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obvious tussin behavior
Saturday, May 25 2002
setting: Hogwaller, Charlottesville, VirginiaToday was the big day of the wedding that Peggy had come to Virginia to attend. This was the wedding of Zach's (Peggy's husband's) mother to some gentleman. Zach and Peggy are no longer together and don't even live in the same city (Zach lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, actually), although they'd both come to Charlottesville for this wedding. This afternoon Zach and his girlfriend Holly came over to Jessika's house to hang out with Zach's son Abu. Abu, meanwhile, had been engaged for most of the morning in rambunctious Star Wars-themed-play with a couple of neighbor kids named Dominique and Savannah. It says something about Abu's charisma that Dominique (who is three years older) was following him around as if he was the anointed one. Yesterday evening Jessika noted that Dominique had changed into a Batman shirt in an apparent effort to ingratiate himself with the action-figure-obsessed Abu, and Dominique continued to wear this shirt today. Dominique's younger sister Savannah, meanwhile, was seen outfitted in a Superman Halloween costume for most of the day. By the time Zach and Holly took Abu and his two friends out for yet another viewing of Attack of the Clones, he'd changed into his Tatooine proto-Jedi outfit, complete with a flashlight that Peggy had converted into a light saber.
While the kids were gone, Peggy, Jessika, and I went out for breakfast at the ever-humble Fox's Café to catch up on our cholesterol and second-hand antibiotics. I hadn't really noticed before, but Fox's is decorated with numerous pictures and sculptures of red foxes. I thought they should broaden the imagery and include tasteful pin-ups of hot chicks (foxes) and perhaps an autographed photo of Michæl J. Fox.
On the Downtown Mall, Peggy and Jessika spent a long time in one of those stores that sells a combination of kitschy antiques and tasteful modern decorative art. I can usually have fun doing anything Peggy and Jessika do, but as a straight man I still have my limits. So, after watching the cellulite flow past for awhile, I went across the mall to the drug store and bought a bunch of tussin gel caps.
Back at Jessika's house after the movie, the kids came back all pumped-up with movie-induced excitement. All they wanted to do (or all Abu wanted to do at least) was have light saber battles and race around on land speeders. Jessika's scooter parked in the yard made for the perfect land speeder, though some of us were concerned it might topple over under the forces of three rough-housing children. As this afternoon's primary liaison from the adult world, Holly did the shoo-shoo light saber battle thing for an incredibly long time, but after an hour or so even she had had enough, yet the kids showed no signs of tiring.
Eventually it was time for the wedding, so the neighbor kids had to be sent home and Abu had to get dressed up. After everyone was gone, Jessika and I sat in the living room talking about the complexities of living arrangements.[REDACTED]
The kids Abu, Dominique and Savannah "riding" Jessika's scooter.
In the background is Peggy's newly-purchased forest green 1992 Volvo.
Abu with a light saber and his "I'm Po and I'm Proud" teeshirt.
Dominique with Abu, Zach and Peggy.
Dominique and Abu as a young Jedi from Tatooine.
Peggy this morning at Fox's Café.
Jessika this morning at Fox's Café.
Peggy and Jessika (with various random others) on the Downtown Mall today.
Fast Eddie getting a massage on the Downtown Mall today.
A tree under construction by Rose the Instigator at a new second floor tea shop on the east end of the Downtown Mall, which is now being billed as "the new happening end."
Details of the skeletal structure of Rose's tree.
Jessika examines her Brat's engine while Zach picks his banjo.
Abu in his fancy clothes before the wedding.
I spent the evening working in the University of Virginia's Cocke Hall computer lab. Towards the end of my time there, I swallowed ten tussin gel gaps. These contained both dextromethorphan and ephedrine, and I was feeling the full effects by the time I rendezvoused with Jessika at the Jefferson Theatre at 10pm tonight. I tried to act like nothing was different, but there was no fooling Jessika, who immediately noticed my "crazy eyes" and asked if I was on tussin. I didn't say anything at first but after awhile I owned up to it.
The big movie tonight at the Jefferson was Fellowship of the Ring, and when it let out at about 10:30pm, a full menagerie of familiar Charlottesville personalities poured through the Jefferson lobby, a few of them stopping to chat as they passed. One of these was Amy Br!ggs, who was, just then, fixated on the idea that she needed to change her shirt. Jessika and I had been expecting Peggy's arrival, but since she hadn't yet materialized, I had nothing to do but hangout and wait. I elected to walk with Amy Br!ggs when she walked back to her house to do that emergency shirt change. Unfortunately her giant moth had died since I'd last seen it.
