Message-Id: <199612021810.KAA21563@netcom13.netcom.com> To: lira-kin@postofc.corp.sgi.com Subject: Signs and Portents (2 of 2) Date: Mon, 02 Dec 96 10:10:33 -0800 The next morning it was warm again, as the radiator started up. I thought, for a while, of just not getting up and sleeping while Kathy had breakfast; but then my sense of propriety won out and I dressed and put myself together enough to eat breakfast. It was a good American style breakfast with fruit first then eggs, bacon, and toast along with juice and coffee and cereal was available as well. Kathy and I ate and talked about Star Trek stuff and a woman wandered in and silently ate as we talked and wandered out just as quietly. We went back to the room afterwards and I showered while Kathy read. The bathroom, it turned out, had a whole crowd of ladybugs coming in through the vent. It was kinda amazing, and I wished upon one of the ladies as she crawled gently upon me and then she whirred away in a transparent blur of wings. The packing was quick and easy and Kathy had a list of used book shops that she wanted to haunt, so we went to the one that was furthest out first, on some concept or another. It wasn't hard to get to, though a bit far. We walked up to the storefront and found that it was closed. It was well after 10 am, but it turned out that the store's hours were from 1:30pm until about 10! We weren't going to sit around waiting 3 hours, so we drove back north. Instead of taking the path that we'd taken before, we headed east to a park that Kathy had said was used commonly in X-files. It was a large, beautiful park, edged with trees all the colors of flame, and in the slow rain it was somber, lovely and exactly what would fit in an X-Files episode. There was a large lake in the center of the park and we walked around it, just looking, watching people wander through either in pairs or with dogs. There were several dogs that were having a great times just leaping for the water. Another three were just tearing around on the grass, tongues lolling and mouths open breathing steam into the cold air. Most of the people were huddled up a bit compared to the exuberance of the dogs. After a while we got back into the car and headed back north, up into the section of the city that had a number of used book stores. It was in the midst of the city and the rain was coming down hard. We were really lucky and found parking just across the street from the main store that Kathy wanted to look in. There's a distinctive smell to used book stores, a unique combination of dusty and musty and just the faintest bit of damp. The rain was drumming against the windows and we could see the wind blowing people and papers by. It was library quiet in the MacLeod's bookstore and the books were packed every which way. Kathy disappeared into it all immediately. As I started to wander gently through the aisle and tables, I thought, quite seriously that I'm not nearly the book worm I used to be. No longer so interested, I thought, and there wasn't really anything I was collecting and there was no time in my life to be fascinated by books anymore... But there was a nice copy of Douglas Adams' _The Last Time to See_ and... oh... a battered Tanith Lee that I've never even *heard* of and... Fooled me for about five minutes. We wandered through three different book shops, one with cats and another with more modern books but that's where I found the Runyon books. I ended up spending pretty much all of my Canadian cash on those books and a few others including three Damon Runyon books that had been printed in the 40's, battered old creatures with torn pages and faded covers. We ended up at an Italian cafe with a few dollars left and Kathy's change. It was enough for panini and a mocha, which we shared while watching the rain come down nearly horizontal. After that we decided to go back towards home. We took yet another path and found that it was clogged with Friday afternoon traffic, so Kathy navigated me a way out and back to the highway. We crossed the street to the bookstore we had looked at earlier that morning, and while some part of me wanted to check it out we were out of Canadian cash. There was just a handful of Canadian change, and, as we worked our way through the rain to the roads, Kathy and I discussed what to do with the change. Finally we ended up going to a little mini-mart and buying Canadian chocolates, a couple bars of Cadbury fruit and nut as well as some Aero bars and a roll of wine chews. Kathy really enjoyed the last as they were something she's had in England and remembered from then. The drive back was fairly quiet and went quickly. There was a stop at Larry's, where we picked up stuff to make baked potatoes and apples and sausages. There was a movie that Kathy had always wanted me to see, and we got it at the local video store. It was an Australian film called _Strictly Ballroom_. We then went home and cooked the simple food and watched the movie and curled up and talked until John got home from his business trip around 11pm on Thursday. I went to work Friday while Kathy caught up on her sleep and that evening we went out with her friend to see Twelfth Night. For some reason on most of the visits that I have with Kathy we end up seeing something by Shakespeare. Kathy also recommended Romeo and Juliet the movie as a good modern interpretation of the play. She was utterly right. I've always had mixed feelings about that play, and it's stronger as I grow older. I remember, as a teenager, crying my eyes out at the tragedy of the ending; and as life went on my reaction's only gotten more cynical. Maybe it's my understanding of my abilities and how I can go on without nearly anyone else. But I loved this particular movie production for its own sake, for its astonishingly dead-on treatment of Mercutio, the Mtv style, and that they were closer than anyone else I've seen to picking two actors for Romeo and Juliet that were teens. Mercutio's sexual ambiguity was done beautifully, explaining so clearly why Tybalt's insinuation of his consorting with Romeo sets him off. Kathy had thought they'd cut the section about Queen Mab out because it's utter inscrutability to 20th century belief systems, but, like her, I was astonished by the appropriateness of taking a little white pill, painting a heart with wings and an arrow through it and calling it Queen Mab, the queen of dreams both heartachingly unreal and mindnumbingly violent worked out so utterly well. The Southern Cal setting, the Mexican flavor for the Capulets, the golden boy flavor of the Montagues, and the hints and feelings of the whole personalities behind the characters were solid and very modern. The use of the language with modern accouterments was astonishingly *right*. For a teenager, this would be an excellent introduction to the old playwright's works. Twelfth Night was fun, too. It was Victorian dress, and the relationship of the fool with the family was a unique aspect to this production that I enjoyed a lot. I've always enjoyed the story and laughed softly at the beginning of the scene with the Duke. Seeing Viola's haircut as she posed as her brother also made me think about getting my hair cut again. I've always been the most sorry for Sebastian and the most amused at how 'what goes around comes around' for Malvolio. Again, the setting really added to the production, set on some coastal town with castles and all, 'the wind and the rain' were lovely additions to it all. We ate Thai after and then went into the weekend, which was actually mostly taken up with saying good bye to our old pastor and being the fuzzy in the warm fuzzy story for the kids the next morning. Kathy and I got to talk a little, but it wasn't nearly as intimate or as easy as the time we had together. So I'm glad that we made our own sign and made the effort to do our little adventure into the wide wide world. ----- Liralen Li | "Looking down on empty streets, all she can see are liralen@netcom.com | the dreams all made solid, are the dreams made real." aka Phyllis Rostykus | - "Mercy Street" by Peter Gabriel