one of my massage clients asked me if i’d be willing to bartend for his family’s christmas party, and with my current situation, i’d be foolish to turn down income, so i accepted. as it happens, was going to be playing santa at a former co-worker’s place in loomis, ca, which is thirty miles east of sacramento, so he had to go that way anyway, and he offered to take me and my massage table to sacramento. now, if you don’t know, my table is 80″ x 36″. it’s the largest size table that the manufacturers will make, because it gets too difficult to work on a person when the table is wider, but it’s also a great feeling of comfort and safety for my clients, knowing that it’s nearly impossible for them to roll or fall off the table.
so, at 11am on saturday, i hear a knock on the door. knowing that albadger was coming to pick me up, i ran down wrapped in a towel to let him in. the burly man at the door said, “long beach acceptance.” i just stared at him blankly. the repo man, coming for the big ole chrysler. shit. they told me that it probably wouldn’t be until monday, when i talked to them on friday about it. “hold on a minute, and i’ll go get you the keys.”
that started me thinking about one of the reasons i moved back to san francisco – i don’t need a car to live here. so, i bade my beautiful car a misty farewell and hopped into the shower to finish getting ready for my trip to sacramento.
when arrived, i was putting my shoes on, but the repo man hadn’t left yet, so the two of us waited for him to finish, then we tried to load my table into the back seat of his mitsubishi gt spyder. i got it in there, but the ragtop wouldn’t close, so we moved the seats up a tad and flipped the table over and tried again. success! we got the convertible closed, got in, and headed out. two hours of sitting in his car is usually no problem, but with the seat up, i was crouched down and pretty uptight.
he dropped me off at my client’s place, and we said our goodbyes, and he took off back to the freeway to finish his twenty miles to his party. i’m sure he’ll be writing it up on the .
i could go on about setting up the bar area, going shopping for booze, and stuff, but that’s a bunch of boring malarkey. i made so many cosmopolitans, lemon drops, sour apple martinis, tequila sunrises, long island iced teas, and other stuff. i couldn’t believe how much these folks could pack the booze away. i was amazed. truly amazed. and how much they kept trying to get me to drink with them – i did a little bit of that, but largely kept my head about me.
albadger arrived at around 2330, as i was starting to clean up, get paid, and get out of there. he got me home at around 0200, and when i got home, and both got up, lit candles, and we proceeded to talk about the blackout until i went to sleep.
that night i had a bizarre dream. i dreamt i was chanting in church, and the congregation was completely full. all the people on the rolls who rarely show up for services, and when we were done, there was this huge outpouring of criticism of my dedication to the church. i went home and found out that there was a new discussion board on the church’s website, and that they had been talking about me there, too. that night, there was a banquet of the congregation, and at the banquet, i had a nervous breakdown and went fetal on the floor. then the congregation lined up to kick me as i lay there. the last person to kick me said, “oh yeah, there’s your twelve dollars.” i turned my head to see $12 crumpled up on the floor.
so, i woke up and went in to church, my body aching, desiring sleep. it’s times like these when i can feel myself slipping into the power of the words so strongly that it seems as if i am the words, and the words are me. my listening to those vesper CDs is really payin
g off. i could sense something different about how i was singing: much more slowly, each word shaping itself in my mind and mouth, coming out and filling the church and lingering there. three times i found myself crying because the energy was so intense in the space that i couldn’t take it anymore. the orthros gospel reading was the story of luke and cleopas on the road to jerusalem and meeting jesus and not recognizing him until he blesses their meal. then he vanishes from them.
i came home and slept, worn out from the weekend’s toil. i had to postpone a massage appointment, but i was able to reschedule with them, so it’s not a total loss. i hope things start to get easier soon.
oh, yeah, i need to wake up at 0415 to get to the airport for his trip back east to see his family.
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Life in San Francisco
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