My Epiphany

[January 6, 2007, the Feast of the Epiphany. 12:00 noon. Home. I'm still in bed, reading Jane Austen's Emma. Although I have several books on my reading list ahead of it, I realized while watching the newest Pride and Prejudice on Allen, Carrie and Charlotte's TV the other night that, while I'd enjoyed several filmed versions of P&P; Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility; Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow; and Clueless, I'd never actually read any Jane Austen, which you'll agree is pathetic for someone who spent more than the usual four years as an English undergraduate.]

[*ring ring*]

[Me (not recognizing the number, which usually means I don't pick up even when as in this case it's 415, but since that rat-fink Allen didn't pick up my couple of attempts to call last night after dinner at my sister's to see them all - Mom, Dad, Sis, Bro-in-law, and Niece - off to their two weeks in Mexico where I don't get to accompany them because I'm po' and yes this is the third time they've all gone on vacation without me and I'm just self-centered enough to think at this point that they're just doing it to spite me - not really, even I know it's not about me, but as a result I could've used a little bucking up even after such a pleasant dinner so I pick up because Allen sometimes calls from phone booths in 415 because he's even more lame with his cell phone than I am): Hello?]

[Allen (explaining that he's spent the night and morning at Gregory's which is just six blocks from my sister's and has, as suspected, left his cell at home, and is calling from G's cell which makes me wonder how/why G's number is no longer in my phone - since remedied - and let's go to a movie Dreamgirls I suggest and he agrees and I look up the venue and time and we are): Agreed.]

[Shower, no shave, dress, contacts...]

[*ring ring* Gregory's cell.]

[Me: Hello?]

[Gregory (who reads this and who I hope will be glad to see his name on his computer screen Monday morning): Why not come down to my place first for a little drinkie before you and Allen head out?]

[Me: It's 12:30 in the afternoon...]

[G: Don't be coy or even try to act shocked. You know we start to pour around here at 12:05.]

[Me (approvingly): OK! Be there in 30!]

["Oh the alcoholic afternoons..." They do sometimes mean much more, as those Smiths sang. I know then that Dreamgirls would have to wait for another day. I'm riding the vertiginous up escalator at Glen Park BART (not Piccadilly tube station vertiginous, necessarily, but certainly long and tall for BART) when...]

[*ring ring* G's cell again]

[Allen (discerning my location with that habitual slight impatience of his since I never seem to get where he summons me fast enough - I swear the amount of times he's called from Dolores House when I've just swung round the corner of 23rd from Valencia Street): Meet me at the corner store.]

[Me (beginning to feel a little jerked around): Why?]

[*the line goes dead*]

[Buddies Market at Chenery and Diamond is a wholly unremarkable liquor store on an enviable corner; I'd move to Glen Park if asked. Allen is standing - posing - in front of the market as I scuttle up. I give him a dramatic up-and-down-like-a-searchlight look at which he laughs. A rotund, swarthy guy leaves Buddies as we enter.]

[Allen (smirk/laugh): That's an ex of John's.]

[Me: From the Jones Street days?]

[A (nodding): I can't remember his name.]

[Me (suppressing my understandable curiosity, remembering to let the past be the past and all that, since A. clearly knows more than he's telling): Whatever.]

[Additional victuals procured, we labor up the hill to Gregory's, where a small but jolly group of homophile men are well into the vodka and cranberry. I join them, and after a few, we venture to the Castro, where I really have a bit too much. I take my leave, get yummy Thai food for my first and only meal of the day, pass out on my bed, and awaken at midnight with a grievous headache. "Gold, frankincense and myrrh!" I think. "I've forgotten how to drink!"]

[Today: Industry, seriousness, and no frivolity.]

Previously Next