“The walls are painted in red ocher
and are marked by strange insignia,
some looking like a bulls-eye,
others of birds and boats.
Further down the corridor,
he can see some people; all kneeling.
The carpet crawlers heed their callers:
We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out
We’ve got to get in to get out.”
~ The Carpet Crawlers, Genesis
I dreamt of strange, vague, nightmarish, nondescript apocalypses, of dying people everywhere, irradiated, burning from the inside out. Of Andy and I trying to get to Jonah. It’s hard to breathe, see, or hear. All food is gone, and the sun is obscured by black falling snow. The car is on empty and finally stops, and a landslide of mud and logs is coming at us, certain death, and I’m trying to handle that but then suddenly we see Jonah in a huge pool. A police woman tells me sternly to remove him from the pool. “There are carpet crawlers on his raft,” she explains, and is gone. Andy and I climb in the pool with Jonah, and Jonah reaches out to grasp one each of our hands, sliding off his raft. He pulls us down to the bottom and we can breathe the water and see just fine and are no longer hungry — and the carpet crawlers are, after all, only on the surface. Then, slowly, the water drains, and we drown gasping in the air.
This following the Guster show Friday night at the Capital Theater in Portchester, NY. Maybe the significance is we had to sit next to four drunken assclowns who drank and drank and drank, laughing and talking through all the songs because dammit we were in the wayback (second to last row balcony) and they could get away with their obnoxious douchebaggery. The girl with the Coach bag asked me to watch her coat in between drinks. I wanted to say “You think there are coat thieves back here in the balcony of a Guster show?” Her steroid-large boyfriend paused his constant texting after every song to hoot and holler, laughing. Why are you HERE? I wanted to ask them. Sigh. I’m getting old.
But then the music took over and I forgot about wanting to punch the moron.
It was an awesome show. I even got a few decent pictures from my far-distant perch:
Ryan and Luke
April, Charlene, Adam, Ryan, Luke
Brian, under spotted light effects
Dwight Yoakam?
Isn’t that the country singer who played Dole in Slingblade?
I dislike Westchester. Lived there for a year. But I had to get in to get out. That night I had the carpet crawlers nightmare.
Next morning M dropped me off at Andy’s, where we met my mom and drove to pick up Boo. Everything seemed in slow motion – even Jonah, who was more subdued than usual. Even his lone aggression, aimed at Andy, fell short of notable. I brought Guardian Gus the ScareMeNot for Jonah to hold, and all was right with the world.
Later Jonah took a bath and put his head right underwater.
It reminded me of that creepy dream, but we had a good day and Boo was, for the most part, a very good boy. I hugged and kissed him soundly several times without suffering any consequences.
When I got home M and I took a long nap and then stayed up til almost 2am. Today feels like it should be Monday (because we took Friday off) but then neither of us has Martin Luther King Jr. Day off. It all balances out, but today I’m cooking homemade something and relaxing to episode after episode of All in the Family (speaking of Martin Luther King Jr. Day).
Watch my favorite part of my favorite episode. I can watch it over and over.
‘Twas a good weekend. I am appreciative.
The Never Normal 