Good morning,

So I did actually manage to get the massage. Though we were there till 5. If the producer hadn't been there the AP and i for sure would've taken off by 2. But they were waiting for some dvds and they didn't finish until just then and then it was bye bye office, props to them for actually waiting till 5 with me so i could get them into fed ex... After my new found freedom, I thought about going to see my friend Ivy first but she was in a movie and that gave me cartblanche to be as late as i needed. But first my favorite quote yet from the Sagittarius, "My cat Sauce is in a can." "I didn't want to leave her in the car while i went drinking. It just didn't seem right. So i'm picking her up tomorrow. She's going to join my Rottweiler. He's in a paint can... on a shelf. You know. With like an angel on top and a message saying, one day."

All right.
Enter the thai massage place. I can't say I get the best vibe from this place but it was on a recommend and the woman totally knew what she was doing. And I prayed a healing prayer over us anyway. I could feel her hitting all the familiar points chiros and acu's do as she muttered small words like "tight" and "tell me too much". And all i did was murmor and sigh my assent and marvel at the healing arts. My shoulder has been messed up and kinked for at least 2 months from some night spasm i had the nerve to sleep through. I think it threw something out of place. And it was interesting that on some points she'd be touching points on my lf. back and my rt. knee would start to hurt a little bit. So that I felt I could trace the origins of all my feet and knee troubles. Oh mysterious pathways of the body! Also I was so impatient for her to just get on my back and step on me already. I felt i needed some mushing and kneading seriously. But then patience, patience, patience as she loosened up and aligned everything and cracked my toes and fingers and then she stepped on my back, deliberately adjusting a certain part of my spine, and hitting points I can't say any massage place has ever hit before, especially my IT band as i think she was using her feet to massage along it, and really worked to open up my hamstrings and calves. She was amazingly thorough. Anyway best $40 ever. Is all I'm saying. And in summing I can say it felt more medicinal than luxuriating, but was just what i needed.

So then sometime by 730 I refused Ivys request to bring wine over or rum or anything of the kind as I would've fallen asleep and I'm not the wine buyer. it felt only slightly awkward but I was like eh, no. And the porkchops were delicious, and I brought a salad with a sadly mediocre dressing. At about an hour in I'd run out of questions and it was the first time she actually thought to ask, oh, so how's the new job. (with no followup questions) You'd think after knowing someone for more than 18 years you'd be ok with silence but i've grown impatient and she's grown acutely internal. And I feel her far from me and mostly absent and I can only think, is it time to leave yet? And she throws things out there like I've had relationships with 15 people since... x. That demand follow up but then I see her on an island and we're too far to be shouting. Messages in a bottle might be better. This is the downside of crablike people dwelling for much too long in caves. But then it gives one license to be poetic. Maybe i will begin to send her postcards. And then it won't matter about the Truth of her days, or the accumulated small actions that lead to experience and story. It will just be a shared life of feeling bobbing thru the currents. But you know how much i love story- especially of one being built together. . .

Meanwhile another guy came out to use the bbq in this tiny village like complex and began cleavering a whole chicken with a giant blade- thwak thwak thwak. And her kid intermittently pretending to be a cat and then later a horse as she kicked up her feet at us in the dirt, and then went inside and closed the door. Nevermind later inside, there was no place to sit due to the clutter and chaos, which she acknowledges needs to change. but anyway an 1.half in and i was done.

And almost tearful when a friend called just a 1/2 hour after this, to complain about losing $20 and then the cop giving her a ticket for momentarily stopping in the redzone to look for said $20. But nevermind, she talks him out of giving her the ticket, and so he gives her a no fee fixit ticket instead but somehow this has ruined her night. But i couldn't identify. I didn't have any words left. They were all stacked up and I saw in light of Ivy a profound other sort of blessing and couldn't abide it being a bad thing, this fix it ticket or even the loss of $20. But anyway it was a sign, yet another, of being in need of a nap. But I've caught up on sleep and you know its that feeling of being filled up and taxed and having nothing left for anyone.

We'll see about today.
M.
(oh and pictures obviously. forthcoming)