Reflections On A Winter Afternoon

Well, it has been quite a week at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia. We both ended up on drugs. Then I took one deep down my throat & the Husband had his up the heiney. It is true. On Monday, I had an Upper GI Endoscopy & this morning the Husband had a Colonoscopy. We are Portland's fun couple.

The Husband didn't seem to enjoy his. I met him in the recovery room, & he didn't look happy. The place was seemingly a colonoscopy factory, with lines of cubicles. As if in a David Cronenberg film, the doctors worked their way down the line, sending cameras into the bowels of drugged patients, one after another.

What did the surgeon remove from my gallbladder?

When I returned home from fetching the Husband after his "procedure", he complained about his pain, but promptly fell asleep. I did something I have not done in a very long time: I did not turn on the TV, the stereo, or the computer. I actually sat down, listened to the silence, & after breathing deep, enjoying a sip of mint tea from my heavy Morrocan tea glass, I wrote in my journal, & I was in the moment.

With the Husband out of commission & the canines having naps, I decided to finish the last 1/3 of my current favorite book in a single sitting. I have posted several times about Armistead Maupin, the author of the Tales of The City series. I have been a fan from the time the very first tale was serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle in the late 1970s.

I loved when Tales Of The City was first published in book form & I bought each subsequent book as soon as each was published. They never disappointed. Maybe because I am of a certain age & lived through the era that Maupin chronicles, or that I lived in the city for a summer & or have visited 30 times, but I am still having a love affair with San Francisco after 40 years. Maupin has an uncanny ability to gently point out how alike we all are, gay or straight, liberal or conservative: we all need love, we all ask for a little kindness, & we're all in it for the long haul. Mary Ann in Autumn had me so engaged, I had to force myself to read just a short chapter a day, just to draw out the experience of being back with  my beloved characters once more. Maupin continues to take me by surprise, amuse, & touch me. This novel made smile, laugh out loud, & gave me a crazy cathartic cry at the end.

Maupin’s Michael Tolliver Lives read like a benediction, I wasn’t able to get through a chapter without weeping. This newest volume has the flavor of the original Chronicle serial, with local references & landmarks, & with odd, outrageous plot twists. What a lovely way to start the New Year, a delight, a decided delight on a drab, dreary day.