Floating Away

His attention tended to wander, and that was dangerous.
-Morag Joss
"Half Broken Things"

I noticed this young twenty something young lady reading a book at the casual BOULEY Cafe in Tribeca, NY. Let's just call her Alessandra (for fun).

I took note of the title (Lush Life) because Alessandra seemed so 'lost in her book'. After reading the book I was sadly disappointed. It had much dialogue and was about a grit crime murder in the Lower East Side of NY. It was not very good--at all (in my opinion). There was one excerpt that did raise an eyebrow with me. I bet that was the part I saw Alessandra reading. This was it:

Eric & Alessandra

It was a funny kind of f--king.

He wasn't even sure they would be sleeping in the same bed, not that there was a second option, and he sat upright on the futon in his street clothes, waiting for the water to stop running in the bathroom to see what would be emerging, and she came out straight-up naked, her body tight and spare and unconflicted, all nipples and hip bones, and Eric just became another person, silently stripping down and then holding her, one hand at her nape and one on her belly, lowering her onto the futon like laying a rare musical instrument into its case.

There was nothing hurried but nothing preliminary, just putting himself inside her right away, and moving at the same not slow not rushed pace, hovering but in deep, the concentration like nothing he had ever possessed before. Nothing could make him speed up, nothing could make him stop, and Alessandra started looking at him sideways--Who are you--her body beneath his rigid, sprung against sprung, but she couldn't hold it and started to come, then come some more, and he still wouldn't, couldn't alter what he was doing in response, could go on pumping her all night long, would have if she didn't push up against his chest, needing a break, Eric lifting out of her as bar like as he was going in, still holding her, but having nothing to say, just waiting until she was ready for more, then going back in with the same maddening steadiness, Alessandra starting to go a little wall-eyed trying to look into him, but he was not to be found and soon she didn't even have the strength to ask for another break but just floated away.
-Richard Price
"Lush Life"


Twenty-five years ago today:

November 28, 1984
Wednesday

Karyn and I had lunch at the Market Street steps, enjoying our charbroiled burgers. She is so entertaining. Karyn makes me laugh.

After work I kept my ‘Sperm Bank’ appointment and then went to mom’s house. I stayed there and watched the next episode of DYNASTY.

When I got to my place and ‘in bed’ Karyn called and we talked excitedly about our past New Years Eve experiences. I was in a hospital on December 31, 1980.

On December 31, 1981 I was at home fidgeting with the television and watching the festivities of Times Square in New York City. I listened to the countdown top music hits on the radio and listed them on a sheet of paper as they played.

On December 31, 1982, Barbara Reynolds and I went out to see ‘Sophie’s Choice’, a magnificent Meryl Streep movie, in San Francisco.

On December 31, 1983, Helen Wong and I went to the Oakland Hilton on Hegenberger Road for drinks and dancing. And now, Karyn mentioned that she’d like to spend New Year’s Eve with me on December 31, 1984. I sort of concurred…but then again?

I fell into a deep sleep thereafter. I floated away into a series of sensual dreams. I had intentions of exercising in the early morning. I will need to release my anxieties.