Near one o'clock I made my way to the Defiance Space in back of the Produce Hotel. Paul was already there trying to get the door open and had to go to the office to get a key. Beth soon arrived.
"Erin's still sick?" she asked.
"Yeah," I told her. "She was here earlier, but she went back home to rest."
"I hope she feels better."
"So do I."
Paul came back with the keys and opened up the Space. Only three of us showed up, myself, Paul, and a guy from one of the other hotels.
"Happy birthday, Rick," Paul said.
"Thank you."
"Today's your birthday?" Beth asked.
"Why yes, it is."
"Well in that case we'll have to do some traditional birthday yoga positions."
"Birthday yoga positions?"
"Yup!"
After getting our breathing normalized Beth had us jump into a series of uttanasanas, a couple of navasanas, 37 eka paada salamba sarvangasanas, the plow position, a smattering of virabhadrasanas, 4 matsyasanas which as you know can be very "challenging," 86 bhujangasanas, 22 ardha jathara parivarttanasanas, 32 ardha bhekasana parsua sarvangasanas, 9 sraddha vrischikasanas, 2 bakasanas just to cool down, and 14 cat flows. Then we meditated upon our chakras for thirty minutes.
"Wow, that was a pretty grueling yoga workout Beth," I told her. "I think I got all of my toxins removed. Thank you."
"Your welcome."
I returned to my box and took a shower. As I was getting dressed Jose appeared magically at my door.
"Are you going to Support Group?" he asked me.
"Of course. I need all the support I can get."
We went downstairs and waited for Paul to return from the Defiance Space. When he arrived he asked us what we wanted to do, considering Jose and I were the only ones there.
"Let's go get yogurt," Jose said. "We haven't done that for a while."
"Yogurt? We could do that. Sound good to you Rick?"
"Do we have enough petty cash?"
"I think so," Paul said.
He took out $15 from petty cash and we took Paul's car to Yogurtland at Second and Central, directly north from my box.
At Yogurtland you get to take a cup and fill it with any kind of yogurt and toppings that you like, then take it to the cash register where they charge by the weight of your cup with yogurt in it. It's all very scientific. I served myself three layers of vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate yogurt, with mini-M & Ms and malted milk balls on top. All three of our cups cost just over $10. We sat outside to eat, and answered questions from Erin's Book of Questions. Three female police officers were sitting nearby eating their own yogurt.
"This is your birthday yogurt," Jose said.
"That's right," said Paul.
Paul asked if we could choose a power or ability to wake up one day and have, what would it be?
"A photographic memory," I told them.
"Why?" Paul asked.
"Because then I could learn other languages fast, and remember everything easily."
"You know, I think I agree with you," Paul said.
We dropped Jose off near the hotel, then Paul and I drove to the Abby for the Writing Class.
Rachel wanted us to write poems again using the little pieces of paper, so we spent twenty minutes turning over the hundreds of pieces and Rachel didn't even show up.
Demitri did though. I asked her to Email some of the pictures she took at the Domino Tournament. She said she would. Several residents showed for the class today, and 4 interns.
They had had a book fair, or something at the Abby earlier in the day, with lots of cake, pastry, and bagels left over. I filled up a bag of birthday bagels to take home with me.
Once again I wrote haikus, like:
"Yeah," I told her. "She was here earlier, but she went back home to rest."
"I hope she feels better."
"So do I."
Paul came back with the keys and opened up the Space. Only three of us showed up, myself, Paul, and a guy from one of the other hotels.
"Happy birthday, Rick," Paul said.
"Thank you."
"Today's your birthday?" Beth asked.
"Why yes, it is."
"Well in that case we'll have to do some traditional birthday yoga positions."
"Birthday yoga positions?"
"Yup!"
After getting our breathing normalized Beth had us jump into a series of uttanasanas, a couple of navasanas, 37 eka paada salamba sarvangasanas, the plow position, a smattering of virabhadrasanas, 4 matsyasanas which as you know can be very "challenging," 86 bhujangasanas, 22 ardha jathara parivarttanasanas, 32 ardha bhekasana parsua sarvangasanas, 9 sraddha vrischikasanas, 2 bakasanas just to cool down, and 14 cat flows. Then we meditated upon our chakras for thirty minutes.
"Wow, that was a pretty grueling yoga workout Beth," I told her. "I think I got all of my toxins removed. Thank you."
"Your welcome."
I returned to my box and took a shower. As I was getting dressed Jose appeared magically at my door.
"Are you going to Support Group?" he asked me.
"Of course. I need all the support I can get."
We went downstairs and waited for Paul to return from the Defiance Space. When he arrived he asked us what we wanted to do, considering Jose and I were the only ones there.
"Let's go get yogurt," Jose said. "We haven't done that for a while."
"Yogurt? We could do that. Sound good to you Rick?"
"Do we have enough petty cash?"
"I think so," Paul said.
He took out $15 from petty cash and we took Paul's car to Yogurtland at Second and Central, directly north from my box.
