Home Sweet South City

I moved this past weekend, with the tremendous help of Eric, Lee, and my mom.  It was hotter than a booger, and the guys did a great job hauling my heavy couch up two flights of narrow, twisting stairs.

I am, for the most part, unpacked.  I still have some small stuff over on Delmar to sort through (most of it will probably be tossed, unless it can be donated to charity). 

It is SO GOOD to be back in my old neighborhood.  I truly feel like this is where I belong.  It is HOME.  I sat with my cat for a good long while this afternoon just looking out the window.  It was nice and gave me a remarkable sense of peace. Pictures and more to come soon.

A parent’s mid-life crisis, or: my dad’s dating a stripper.

So, I talked to my dad a few weeks ago and he told me he was dating someone new whose name is Jessica. I said great and asked where he met her. He stalled, stuttered, and said “on the East side” which in St. Louis basically means “at a strip club”. Slightly shocked (understatement), I paused for a moment before asking how old she is. “21.” …fuck. My dad is 54! I, myself, am 27 and feel slightly weird about dating someone who’s 3 years younger than me. They’d only been dating a week at that point and already he had bought her a diamond necklace.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, because I thought the same thing. Sure. He’s “dating” her, buying her expensive things. But from the way it sounds, he actually IS dating her. He met her mother (who approves of this relationship…how fucked is that?) He stays the night at her place, and I just talked to him last night and HE IS MOVING IN WITH HER.

This is insane. My dad is not rich, by any means. He rather looks like the Unabomber, circa living in the shack time.

Gah. I don’t know how to process this. On one hand, I’m happy that he’s happy. But on the other hand … this is just WEIRD. What if they get married? I will have a step-mother (stage name: Phoenix) who is 6 years younger than me. One of my brothers severely disapproves of this relationship (but he’s a right-wing Christian), and my other two brothers don’t know about it. I kind of want to tell my mom (they’ve been divorced 15 years) just because I think she would find it hilarious/sad that my dad is doing this, but I’m not sure that I even wanted to know, so why would she?

Oh, and my dad is also dating a 28-year old at the same time. She has a 6-year old. Not sure if the two girls know about each other, though.

AWESOME.  Le sigh.

Mushroom Musings

• What’s the question?
• Who’s the answer?
• How did we get here?
• We’re losing time.
• What’s the question?!
• You’re the answer.
• We’re stuck in time.
• We’re not lost in time?
• What’s the question?
• We’re going to die.
• They’re going to shoot us.
• Turtles?
• No, a mongoose.
• Jesus was a mongoose!
• What’s the question?
• How did we get here?
• What’s here?
• Who are we?
• Get out of my head!
• You’re freaking me out!
• I don’t know where I am.
• We should be outside.
• What’s outside?
• The answer.
• What was the question?
• You’re freaking me out!
• We should be recording this.
• Will I remember this tomorrow?
• What was the question?
• The question was the answer.
• Where are you?
• You’re in my head.  Get out.
• Stop doing that.
• You’re turning into anime.  Oh, no!  You’re turning into a lion!
• The white truck is coming back.
• We’re going to die.
• They’re going to shoot us.
• Hide!

Oh, what a night.  My reality was a movie, complete with film grain and distorted speech patterns.  Yummy dinner.