playing animals

After an evening of staring at these thesis guidelines I turned to a nice hot bath and a relaxing book… Watership Down, which I nicked from my parents’ bookshelf. I was remembering how me and Bam Perry, a self-declared “cajun coonass” who took riding lessons with me and lived down the block, used to pretend we were in this book…

I can’t remember the specifics of the game, but we played it on neighborhood trampolines. Bam thought Bigwig was the coolest and sexiest rabbit, while I refused to choose just one. She could quote Bigwig at length. We would also be horses, and would play out how they would mate… on the trampoline! I can totally remember Bam whinnying and then how we’d crack up laughing with embarrassment. She was sort of butchier, and our other horse-loving friend Harleyne was femmier. Our nicest times were when we’d all play model horses and make a sort of horse society, or village, all over the floor with yarn to demarcate their houses… and we had a ton of other props. We all three liked the idea of a bunch of animals who’d go off to form their own society because the other animals were mean. Thus, utopian-leaning minds are born??

Man! It’s so funny to remember this and to think we must have been 11 or so.

I can’t remember anything that made us stop being friends; I was terrified of Bam’s older brother, who would spit on me and call me a damn yankee and who was in general a scary bully with a confederate flag gunrack; Harleyene was a little bit boring and normal – I got tired of her talk about boys and how she always wanted to dress up in her grandma’s costume jewelry. Also, she put on airs because she had a pool with a waterslide. Being in a bigger school with tracking split us up. My pariah status solidified as my allergies got worse and worse. I had to bring a whole box of kleenex to school, quite often… The bus rides were hell… first period, hell, then I’d get a little better until gym, if we had to go outside again. The first period teachers made me sit outside the classroom with my box of kleenex and a book.

The Acrobat told me today about this new asthma/allergy discovery… I can’t wait for some new allergy drugs! I’m wheezing right now, and have been ever since I got to Houston. The constant exposure to cigarette smoke didn’t help. Going back on steroids tonight… today’s nutty allergy attack had me barely able to see. Bring on the new asthma drugs!