Well, it
happened again. I was the other woman for like five minutes. Some guy, a sorta
interesting guy, a guy I thought was sorta cool got my number awhile back. He’s
sorta kinda well known in an underground sorta way, but I won’t say what field
cause god knows he might read this and then I’ll get sued or some other crap. But cool enough to go to the Oscars. That kind of cool. But, he texted me weirdly, never trying to see me but asking me the kinds of
questions a guy might ask if he were interested in you intellectually and maybe
even physically, but he was involved with someone else. Not that he didn't like
that someone else, just that I provided a little happiness or romantic intrigue
between that someone else. Only I didn't know, because I am naive when it comes
to men. The ones that tell me the truth or the ones that lie to me, all feel
the same, you know? I can't tell which one is really telling the truth or really not telling the truth. Which makes me feel not quite as smart as I
really should be. I know you guys think I'm smart, but if you just scroll
through this junkstyle blog, you'll see that I'm not smart. In fact, I'm kind
of dumb when it comes to men. It's a blindspot. Don't hate. I have that
blindspot with cops and shoes as well, so you could say I’m multi-dimensional.
I guess I
should consider that any guy calling, texting, writing, might be involved, but
since when I am involved I don't call men unless they are established friends,
I assume the same morals apply to the rest of the world. Not that I don't
flirt. But, there is a certain level I don't engage on and I don't text dirty
things to other guys, just nice happy things. Things about birds and my love of
graveyards and whatnot. So.. today, I called the person on it and said
basically you've been texting me for weeks but are weird, why so weird, you married
or something? He goes, if I were married would you stop talking to me? I'm
like, do you know the sex act that men do with Oysters? It's super
gross--unsanitary and disgusting, but I can't really find anything about it. He
goes: Yeah, I'm involved. So? I'm like so, what? I didn't get dirty, text you
anything that would remotely go into the direction of a strictly sexual or
emotional relationship--I just met you, dude gave you my number because I'm
single now. I called him dude. Swear to Jesus. Then, I said, we'll be friends,
we just won't be alone in any dark alley up against any walls or anything. He
goes, why not? I'm like, you can't be serious. DUDE. P.S.---he’s still texting
as I’m writing this, but in a minute he won’t be because of ATT super block.
But in the
midst of this, I was reminded about the time I'm about to tell you about, a
time when I was much younger and very drunk most of the time, bumping around
Hollywood with crazy people who I can't even picture now. Some of those people
I knew, because I drank with them and some I didn't and those were the ones
that haunt my dreams.
One night, a
guy--I shouldn't say his name in case one of you can track him down. It's funny
that I always use names, but I am going to tell something about this guy that
is kind of sad, not embarrassing sad, but call your mother the next day and cry
to her sad. This guy, we'll call him P---P drank with me at Molly Malone's and
we drank there a lot. So P calls me and goes a group of us are going to Koreatown
to do Kareoke, but we're hitting the Bounty first. I had just had a DUI so I
said, I won't come unless you drive me. So he went for it. Picks me up with
three people in the car--they are guys and girls and I can't remember what
anyone looked like. Just that we went to the Bounty and the guy in the suit,
not P, but the other guy, liked me and paid for all my drinks and maybe other
people's drinks. I wasn't paying attention. I was wearing these sex shoes and cargo
shorts that tied at the knees. Guess made the shoes, they had stillettos and
tied around the ankle with tiny leather straps. Fuck---wait. Going to the car
to see if I still have them. Scared fuckless. OH THANK YOU LORD. They are still
there. If they weren't there all would be fucking lost right now. I was
thinking of eating a mound of cotton and have that big cottony feeling in my
stomach soaking up all my acid-sorrow if my whore shoes were gone, but
alas---at Goodwill last week I must have known about this post. That is why you
don't donate shoes, yo.
Anyway,
P and suit and me and a non-pretty girl were all drinking fast and furious.
Acting out little skits right there in the middle of The Bounty---greatest bar
in L.A. 'cept for the lights. Too damn bright in there. But, we were drinking
so after a time we don't notice anything. I'm sitting in the booth next to a
girl and P and I'm holding P's hand under the table and we are pretending to
ignore each other while me and the girl make best friends. Girl gets prettier
and prettier and at one point I think she has the prettiest lips and her nose
is the kind of nose I’ve always wanted but then I don’t know, I just go back
and forth. Then, we go to some Kareoke bar and I'm in there and we are singing
and a beautiful Korean girl walks in and P goes pretend you don't know me. Not
like I was with him in any real sense, but I had to pretend not to know him.
