and all the stars were crashing 'round as i laid my eyes on what i found

i have been pretty blissed out lately. (except for when i focus on how difficult and grim things have been for my parents, my grandfather, my grandfather's quadriplegic roommate, Mr. Mosley, and everyone everywhere in assisted living and long term care facilities. btw, my parents sprang my grandpop from "manor care" and i have begun wondering who will cut my hair and advocate for me when i am in my 80s and on dialysis and how can i do this for my parents? will reese and riley help me? maybe, reese will sing her new favorite song, "hit me with your best shot" as we take on the health care system? (btw, she's pretty darn good at this cover but the only lines she really knows are "hit me with your best shot" "c'mon hit me with your best shot" and "fire away!"

at any rate, i had two enjoyable outings on friday in cincinnati, a sort of double date, but back to back so i could focus undivided attention on individuals. i met julia's mom rev. susan at the cincinnati art museum. she squired me around some great neighborhoods in the queen city in her prius. i so loved meeting her and especially savored meeting the author of julia. but she corrected me when i said that, and i expected her to say, no julia is the author of julia, but instead, she said God is the author of julia.

that's why she is reverend susan quinn bryan.

i puttered most of saturday working, reading, cooking after an early morning foray to the market. late in the evening, i drew a really luscious lavender bath and soaked and read my brand new New Yorker and listened to The Crane Wife. midway through, i realized that i aimed to give the new HBO series a try. so, i lept from the tub and toweled off and scampered to the TV node in the loft. i watched the show, Tell Me You Love Me. i recently read a review of Showtime's Californication about the camera angles during the sex scenes (very 14 year old boy) and was struck how they were somewhat different in Tell Me. but in fact, i am not going to Tell You because, as we know, my parents occasionally read this too.

so I crawled into bed and read more -- old New Yorkers and Cook's Illustrated. earlier in the day, i made a gorgeous chicken tikka masala as directed by october's Cook's Illustrated, and i wondered if i have anything on hand to make something else from this issue. i have a medium-sized crush on Christopher Kimball and think that he bears a passing resemblance to one mr. j.s.s.? has anyone ever told you that before?

anyway, i thought that i could hear someone in a bathtub splashing around. i can sometimes hear my next door neighbor play the piano ... always welcome, and i can usually hear my downstairs neighbor Mel with the dogs ... not that welcome but sporadic enough that it is not annoying ... but never heard anyone in the bath. i took it to be a hallucinatory metaphor but as I puzzled through it i fell asleep.

early early when the 5 something train blew through town, i groggily made my way to the bathroom. (in a 2600 square foot loft, the bathroom seems sooooo far away in the middle of the night, and i want to make like the former mrs sir paul mccartney and get a bed pan, but will have to wait until i get another pay check). anyway, after i padded to the bathroom, upon arrival, i heard faint splashing and pulled back the showercurtain only to see a waterlogged bat slowly slowly twitching in my milky undrained bath. it was so primordial and alarming. i cannot believe that i had the power to think clearly, but i found a net that a previous tenant left (perhaps to catch bats) and scooped it out of the tub and out the window into the very chilly night air.

i am certain that this means something, but what? is it an omen?



anyway, nothing like a drowning lavender encrusted bat in a tepid bath to put things in perspective.


what do i do now? i am not moving out. but how exactly does one deal with bats. clearly, one drains the tub. no more herbal baths! but what else?


this was yet another occasion that i wished i was plus one. not because i needed someone else to help me, but mainly i needed someone to absorb my anger and fear. i wanted to lash out at someone else for letting a bat into the damn bathtub.