long day @ work....my last one in the Housekeeping dept....precipitated by renting a room from an awesome, Christian, spiritual type I work for....she needs a roommate and I need a room....350/month includes DirecTV, free LD, all utilities and 3/4 arcre yard in the country....in which to read, sun bathe, ponder, sip coffee be sober, happy, joyous & free LIVE while saving some $$.....
I move out to the country tomorrow....been staying @ Big's most nights this week helping with his resume and hitting a meeting every night for 10+ days ....feeling spiritual but a little burned on the sitting for an hour....I needed them all tho....feeling good and meeting with sponsees every night so far this week....anyhow...back to the job, Nan walked me over to the sister building (an assisted living facility) where she had prearranged my interview with the Master Chef....young tall, dark haired fella who chatted a little and told me to be there Wed @ 1030AM....
+10 cents per hour raise, 11AM-7PM as a dietary aide....leaving the drama of the housekeeping dept behind....a couple shit stirrers on the 'team' who are less than happy about my PC skills and the boss's friendship so it's all good....she's an awesome woman, with humility and grace, a rags to riches and back story and an alcoholic son...I've shared my story with her and healed alot in doing so....
Big is depressed and in his head alot the last few days about rent/his job/money/GOD's will for him....kinda like me a week ago, scrambling for all to be just so and praying hard for patience NOW NOW NOW....but he'll come thru ok....I am also doing well with it as a girlfriend in a healthy relationship, not trying to fixfixfix him, the situation or the universe....just helping him walk day by day with love, suggestions and tolerance when his moods plummet... his moods are varied and sometimes grey and cloudy but tonight was especially good so far....thus this blog entry....
i had a job application for a sponsee so I asked if he'd like to ride along and he said, sure....introduced him to M, @ her apartment and then we took the long way thru town to his house so we could eyeball some apts along the way....thought we knew the name of the ones a few blocks out but we were wrong...after the drive by he spotted this funky little place in the rougher part of town he'd always wondered about....he'd lived close to it a year or so ago with another recovery friend....who has passed on from an OD.
"The Juggling Gypsy"..... smack in the middle of a mostly black, drug infested block.....a one story brick/glass building we eyed it from the street and he asked me to pull in....signs for everything from coffee to quesadillas,.....a crude fenced/latticework fence enclosed the sideyard, and many more signs proclaimed "beer", PIZZA.... Art, local music posters and FILM nite...OPEn MiC!
we left the lot and as I turned he said to go back, lets go see wtf it is....
parked and locked up, the Xterra sat in the lot, and we ventured in....dimly lit, a Jim Morrison look-alike (we later found out his name is Brian) met us with a quizzical look...thinking back, we looked like narcs LOL....5 or 6 two-foot-tall hookas sat atop the plywood bar, local band and art posters were tacked up on the wall, a rack holding mixed Trivial Pursuit cards and "what's going on in Wilmington" type newspapers stacked all over a shelf....beer signs, menu selections and specials were chalked along the overhead ductwork, painted in a deep, "Hendrix-ish" purple....
the doorways to the restrooms were hung with beads, and a lone patron perched sipping some obscure brew from a dark glass bottle...... huge red sequins in strands dangled in moving curtains, dancing in the breeze from our entrance....oversize paintings reminiscent of the 60's in bright colors were placed along the wood/brick walls....in the corner was a raised platform where seating was made of assorted faux fur and denim pillows....old restaurant-type booth seating recovered with gypsy colors and satin......gauzy table covers fashioned from scarves and fabric scraps.....
tea lights were set in odd glass containers on mismatched tables and chairs of every style, color & shape sat about....beer on tap, coffee & chai tea along side numerous flavors of tobacco and finger foods were on the menu....the old tri-fold style you'd find in a country diner.....like a time warped surfer bar, this odd little place had such energy and atmosphere... Brian said no marijuana was allowed of course, but that we were welcome to try a hooka....we passed for today, but I must admit that the bubbling water brought back memories, some fond some not, some lost and some imagined fromt he days when partying and smoking dope was a fun thing....a trial thing.... a relaxing thing....without the claws that alcoholism jabbed into me, I think I would have been fine had I remained a pot-head back in the day....the alcohol took off with a life of it's own and stole from me the chance to live a 'normal' life.... (but I digress....)
we ordered iced coffee and quesedillas with sun dried tomato....an hour later after reliving some "high times" memories, 10 buxx & a tip....we emerged refreshed and chatting about the sobermusicians forum and Big's idea for a "LIVE FROM:______" simulcast...
lounging comfortably on a black & white leopard skin covered love seat, we chatted and ate while the regulars trickled in to prepare for the night's screening of a political film "Outfoxed", the film would begin @ 9pm so we opted to settle our bill and head home to watch a National Geo program about Nazi German photo albums and the death camps...no outstanding reasons for watching the show, just an interest based on my having read Anne Frank and worked on the community theater production as a child, I was charged with caring for the cat ( A real live cat who played Anne's in the play. Muschi was his name in the show I think....I digress again....)
....tired now, a little disjointed (no pun intended in reference to the hooks LOL) from all the up & down in Big's moods, upcoming fun with packing & moving but I am sober, alive and very grateful for the chance to share my interesting little "field trip"....what a day....love to you all my friends....stay safe, sober & alive ....
PEACE
~Shugg
