30 April 2006

Oh, thank God.

Sun. through Wed. of this past wk. were what I have come to call "The Week from Hell." I realize that a wk. consists of seven, not four, days, but enough bad shit happened in those four days for me to feel justified in referring to them as The Week from Hell.

Mercifully, this was followed by a brief respite in the form of a Fri. trip to Charleston. I was able to see Jennifer for a too-short but fulfilling visit before I got my hair cut, which is always fun since I have the best hair person ever, followed by as painless a trip to the car mechanic as is possible, and rounded out by a wonderful visit w/Jill and her Australian friend, Monica. We went to a ukelele/jazz concert (sounds weird, but it worked well) where we enjoyed a bottle of half-priced wine and good conversation. We then went to a photography exhibit put on by two Honors College students that was really quite good. The photos were all portraits of friends of the photographer's, but they weren't posed. It was more like candid shots of ppl.'s faces while doing everythg. fr. smoking to stuffing a whole cupcake in someone's mouth to convincing your drunk friend to stop unbuttoning his shirt. I bought a print of what looks like an attractive though somehow too-smooth guy holding his cigarette as he whispers smthg. into the ear of a girl who looks as if she's mesmerized by a snake she knows will bite her. Wary, mocking, but still intrigued. I visited w/Gary for a little while before driving back to SAV in my surprisingly *awesome* rental car, keenly aware of the fact that as soon as I pointed the car in direction of home I was overcome by nausea.

At one point in the evening, Jill was talking abt. visiting her former housekeeper, who is now too old to clean house, but who is still devoted to Jill and Gary and vice-versa. Apparently, this woman's house recently burnt down, leaving her homeless and completely bereft of worldly possessions, and also w/o the means to replace them. She was most upset abt. all of the "nice thgs." that Jill and Gary had given her over the yrs., most of which were actually just hand-me-downs, but were special to her b/c of their origins. Jill said that as soon as she found out abt. her housekeeper's predicament, she and Mariel (Jill's daughter) spent several hrs. buying their friend new clothes, toiletries, and other needful thgs. She gave up her time and her money to do everythg. that she could for someone she loves and who has loved her. It seems like an obvious thg. to do, but I have begun to realize that this is perhaps not so obvious as I once thought. I think that was the best part of the evening, being reminded that there are ppl. like Jill out there and that I am fortunate enough to have some of them in my life.

Of course, stifling my laughter as Australian Monica bitched out some young English jerk for throwing his cigarette butts on the ground was also pretty enjoyable. You damn English act like you still rule the world. ;)

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