Contorted

Things I like: Listening to “The Sundays” on Sunday, sleeping past 11am, vodka tonics.

These are all things I haven’t done in a while, which I partook in this weekend. I’m listening to the Sundays now actually. It’s been raining all morning and now there’s this brilliant sun break in the clouds and all sorts of light streaming through the window. There was no one on the streets earlier but now there are all sorts of people walking by. They’re making a break for it.

The room where the computer is sits right on the street. Since we’re the ground floor apartment and the room is sunk down from the street level about two feet, you can really feel exposed to the outside when you sit in here. I don’t mind it so much and I like sitting in this room because it’s the only room in the apt. that gets fully sun drenched, unless you count the backyard. The problem with this room is that Eliott loves to sit in here with you when you’re on the computer and howl at anyone that walks by. He’s guarding. He becomes enraged when people dare to walk by our apartment and if they make the huge mistake of STOPPING to say, get groceries out of their car or light their cigarette, it’s all over. He has a full blown howling fit that could take us full minutes to calm him down from. Sometimes we have to just shut the blinds and take him out of the room all together.

It’s so confusing to him because he’s a beagle and it’s his job to guard the place and howl at the top of his lungs when anything slightly unusual takes place, at least that’s what his genetic map has convinced him of, and here we are picking him up and removing him from his post. Whenever he finishes with his howling he always sort of shakes it off a bit with this look about him that says, “Whew, I scared off another one.” He takes pride in his work and I feel badly for thwarting his instincts but the howl. It’s a sharp sound.

This morning Eliott and I are sitting in the front room on Sunday, listening to the Sundays with a sun break in the clouds. I’m typing a story into my blog and he’s howling at the passers by. I’ve decided to just let him do it. He really seems to be enjoying himself and no one is really bothered by it because the windows are shut and they only hear a muffled version. Let the beagle howl.

Last night I had a dream that I was flushing clothing down the toilet. I noticed that I had flushed my favorite belt and grabbed it and pulled it out and washed it in the sink. All I could think was, “now that’s really going to clog the toilet.”

On Friday we went and saw the “Long Winters” play at the Bowery Ballroom. It was a fun time and I really love some of the songs on the new album. I drank 3 vodka tonics and literally started falling asleep on my feet (which were killing me because I was wearing heels, bad idea) at about 1am. I leaned on Dup and begged him to take me home, which he did eventually, before the set was over and he was enjoying the songs quite a bit. I am once again eternally grateful to the Dup for taking me home. I just can’t stay up like that, especially after drinking 3 v&t’s and especially on a Friday night when I’ve been working all week. Still it was fun to go out and see a rock show and stay out late and sleep in.

Then last night I went out again, with my friend Rachel, to see my friend Amy perform at The Spiegel Tent which is set up at the Fulton Fish Market on the East River. It was a beautiful night and the Brooklyn Bridge is right there and the show was fantastic. It’s a variety circus type show but all of the performers were so talented. Not only did they each have some special freaky thing they could do but they were all truly, genuinely funny, including Amy who is just becoming a better performer every time I see her on stage. She is so beautiful and magnetic and hilarious on a pair of roller skates. It was inspiring to see this type of show because although the acts were all pretty classic: sword swallowing, body bending, trapeze, hula hoops, singing, etc., it’s time-old traditional entertainment, it was polished in a very modern way and the audience was LOVING IT (myself included). It was great to see so many people laughing like that and to be a part of it and think, well maybe it’s ok that we have such short attention spans and we just want to be entertained and forget about our lives for a while. Maybe that’s the way it’s always been.

One of the performers’ talent was to contort himself. He’s double jointed and he was twisting his body through a tennis racket (no strings). At one point he has to dislocate his shoulder to get it through. It’s totally gross and looks really weird and he’s all twisted around himself with his limbs sticking out in weird places but really funny because he’s got this long hair and a moustache and he’s wearing no shirt and these tight white tennis shorts and a sweat band. The whole time he’s doing this hilarious banter in his own funny English accent. So he gets himself in this position and turns out to the audience after a big silent pause and says, “I want to talk to you about Jesus.” That got the biggest laugh of the night. Then he says, “Jesus was born on Christmas and Died on Easter. Now what are the chances of that?” Then he says, “I wasn’t born on Christmas or Easter but when I was little I had a dream of what I wanted to be, "The Amazing Rubber Man" and I did it. Now if I can do this for a living, maybe you out there in the audience can think about some of the things that you’ve wanted to be in your life and consider that they are not quite as strange as you thought they were. Follow your dreams ladies and gentleman.”

Indeed.

Today was supposed to be a Dog Run Clean Up Day but It was cancelled due to rain. It’s a bummer that it’s not getting done but it has awarded me this day of extreme leisure. I’m sitting in my sweatpants, eating cereal at the computer at 1pm. MAYBE I’ll take a shower? Who knows. This weekend has been all about leisure and entertainment. It’s nice. It’s like life is saying, “la Ketch, take a load off. Don’t be so serious about it all the time. Stop trying to do so much.” After all when I was a little girl I had a dream of what I wanted to be, “Executive Assistant at a Multi Billion Dollar Hedge Fund.” It actually sounds weirder than anything I ever really thought I would become.

Follow your Dreams Ladies and Gentleman. Follow your dreams.