Watching the Storm

I spent lunch yesterday over at Ancora reading the Chicago Reader. I hate it when I do that because there's just so much cool shite happening down there that I can't attend. Some bar shows flicks via DVD projection and a couple of them really caught my eye including A Clockwork Orange. Plus there's was a kabuki theater presentation that sounded really neat in addition to various plays. And Neil Gaiman was going to be speaking. And the Art Institute had a few neat presentations going on as well. I looked at the schedule for the Old Town School of Folk Music and they've got tons of cool shit going down. I wish I had a banjo because Danny Barnes will be giving lessons there in a couple months! That'd be so hoopy! Herr Barnes, for those of you unfamiliar with him, used to be with the Bad Livers. Yeah, I'm sure most of you have no idea who they were either. Think bluegrass + Captain Beefheart. While I've seen recordings of performances from OTSoFM for trade and figured they provided instruction but didn't know the breadth of what they offer. Dancing and singing in addition to teaching how to play various instruments. If I wanna learn how to play the didgeridoo, I could head on over there. Imagine that. If I learn the didgeridoo, I could put together a band and play endless solos just like the Greatful Dead.

Whereas yesterday was pretty busy, today is dead slow. I think one (1) case has come down the pipe in an hour and I easily dispatched with it. No meeting today, no documentation to write, and I've given my usual websites a look-see. I am to meet The Dulcinea this evening so we can talk or so she can chew me a new asshole or something. We'll see how it goes. I await an email from her giving me the time and location of our meeting. Perhaps we can come up with a secret phrase too. "The crow flies at midnight..."

I've been trading emails quite frequently with Geno, a friend of mine in Chicago. He recently got back from Rio de Janeiro. Sounds like he had a good time and I look forward to reading his online account of the trip. He and I have known one another since 1977, when we were in kindergarten. Holy fuck shit! That's 28 years! Sheesh. Where does the time go? In a similar vein, Miss Pamela recently returned from N'awlins. She threw some of her photos from the trek up on the Net and it looks like she and Bill had fun down there. I'm presuming that many a hurricane was consumed. With this nice weather we've had the past few days, I've been itching to do some camping. (Of course, now that I look at the long range forecast, I see that temps are going to be dropping into a more normal range for this time of year. Bye-bye highs in the 70s.) Unfortunately, Dogger & Mel are probably not gonna be doing much camping this year. Mel certainly won't be in a canoe for a long time. Perhaps a babysitter can be found so Dog can take a trip this summer. And, since Marv is nearly impossible to get a hold of lately, I'm presuming his relationship with this Jill chickie is going well. Of course she's invited on most of our trips but I dunno if she's the outdoor type or not.

I am wondering what The Dulcinea has to say to me. Still no email regarding our meeting tonight and I'm getting anxious. I suppose she's in a fragile state right now, though, as her divorce becomes final tomorrow. But I'm sure she's also hopeful somewhere inside. I mean, her marriage will be over and she can move forward. She's planning on returning to school, which makes me a bit jealous. She is also planning on having her oldest son, Desmond, go live with his father in New York City. While I don't have a complete picture of her motivations here, I have this feeling that, at least in part, she's doing this more out of guilt than anything else. Guilt she feels for, in her mind, being a bad mother. I also suspect that she just wants more of a life outside of parenthood. I'm not being critical of her, mind you, because I never got the impression that she's a bad mom. I know that she loves her kids immensely. I did, however, get the impression that she wasn't too keen on motherhood. By this I mean that she always seemed more keen on pursuing a different kind of life other than being a parent. Her pregnancies were not planned and she always made them out to be like missteps along the way. Basically, I get the impression that she really didn't want to be a mother but accepts it and finds the good in it despite wanting to indulge her carefree, artistic nature.

I've been thinking about this stuff a bit lately. Plus The Dulcinea told me that the miasma in her mind began dissipating when she stopped using the birth control patch. Because of all this, I've begun considering getting a vasectomy. When I get my arse in gear and get my insurance paperwork in order, I'll find out if it's a covered procedure. You'd think so. I mean, kids must cost insurance companies gobs and gobs of cashola. Pre-natal care, birth, and, when they're out of the womb, they get sick constantly so getting a vasectomy means that they can significantly decrease the odds of me coming along one day asking to insure a child. Then I'd be left to worry only about disease. Speaking of which, check out Mistress Lola's tale of her wounds from 28 March.

I see that we're in for some severe thunderstorms this evening. Oh, that'll be the perfect backdrop for my conversation with The Dulcinea.