual desire to curl up under something fluffy and lay her cheek against a cool, smooth pillow.