the only reason i’m writing this is because i’m waiting for my laundry to finish drying.
i was going to put up another photo of the fair from last year, but i don’t have one that’s been shrunken down right now. tomorrow. perhaps.
it’s funny, the photo i put up, how i’m just a tiny speck in the frame. i like that.
here’s one thing i forgot to mention in my fair reporting: the other day i was giving massages, and these two teenage boys sat down and waited for a massage. i mean, they had to wait and wait, at least 20-30 minutes. they were maybe 15 or 16 years old, and both were wearing black t-shirts. one shirt read “as i lay dying,” and there was a picture of a gun on it. this was very confusing to me; isn’t that a faulkner story? i think that’s right; some depressing story i had to read as a freshman in college, one million years ago. perhaps i even wrote a (shitty) paper on it. i got a degree in Rhetoric at the University of Ill in Champaign, in rhetoric, and that meant it was english with a writing emphasis. but back then i was a pretty terrible writer, because i jsut hadn’t written enough. you have to write a lot, and just keep writing, all the time, or at least a lot.
anyway, somebody told me last night that “as i lay dying” is also the name of a band. this would make me feel old and out of the loop about pop culture, but since i’ve always been out of the pop culture loop, it doesn’t bother me.
i just have to interject that i’ve been giving so many chair massages at the fair that my hands are actually hurting me as i type these very words. just to let you know the depth of my sacrifice here.
the other kid’s black t-shirt said hooters on it. ugh. i wanted to tell the kid, “girls won’t like you if you wear a hooters t-shirt.” but of course i said nothing.
i did think dark thought about both these boys, though; they were clearly hooligans, bad kids, heading straight for prison.
but then i thought about it – they were hanging out in the illinois building, which is also known as the senior building. they weren’t imbibing crack cocaine or methamphetimines, they were waiting for a massage. after they got their massages, they did an online test to see about their risk for heart disease. 15 year olds doing this.
i finally concluded that they weren’t bad kids at all, they must have been geeks. with poor taste in wearing apparel.
power went out at the fair last night because of a terrible storm, and it didn’t open till noon today. unprecedented, as far as i know. when i got to the IL bldg. at noon, the power had been on for an hour. it didn’t feel like the air conditioning was on, though. it was hot. i massaged and massaged and got hotter and crabbier and hotter and crabbier.
finally, at three o’clock, i could feel the coolness, and my crabbiness started to dissipate. whew.
after i finished at five, i met up with B., and we went to the twilight ballroom and danced.
it was perfect.
kind of warm, but perfect.
we did a foxtrot, and a waltz, and a swing, then a polka.
i took ballroom dance classes at different times in my life, and i love to do it, and i never get to. the band tonight was good, and the dancing was so fun. kind of warm, and my feet still hurt from the massaging on the concrete floor, but it didn’t matter at all. a guy who knew B. came up and asked him how long we’d been dancing together, and B. told him this was the first time we’d done these dances together, and the guy didn’t believe him. too bad we haven’t been dancing before, but i’m very happy we did it tonight.
my laundry is done. more tomorrow, maybe. i’m going to run in abe’s amble, the 10k race starting from the fairgrounds, on sunday, so maybe tomorrow night i’ll just go to bed at eight.
ok then,
grace tired which I HOPE TO GOD means i’ll sleep ALL NIGHT LONG. except i’m not counting on it.
p.s. last night i had the most boring dream i’ve ever, ever had, and i wish i could remember what it was about, but i can’t, of course. i’m sure i’ll have another one.