COUNTDOWN TO GREATNESS

12 hrs (27 hours)

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Tamala 2010: a Cat Punk in Space


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wrote a lot of stuff today, thinking a lot about that time I ate a bunch of mushrooms and I thought I was in some apartment in Japan, that was pretty crazy



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“Are you sorry you did it?” I said.

“Get the hell off me.”

I stroked his thumb, brushed it, tenderly, the way you would a blind, tiny thing fresh-pulled from a hole.

“Just tell me if you’re sorry,” I said. “Because here we are. Because, me, I’ve been following you. Do you understand that? I’ve been following you all along. So, just tell me, are you sorry?”

“Hell, no,” said Gary. “I wanted to watch TV. Anyway, what’s done is done.”

“Done and gone,” I said.

“Don’t fucking wallow,” said Gary, and pulled his thumb away. “Never fucking wallow. You wallow, you’re pretending you were something else in the first place. I know who I am. I’m Gary. I go down into the street, I’m Gary. I’ve never stopped being Gary. There’s no cure for it. There’s no race. It’s not a race, okay? It’s a contest. Do you get what I’m saying?”

“Yes,” I said. “I’m with you.”

He walked over to the window, a vista of sky, brick.

“Don’t be with me,” said Gary.

--Sam Lipsyte from "I'm Slavering"
http://mentholmountains.blogspot.com/2011/02/sam-lipsyte-story.html

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"Each time I handle [the dictionary], I take the greatest care not to harm it: my primary concern is not to harm it. What struck me today was that even though my son should be more important to me than my old dictionary, I can't say that each time I deal with my son, my primary concern is not to harm him. My primary concern is almost always something else, for instance to find out what his homework is, or to get supper on the table, or to finish a phone conversation. If he gets harmed in the process, that doesn't seem to matter to me as much as getting the thing done, whatever it is. Why don't I treat my son at least as well as the old dictionary? Maybe it is because the dictionary is obviously fragile. When a corner of a page snaps off, it is unmistakable. My son does not look fragile, bending over a game or manhandling the dog. Certainly his body is strong and flexible, and is not easily harmed by me. I have bruised his body and then it has healed. Sometimes it is obvious to me when I have hurt his feelings, but it is harder to see how badly they have been hurt, and they seem to mend. It is hard to see if they mend completely or are forever damaged. When the old dictionary is hurt, it can't be mended." - Lydia Davis from "The Old Dictionary"

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The Dappled Oaks Assisted Living Retirement Community by daveyhoule
http://denniscooper-theweaklings.blogspot.com/2012/01/dcs-writers-workshop-13-daveyhoule-five.html

Rose Dennison was a crow. And like a crow her eyes could bully. A small, severe woman – stooped over, rail thin, all hard angles – it was Rose who’d spread the rumor that Earl Kramer poisoned his late wife, Bethany, then blew the insurance money on the slots before he fell down the basement stairs and his children brought him here: The Dappled Oaks Assisted Living Retirement Community. But what Rose and her tar pit eyes were now proposing even her henpecked septuagenarian boyfriend Walter Kern could not abide. She wanted Earl dead.

When Walter refused to go along with her plan, she cawed. Rose thrust her head up and cawed.

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