She comes in things get awkward and we all decide to bail and go eat. She is
staring at me like I did something horrible. It was a group of us, but I was
guilty in the mind of the pretty girl. Let’s call her Cindy. That seems safe
and unlikely. We are eating some fried intestines and drinking more and I can't
tell you where we are only that it's like 3 am or 4 am at this point and P is
sitting with the pretty girl and I am sitting next to this guy, I turn to him
and I'm like, gosh you are the most cutest handsomest man I've ever seen and I
start kissing him. Right in front of everybody. He was in shock, the restaurant
owners had kept it open for us and they were incredulous. Who is this fucking
girl kissing our "his name here" but I don't remember his name.
This
was in the days of Highland Grounds and I said. I want to see you again come
meet me at Highland Grounds and we will be lovers or at least a proper
non-drunk date because its dark and maybe you won't like me in the light or
I'll think twice about dating you because of your Asian hair or some obnoxious
thing. He laughed and then we held hands. P got pissed, but was too drunk to
drive me home and I was too drunk to call a cab so he said, you can sleep
here but don't say anything when you get inside. I'm like, what would I say? He
brings me inside and puts me in his bed or on it or whatever and he goes off to
sleep on the couch. I'm like what was up with that girl, she your girlfriend?
He's like, we were or are, or on again off again. Whatever. I said, who was
that Korean guy I was kissing, he's famous or something, I've seen him on the
TV. P was like, yeah. yeah. yeah. That was some show, you kissing him---real
class act, you are. And we fall asleep---Here's the part. The part I shouldn't
tell you. I have never ever been sad about telling a thing to you no matter how
low people sink, no matter what I've seen and done, no matter what my friends
have seen, and been and done---I'm no judge. I'm not. But... when I woke up P's
place was a disaster like the disaster in A Beautiful Mind--anyone see that
movie, where the guy cracks up and has clippings everywhere? In the
morning when the light hit the
place I saw whatever he didn’t want me to see--- This guy P had clippings
everywhere---and I mean everywhere---up every wall on the ceiling on every
surface. Clippings of cartoon strips. He was a cartoonist or something. Can't
remember. Anyway, I was like, holy fucking jesus P, you need some help. You
can't live like this. The rest of the place was dirty. Like layers of dirt,
like you would see on that Hoarders show. I said, sweet P, please, I'm happy to
come help you sometime. I kept shaking my head and he said, you swore you
wouldn't say anything. I go, I'm sorry, but Jesus man. Come on. I can help
you---we're friends. I started to cry. Weeping. Please let me help you. P was
PISSED and dragged me out of there and took me home and never ever ever ever ever spoke to me again.
A
short time after that one of the bartenders at Molly's took his life. His girl
found him hanging from her tree in the front yard. We all met at Molly’s to
celebrate his life and to kill the pain of being a human. P didn't show for
that party--he never showed his face again as far as I could tell. I felt bad,
I knew his secret. He looked exactly like Ralph Fiennes. A few weeks after the
event, I was at Molly's and the Korean actor dude came there looking for me and
he was the handsomest man I had ever seen in a long dark coat and he was tall
and had shiny eyes. I pretended not to be myself. Like as in not-Lisa. Not that
I didn't like him, I just didn't feel good enough for him and he saw me pretend
to be not me and he smiled and shook his head and went away like I never happened.
I felt ashamed, but I was too scared or something. I hope he didn’t think it
was his fault. I really loved him for that one moment and no one can take that
away from us.
beautifully written...so honest sometimes that kind of honesty is hard to see or read but you make it human....
ReplyDeletewhy would honesty be hard to see or read? that's the part that doesn't make sense. but, i know you must mean it as some sort of compliment.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is...Not only am i floored by your recollection of events...but that they actually really truly happened to you. I think we would have had so much fun hanging out back in the day! I am a fan of kissing cute boys I don't know. Ask my now friend Brian Friedmann! And yes...beautifully expressed & real. And i think Michael's comment make a lot of sense. Reading about someone's truth, whether it be happy or sad can be difficult...but knowing that it REALLY is true...makes you feel not so alone in your own crazy head. THAT is a compliment!
ReplyDeleteHonesty can sometimes be awkward, that's all. Not because it's an unfamiliar territory. It's more like the awkward feeling that makes you look away when you accidentally run into two total strangers getting intimate with each other. And funnily, it gets worse if those strangers know you're there watching, but don't give a damn. That way, they refuse their share of discomfort, and you get to keep all the awkwardness of the moment to yourself. I'm not saying it's right, i'm just saying that it happens. And it happens when i read your works. I won't speak for others.
ReplyDelete