At Yogurtland you get to take a cup and fill it with any kind of yogurt and toppings that you like, then take it to the cash register where they charge by the weight of your cup with yogurt in it. It's all very scientific. I served myself three layers of vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate yogurt, with mini-M & Ms and malted milk balls on top. All three of our cups cost just over $10. We sat outside to eat, and answered questions from Erin's Book of Questions. Three female police officers were sitting nearby eating their own yogurt.
"This is your birthday yogurt," Jose said.
"That's right," said Paul.
Paul asked if we could choose a power or ability to wake up one day and have, what would it be?
"A photographic memory," I told them.
"Why?" Paul asked.
"Because then I could learn other languages fast, and remember everything easily."
"You know, I think I agree with you," Paul said.
We dropped Jose off near the hotel, then Paul and I drove to the Abby for the Writing Class.
Rachel wanted us to write poems again using the little pieces of paper, so we spent twenty minutes turning over the hundreds of pieces and Rachel didn't even show up.
Demitri did though. I asked her to Email some of the pictures she took at the Domino Tournament. She said she would. Several residents showed for the class today, and 4 interns.
They had had a book fair, or something at the Abby earlier in the day, with lots of cake, pastry, and bagels left over. I filled up a bag of birthday bagels to take home with me.
Once again I wrote haikus, like:
Cool wind force
Spell geometry
Monkey fries
Monkey fries
Finish well
Rudiment Mountain
Sonic pie
Sonic pie
and
The girl
Stood with direct will
Dream cuddle
Dream cuddle
Demitri wrote:
Order cold water
Smoke from the fire during sleep
yell so you can hear
Smoke from the fire during sleep
yell so you can hear
Demitri is obviously very disturbed.
Paul wrote:
Miss Los Angeles
Rains her delighted ego
On a river bed
Of swarthy pizza boys
With common country eyes
Until the icy, muddy water
Leaves their hot boxes cold
On a river bed
Of swarthy pizza boys
With common country eyes
Until the icy, muddy water
Leaves their hot boxes cold
And here's some from my lovely case manager, Erin, from a week ago:
Applesauce Seagull
Uranus monster
Never took a city at breakfast before
Never took a city at breakfast before
and
They told the girl
"Produce a Prince!"
But instead she made herself king
But instead she made herself king
Very good one and all!
Afterwords, Paul drove me back to my box, giving Demitri a ride to Union Station as well. I made my self some birthday burritos for dinner, then got ready to go to the SOS Tuesday night meeting at the Center for Inquiry West in Hollywood. A secular 12 Step meeting, sort of.
As soon as I entered a large cry issued from those within, "Happy Birthday Rick!" At which point a large orange and white birthday cake was brought out, and everybody sang the "Happy Birthday Song," to me. I was very flustered at all of this attention. I was prompted to make a wish and blow out the appropriate number of candles. I can't tell you what my wish was because if I did it won't come true, but if you see me driving around in a Jaguar tomorrow you'll know it worked out. We began eating the cake, then the clowns arrived. Eight of them. The began their clownish activities, blowing up balloons, pantomime, acrobatics. Speaking of balloons, a switch was flipped and two hundred of them plus streamers fell from the ceiling (odd that I hadn't noticed them) and landed about us. Everyone cried out in delight! The circus animals came next. One of the elephants made a mess at the podium, but were otherwise well behaved. I began singing, "Livin' la Vida Loca," with a lamp shade on my head. Men swallowed swords and breathed fire. The bears and tigers scared me a bit. The trapeze took up the entire stage. A man was shot out of a cannon. The fireworks began. I took a ride on one of the many horses. It was definitely getting crowded and a little smoky in there. The police heard what was going on and joined us. The cake was consumed. Punch was procured. The clowns tried to lift me up in a chair 54 times but could only make it to 34 before collapsing. I got distracted by an angry mongoose, allowing the clowns to kidnap me and I haven't been heard from since.
Freaking clowns! They're always doing stuff like that.
As soon as I entered a large cry issued from those within, "Happy Birthday Rick!" At which point a large orange and white birthday cake was brought out, and everybody sang the "Happy Birthday Song," to me. I was very flustered at all of this attention. I was prompted to make a wish and blow out the appropriate number of candles. I can't tell you what my wish was because if I did it won't come true, but if you see me driving around in a Jaguar tomorrow you'll know it worked out. We began eating the cake, then the clowns arrived. Eight of them. The began their clownish activities, blowing up balloons, pantomime, acrobatics. Speaking of balloons, a switch was flipped and two hundred of them plus streamers fell from the ceiling (odd that I hadn't noticed them) and landed about us. Everyone cried out in delight! The circus animals came next. One of the elephants made a mess at the podium, but were otherwise well behaved. I began singing, "Livin' la Vida Loca," with a lamp shade on my head. Men swallowed swords and breathed fire. The bears and tigers scared me a bit. The trapeze took up the entire stage. A man was shot out of a cannon. The fireworks began. I took a ride on one of the many horses. It was definitely getting crowded and a little smoky in there. The police heard what was going on and joined us. The cake was consumed. Punch was procured. The clowns tried to lift me up in a chair 54 times but could only make it to 34 before collapsing. I got distracted by an angry mongoose, allowing the clowns to kidnap me and I haven't been heard from since.
Freaking clowns! They're always doing stuff like that.
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