Dotty Parker

still in florida

I've missed you guys. ChillyLily and ChillyBilly are both at work today, so I've got lots of free time!

I took a walk around the lake today. Their apartment complex has a lake. Many of them do. ChillyLilly and I were talking about apartments and she told me that if I move here, I should be careful to ask if there are any alligators in the lakes.

I only walked part way around. I'm sure that there aren't supposed to be any, but they're alligators. They aren't clever. They use their reptile brain and just do whatever they do.

A lot like small children. But I'm taking no chances.

There's a 7-11 on every corner. Or it seems like that. I went to get the decadent slurpee today. All of my favorite flavors were gone. So sad. But I got orange. That was better than Mountain Dew. Yuck. The only time I consume that color is when I eat kiwi. I think that's it. I'm sure there's another time, but I don't know when it is.

dizzy over your sexy ears

I had a fascinating experience before I left on the plane. I got really dizzy. That's kind of normal for me. Figuratively and literally it's very true.

But then my vision got really funky. Eating and drinking didn't help. Everything looked like the vertical hold was broken. I was going to get on the plane, but I realized that I couldn't read anything because everything was so blurry and scrolling up and up and up.

I got scared. It's really disconcerting to not be able to see and not know why. I don't recommend it. I was crying because I couldn't see. I called BE. Since thr number was programmed for "1 send" I could manage it. Otherwise I'd have needed help.

At any rate, I called BE and he came and got me. The doctor says, after many tests and stuff, that I probably have a viral ear infection. So much drama!

Once I was lying on my back for twenty minutes or so, things started getting better. Five more minutes, and I was A-OK.

I'm taking something for motion sickness until I am virus free. It's very strange. But I flew here just a few hours delayed. ChillyLily picked me up.

I'm so glad drugs solve every problem.

talking on the plane

On the plane I had an argument with a guy named Jim about his conservative politics and my liberal ones. Then the guy sitting next to Jim, Johnny, played a song for ChilLil and me at the baggage claim. He'd written it himself. It was harmonically complex and beautiful. The lyrics were overwrought, but honest.

Or so I thought. He had a string of bad luck that would top, um, someone with famously bad luck. Murphy, I suppose. Of Murphy's law.

Here's the scoop: He was flying back to Tampa after not being allowed to re-enter England. We asked why. He'd over stayed his visa by five years.

ChilLil asked why he didn't just renew. He said that his passport had been stolen a few years ago and that his info had been used to commit crimes all over the Pacific northwest. He said he was spending ten out of thirty days in jail due to outstanding warrants for the arrest of his name but not his person.

I'm thinking, "Wow, that' really stinks." ChilLil is thinking, "Hmm, this doesn't sound exactly true."

Next story--he has just become an environmental engineer. He's also relying on his parents for income and a place to stay. He's angry because they have a big house but won't let him stay in it. They rent him a cheap apartment in a bad part of town.

Recently his home was broken into, they beat him up, gave him two black eyes (they weren't visible anymore) and took everything he had. Except his guitar because he had that in a closet with some blankets on it.

Dotty thought, "Did he know they were coming? Why would he keep his guitar hidden? Most people keep it out on a stand..."

ChillyLily is thinking, "This guy is fascinating. He's a big liar."

When she and I got to the car we were talking about him. She made the obvious statement that he was likely lying most of the time. Things just didn't add up. I said, "You're so cool. It didn't occur to me that he'd be lying. I thought he was weird, but I never thought, 'Oh, he's lying,' when it's pretty obvious he was at least embellishing a story."

So I'm trying to reprogram myself that sometimes people aren't always honest.

That night on the way home, I was saying, "That's because he's a liar!" almost all the time to anything we talked about. "Why didn't Mt. St. Helens erupt" "Because it's a liar." We laughed a lot and she got happily annoyed with me, which is always a good thing. In its way.

ChillyLily also pointed out that I'm annoying to lots of people. She's always right.

I hate that.

Posted by dotty at October 5, 2004 01:00 PM