11.06.03 7:32 pm

fingers are frozen in this office of mine, but i'm typing away, in rhythm to stone roses on the boombox... sweater on over work clothes (black pants, blue shirt zippered uncomfortably tight over boobs) funky purple catglasses. i noticed today my rings are looser.

in the mail this week: bills, coupons, donation requests, collection notice of intent to summon for a 2001 medical bill (first i've heard of it in two years), four cd compilations from prickly richard.

the collection notice nearly put me over the edge. it is for two thousand dollars and i have one week to come up with the money. tuesday night i collapsed with the weight of it. wednesday morning i increased my visa limit. luckily i had a counseling appt tuesday night. i crept in, collapsed in the oversized leather chair, and huddled beneath my coat like a little girl with tears falling all over the place. it was a good session. rich amazes me. every time.

so yeah. i need a lot of work. i need a whole team of board members, fundraisers, managers, assistants, janitors... the whole shebang. any takers? applications now accepted. please inquire within.

so um. overhaul necessity embarassingly evident. check.

on to prickly richard.

hmmm. well, who knows where to start with richard. just some random things then... we talk almost every day. we've never met. he lives on the east coast. he amuses me and frustrates me to no end. we met because of elvis costello. he almost died to colon cancer. now he has no colon. he has naturally bright red hair and has dual citizenship here and in england. he is a music and literary snob. i suspect he's a bit of a genius. he's rude and finicky. and he continues to contact me more than any of my friends. drunken phone calls in the middle of the night. random guitar riffs and then a hang up. every now and then i get a package from him. a manuscript. a bottle of bubbles. buffy tapes. spongebob squarepants sucker. scads of indie music. my guess is that he tries to educate me on the indie scene so that i'll see live bands here and buy him t-shirts. he is thirty. he is in love with a teenager. he is attempting to go back to law school after recovering from cancer and reconstruction. he loves to use old century seldom used vocabulary.

a conversation:

Prickly: Should I go to Indiana or not?

hulaluna: NO

Prickly: Hahahhaa. Excellent. Before I even asked, I made a decision to do exactly the opposite of whatever you said.

hulaluna: THAT'S NOT FAIR

Prickly: I was afraid you'd say "You'll do whatever you want anyway, so go."

hulaluna: well, that is the obvious answer, but too wordy

hulaluna: it goes without saying

Prickly: Yes, but I thought you'd take the time to shoot me down.

hulaluna: it's a monday. i'm frugal on monday

Prickly: But seeing as how you've been wrong about, you know, everything so far, I can trust your instincts.

Prickly: Very few people are entirely reliably fallible. Which is odd. I bet your EQ is through the roof. While as I bet that I would rank as an emotional retard.

hulaluna: EQ?

Prickly: Emotional Quotient. You know. It's the IQ companion, but for emotional intelligence. I think people with high EQ have actually been shown to get further in life.

hulaluna: further in which way? further in prescriptions?

Prickly: I don't know. They get along with people better, etc.. And thus get further up the ladder. It's why Mozart is the only child genius who ever amounted to anything. Intelligence gets you no where.

hulaluna: hmmm. but if you were truly conducting your life intelligently, sans emotion, you would not be obsessively in love with a demented manic child.

Prickly: Well...she loves me. In her own way.

hulaluna: *eyeroll*

Prickly: It could be that when my intellect and emotions schzismed, the emotional part of my brain decided to manifest itself as a plump blonde woman in her mid-30s with hippie hair and a penchant for making poor decisions in her relationships. That's how these things happen.

hulaluna: nice description

Prickly: I mean, I couldn't have fabricated a split-self any different from my actual self. I didn't say dirty hippie hair tho'.

hulaluna: well, i'll burden your schzism with as much decorum as possible

Prickly: Your hair actually looks quite well maintained. And I said mid-30s. Not approaching 40.

Prickly: OK. I'm off. Must get a roll of quarters for the trolls, you know. Go see Pirates, tonight. It'll change your life.