Amy knew about a party happening near the Downtown Mall on the corner of third and Water Street, and since Peggy had still not shown up at the Jefferson, we decided to go. The party was something of a sendoff for Patrick Reed, who is moving to the East Village of Manhattan. In the throes of my tussin-induced empathy, I was feeling intense (though oddly soothing) pangs of guilt for all the petty negative things I'd written about Patrick Reed through the years. The Big Fun Glossary, for example, contains unusually thick deposits of transparently-ridiculous anti-Patrick rhetoric, mostly the result of Sara Poiron's influence. As I walked around with Amy tonight, I found myself giving voice to these regrets in hopes that they might eventually be communicated to Patrick himself. After all, what with his artsy-geek charm and chiseled good looks, Patrick Reed is probably Amy's archetypal manly ideal.
The party was being held in a rather expensive ground-floor apartment featuring a large courtyard. At the front gate I introduced myself as "Gus" to someone and he asked, "The Gus?" and I said yes. Later I ran across a guy at the party named Vlad and asked him if he was in fact "The Vlad" - I didn't mean Vlad the Impaler but Vlad the Gutterpunk. It was indeed. He's caused more than his fair share of chaos and evictions, but tonight he seemed perfectly good-natured and sociable (until I took his picture, that is).
In my tussin-induced state of sociability, I randomly walked up and chatted with Patrick Reed for awhile, making suggestions about what bars to check out and that sort of thing. I'm sure I must have seemed like a lunatic at the time.
I walked back to the Jefferson to get Jessika and found her and Peggy just leaving. I took them to the Patrick Reed sendoff party and we mingled there briefly and then continued on to our next destination: a party we'd heard about out in the country near Scottsville (somewhere along route 626).
The biggest reservation we had about going to the Scottsville party was the likelihood of Joanna Road Rage being there. I don't know precisely what the issues involved are, but neither Jessika nor Peggy communicate with Joanna anymore, even though she continues to live near Charlottesville (hanging out mostly with hippies and assorted fans of reggæ music). Not really understanding Peggy and and Jessika and their hangup regarding Joanna, I suggested that if they ran across Joanna at the party, they could always talk about the weather, or perhaps use another classic icebreaker such as, "So, what have you been up to?"
After we'd passed a big round hay bail that served as a landmark, we pulled into the yard where this party was supposed to be happening, but it seemed really quiet there and we were on edge as we climbed out of the car. Being the most addled, I led the charge as we tried to slide into the party unnoticed. But this was impossible; as we passed within view of the campfire, we were immediately greeted by several voices, some of which mentioned my name. As predicted, Joanna Road Rage was there, though her interactions with us were minimal for the duration of our stay.
Our contingent kept mostly indoors, spread out on a couch in the living room. I remember this one uncomfortable scene where this woman Tara (who, it bears noting, is something of a hot chick) came up to me and said hello and I couldn't remember who the hell she was even though we'd hung out together on several occasions back in the days of Monster Boy. She seemed really offended that I'd forgotten who she was and I kept seeing her glaring at me for the rest of the time she was there.
I was delighted to find Nelly Appleby (formerly of Pierce and Nelly fame) there. We soon found ourselves comparing notes on Brooklyn (she recently lived there), talking about her recent artistic successes and reminiscing about the "special times," particularly one of Nikolai's art openings.
Mixing things up a little, I went out by the fire for a time, picked up a guitar and joined an affable fellow campfire dude in an extemporaneous song about, well, I think it was about anal sex but I don't really remember.
When I went back inside, it seemed that all of the girls except for the three in my contingent had left. Several unknown guys were hanging out with Jessika, Amy and Peggy, passing around a makeshift beer can marijuana smoking device (none of the girls partook). I overheard this one guy, upon looking at the girls on the couch, saying, "Do you have to submit a picture to live in this town?"
For there part, the girls had things to say that they didn't want anyone to hear, so for a time they were speaking in Gibberish. Gibberish is one of those languages like Pig Latin where English words are snipped into pieces and stuck on either side of some nonsense sound, thereby accomplishing a weak form of encryption. I've never been able to understand Gibberish (though I confess I've never really tried) and to my ear it kept sounding like they were saying "The Gus is the gay."
After we'd left the party, we suddenly realized that we needed a cigarette lighter, so we immediately returned and I stumbled back inside to ask if the guys (by now it was a full-on sausage party) would sell me the one I saw on their coffee table. Realizing an immediate financial opportunity, one of them said "Five dollars." "Sure, no problem," I said, slapping a five down on the table and running back out the door.
On the drive home, we pulled over on the side of the road to have a look at the landmark hay bail. Since it was mysteriously on fire, Jessika danced on top of it and I took pictures.
Some homeslice with Amy Br!ggs at the Patrick Reed sendoff party.
Vlad the Gutterpunk at the Patrick Reed sendoff party.
Random people at the Patrick Reed sendoff party.
Peggy, Amy Br!ggs and Jessika at the Scottsville party.
Nelly and I at the Scottsville Party.
Nelly and I at the Scottsville Party.
Random homeslices at the Scottsville Party.
Jessika dances on a mysteriously burning hay bail, one of the landmarks for finding the Scottsville party.
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