OregganO and I were at her house chatting and enjoying what $2 can still buy when Alice called and invited us to join her for dinner.
We arrived just as the appetizers were being served and as I began to dish up some tabbooleh Alice informed me, “That’s the kind of garnish I’ll fight you over.” She then said, “Don’t think we only invited you because we wanted to be in your blog tonight.” OregganO piped in, “I’m not gonna lie, I saw Skiwi’s picture on facebook and, like him, I wanted to be in your blog, so I called you.” As the evening progressed, I was told, more than once, “That is not going in the blog.” I didn’t at all feel my time with them had any direct ties to my blog. Why would I?
When you hang out with people long enough, certain topics or nouns don’t need to be discussed at length, rather, a simple nod, comment or wink suggests, “Oh. yeah, we know all about this,” or “Oh my God, look at her butt, it is so big.” Midway through dinner, and after one of those moments, Alice gave me a nod and a wink. I told her I couldn’t wink; cannot physically do it. Poison Sumac was pleased to hear this because she also cannot wink and believes it is due to “an anti-palsy mechanism.”
The word mechanism was and still is a great segway to discussing waxing. We discussed whether or not one should, in general, and if done, how much. Does it have to be an all or nothing kind of deal? Poison Sumac felt “a little lady garden is OK” and Alice said she once ” did an accidental Brazilian.” I informed them I had also done an accidental Brazilian. I was in France, he was from Brazil. I thought he was French. It was an accident. It was around this time we started to wrap up the meal. I had a little bit of shawarma left and the waiter asked me if I’d like little box. I politely replied, “No thank you, I’ve got one.” OregganO quipped, “We’ve all got one, just depends if you want to take your dinner home in it.”
After dinner we ended up on my stoop, drinking wine and shouting out to passersby. We started with our standard, “holla”, and quickly moved on to Italian, “Hoha hola” (http://grigiogirl.com/2010/04/hoha-hola/). My neighbor joined us for a bit and we talked about the sheer enjoyment one can have on the stoop, watching and shouting out to others. I told her, “You can’t believe the stuff you can see from here. People think my stoop view is obstructed by trees and the like. No way, I can see stuff. Some of these neighbors do some weird shit!” I could see the wheels in her head spinning, so I followed with, “I’ve never seen you do anything. I actually can’t really see you or what goes on at your house.” She immediately looked toward her house and knew that wasn’t true. It was at this time I really wished I could have winked. Instead, I just contorted my face in Alice’s direction and, without saying a word, she knew exactly what I was thinking.