September 2007 Archives

That's the Way
September 24, 2007 | permalink

I am getting ready to leave the house on Saturday to meet my sister The Star, and there is a knock at the door. It's the super, and he says there is a rattle in the pipes somewhere in my apartment line, and he needs to turn on the water in the kitchen and bathroom to see if it is originating with me. So, I let him in and finish getting ready to go. No problem.

Yeah, right.

I poke my head in the bathroom before I leave, and he is trying, in vain, to turn on the hot water faucet. I have been fighting a losing battle with the faucet to keep it working... the threads have been stripping out. I keep making it work for a while, and it keeps getting worse. (Sure, I could have had him fix it, but I hate to be a bother unless it is absolutely necessary, you know? Or, I am just stubborn.) So, of course, it completely gives up the ghost while the super is there.

He runs downstairs to grab a new faucet handle, and returns in a couple of minutes. He switches it, turns on the water to test it (it worked just fine, no slippage), and turns it back off. Only the water doesn't fully turn off. I am not talking about a drip here, Gentle Readers. This was a steady stream of water. The super then says, and I quote, 'That's no good.'

So he turns off the valve on the wall that should, in theory, shut off all of the hot water in the bathroom. It makes no difference at all to the stream of water pouring from the faucet. 'You have a problem inside, my friend. I fix.'

So, I left, and left him to it. When I came back later, I noticed right away that there was a rusty hacksaw blade on the floor outside the bathroom door. I knew right then that I was in for a treat.

Sure enough, not only were both faucet handles gone, but the spigot had been hacked off, and the resultant hole had the vestige of the pipe in it, surrounded by plumbing putty. It looked kind of like a neck, after the head has been decapitated. At least it wasn't leaking at all. Oh, and there was a note: 'Be careful when using the sink.' Be careful?!? I would have to use pliers to get it to work at all. It was all quite amusing.

So, in theory, it will be finished today. Although this morning the guy downstairs knocked on my door to say that there was water leaking down from my bathroom. Which, since I had no water running at all, is Not a Good Sign. I think there must be a leak in the wall, now. I think my whole bathroom is going to get torn apart this week...

Posted in Random & The Home Front
(5) Comments

The Promise of Shadows
September 23, 2007 | permalink

My ex-wife got married a few weeks ago.

I found out about a week ago, at a bar, from a mutual friend. He let it slip because he thought I knew already. Apparently, a lot of people thought I knew. My sisters The Rockette and The Star both knew, but didn't talk to me about it because they thought I knew already, and was keeping it from them. I found that out yesterday.

I felt... weird, is the best I can come up with, about it at first. Not exactly sad, not angry or betrayed, not exactly happy for her; but some strange combination of those emotions, and maybe more besides. It was a little confusing, and I felt a little dazed, for a bit. It was truly a unique sensation, and I am not altogether sure I could describe with any fidelity.

The next morning, when I woke up, that confusing, dazing emotion was gone, and I realized that what I felt was a little bit of relief, and a little bit of lightness. For a long time after we split, we each remained the focus of the other's emotional life, only in terrible, hurtful ways. A little under a year ago, we had a civil, honest discussion for the first time in I don't know how long. There were several others after that, and it seemed to me that we had reached a truce, and maybe a little bit of understanding. We haven't spoken in months, and I didn't (and don't) expect that we will again. Our emotional lives are no longer connected, and I am glad for it.

That is not to say, Gentle Readers, that I am not happy for her; I am. I bear her no ill will. But we tore each other apart, once upon a time, and we will never be friends.

Posted in Musings & The Past & Women


haiku 144
September 23, 2007 | permalink

Haiku No. 144 (The Herb Garden)

the sweet herbs release
their scent, their essence, their souls,
like people, when touched

Posted in Miniblog
(0) Comments

Overpowered by Funk
September 21, 2007 | permalink

I am having trouble, Gentle Readers, getting back in the habit of writing. I have mentioned how disruptive Fashion can be in the past; how it is, for all intents and purposes, non-time for those of us involved (much like the extra days and weeks that the ancients would insert into their calendars as festivals outside the normal flow of the year). This season was worse than others, as I had a gig right before and right after, which effectively made my normal two weeks of fashion nearly a month long. Nearly all of my routines and habits have been suspended, and I feel a little adrift today, as I try to resume living in real time (as opposed to the Fashion non-time).

Of course, all I really need to do to get back in the swing is to actually do the things I am used to doing. Tonight I will bake bread (for the first time in I can't remember how long... six weeks, at least, which is the longest its been since I started in earnest 20 months ago). I am writing this post (obviously), and it is flowing better than I feared it would. Certainly better than the two or three I have tried to write in the last few days. And I am back in the office, and have done some of the close-of-show paperwork that I need to do, instead of drifting aimlessly around my desk. It's an interesting sensation, though... kind of like coming off of a tour, or returning from Spoleto.

One notable absence of my post-Fashion, though, is my customary serious case of the blues, which is nice, to say the least. There is a touch of them, to be sure... there always is, after a big project. But that's really all it has been- a touch. It's a lot better this way, to actually be able to enjoy the feeling of a job well done (even if it was completely life-disrupting), instead of well, not.

Posted in Blogging & Fashion Week & Musings & Working
(1) Comments

I've Seen the Sun Set the Sea on Fire
September 14, 2007 | permalink

Well that was a hell of a week.

Even now, only a day and a half after I closed the door on my last truck, it seems hazy and indistinct. That might have something to do with how little sleep there was to be had this season (not that I am complaining, mind you- I got less sleep than ever before, and I was getting off easy. There were shows where a lot less sleep was had than on mine), coupled with the large and then gigantic shows I did, back to back. So, yeah, it's all kind of a blur. But there was one notable highlight.

One night, backstage while the first of my events was going on, I had a very stereo-typically male conversation with The Sorta-Rican. Not stereo-typically male in its subject matter; we weren't talking about tits and ass. What I mean is, it was kind of an emotional conversation, but conducted with gigantic under-statement. It really struck me later how much was being left unsaid, though at the time there was never really a question about what we were talking about.

The gist of the spoken conversation was this: He is seriously considering leaving the business and doing something else, and he was saying that he didn't want me to feel like I was being left in a lurch (he is my number one guy, as they say). I assured him that this wasn't the case, and that I would be thrilled for him to find something that he liked better, and that was pretty much the end of it.

What was really going on though, was more like this: He was asking me if we were really and truly friends, or just work friends, and he wanted to know and be prepared if we were going to not see each other socially, because he doesn't really have a lot of people that he feels close too; he counts me as one of them, but if he's wrong, he wanted to know. He's not wrong- I count him as a brother, in every sense of the word, and I made sure that he knew that I loved and respected him and wasn't going to drop him like a hot potato. And all of that happened without any of it being said, and we both knew it.

The vast amount and great subtlety of information that can be contained within a superficially inane conversation between two people who know each other well is truly amazing, isn't it?

Posted in Fashion Week & Musings & Social Life & Working
(2) Comments

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