The Scoplaw Escapes for a Bit

The Mission – after squaring away all my shit, to spend 70 or so unplanned hours in the presence of Riposte to reset the brain and remind myself who I am.

Accomplished.  With Quirks.

**

After getting the summer work issue taken care of, I made last minute plans to visit Riposte in her softly decaying and reforming southern city. 

When we found each other in the airport she asked me how my flight was.  I replied that it was pleasant except for the gay overweight flight attendant who kept touching me to get my attention (as I was gazing out the window, earbuds in, listening to Texas [I know, I know] – seems to send off the “don’t talk to me vibe” yes?).  He kept asking if we’d met somewhere before.  Riposte heaved her breathy sigh and asked “Does that *ever* work?”  And thus the weekend began.

Physically, Riposte looks like an Egon Schiele sketch brought to live.  If I had her long-fingered and hypnotically expressive hands, I’d rule the world by now.   Actually, Riposte more than adequately fills all of my requirements for a potential spouse – much much sharper than I am (in certain areas), tremendous coffee-making ability (exceeding the Coffee Goddess [sorry kid!]), wicked good backrubs, cutting sense of humor, quick walker/thinker/talker, and an unapologetically lived life.  She has 3 accents and a near-surgically precise command of her expansive vocabulary.  In several ways she’s more sensitive to language use than myself.  She’s widely read – we can talk about the merits of the Graves translation of Lucius and quote poetry to each other. 

She’s unafraid to slug me in the ribs (literally) if I get too bratty, or call me on any statement I make – simple, easy, works for me.  She also has the most critical and balanced self-inquiry I’ve run into; this, I think, is one of the most endearing things about Riposte – that she operates on a kind of meta-cultural/socially analytical level.  In some ways, hanging around her would be like spending an afternoon with Woolf.  In many ways Riposte reminds me of my friend Rasputin.  When you meet either of them you immediately want to ask what they have their doctorate in – yet they’re both self-educated, which I’ve enormous respect for.  Spousing ain’t in the works for Riposte and I though; we just take each other on each other’s terms, which I think is pretty cool, given that her past is stickier (illustrative story below) than my own very sticky past.  She’s one of my good/important people out and about in the world.

**
Travel stories:

Fragments:
Over the weekend Riposte corrected my French pronunciation, my drug classifications, and my impression of events.  She introduced me to a new and excellent tea, a secret squash dish, and some lovely eggplant.   She drove a truck, poured tea on someone (below), showed me a great photograph of her shoulder blade, and in the course of playing tour guide brought me to an arcade (mall) that had the most bizarre mishmash of architectural and decorative styles (low relief cherubim tile, faux medieval chandeliers, and textured wall paper you might find in a Holiday Inn which escaped all renovations since 1963.) 

I gave her some punching tips (torque), cooked dinner, walked the dogs several times (the cat came along to supervise), did the dishes, met some of her people (her grandfather, a very cool guy, is facing some surgery which has people worried), tried to teach her young cousin pig latin (mixed results), drank a lot of (good) coffee and a bottle of wine, and lost myself in a generally pleasant and hospitable plan-less, deadline-less, time.  I was also told I looked like Sky-Captain.  Still trying to parse that one.

Suction:
One evening we went out to the Art Bar for cheap Guinness, where I was brazenly hit on by a woman in a corset who tried to eat one of my arms with her breasts.  It was rather remora-like.  This wouldn’t have been quite so off-putting (she was attractive - save for the smell, misapplied make-up, conspiracy theories, and generally fucked-up-on-something air) if her husband hadn’t been sitting on the other side of her in our bar booth, which afforded me no escape.  Riposte, Splendid Skirts, and Diver looked on in (be/a)musement.  None of them threw me a social rope.  Bastards.  Bastards.  Later Riposte pointed out that I should have just started overtly and sleazily hitting on this woman, which would have escalated the issue at least and at best turned her off.  When R, SS, D and I left, the husband was *not* pleased with me.  He tried to crush my hand when we shook goodbye.  Didn’t work. 

Although I have a photo of the remora, it's not nearly as funny as Splendid Skirts' and Diver's reaction (snapped by Riposte) to this woman's vamping.

 

Diver, after a long day at work, checks out the local scene.

Scop and Splendid Skirts chatter away.

Creepy moment/Buzzkill:
We’re chilling out in her room talking when, freakishly, someone says “hello” and, no knock, tries to open the door (Riposte lives with two roommates, one of whom is Splendid Skirts, neither of which were home.)  This turned out to be Riposte’s quasi-obsessive ex-boyfriend who’d driven 3 hours, parked his car around the corner, surreptitiously entered the house, and hearing voices inside her room, tried to open the door without knocking. 

That’s got a creepiness factor of about 8 in my book.

It’s only really mitigated slightly by the boy himself.  I should name him – “Derailed Lawrence” I think, (or perhaps “endlessly taxiing”).  I’ve known him for awhile.  He’s not a fundamentally bad guy - much potential, much happening, but more, from my perspective, that’s not happening.  I think the key to understanding this anecdote is DL’s near-complete inability to see how his actions intersect with the wants and needs of others, to see the ex post effects of his action v. his ex ante intentions – it’s an odd kind of obliviousness to find in someone who is generally insightful and reflective.  I always read that as a kind of head-game-hostility, or a willful childishness, but I was trumped by Riposte’s reading of the situation. 

Anyway, DL apparently knew I was in town (Riposte told him I’d be visiting) and decided to sneak up on the two of us in hopes of catching us in a compromising situation of some sort.   

Why?

I mean, seriously, why?  What *exactly* would he think such a thing would accomplish?  Except making Riposte absolutely furious.  Which, as you might expect, it did.  I excused myself so the two of them could talk and thus missed the tea-dumping (though in my opinion he was damn lucky not to get the mug in the face as well). 

The rest of the evening was pretty awkward.  DL groveled a bit, Riposte laid down the law (which I can tell she’d done before), then for the next 5 hours DL proceeded to try to worm his way into the evening, which, prior to his unexpected arrival, had turned on an apparently simple enough plan to visit Riposte’s ailing grandfather, move some bookshelves.  Simple socializing, story-telling, some light physical labor.  I was so down for that. 

Post-DL, the plan was the same, but included meeting DL for dinner at 9 after the work was done.  Instead DL totally complexified the situation (randomly calling her relatives and showing up as we were trying to move instead of meeting us later for dinner as planned).  He distracted Riposte so much (with the need to immediately discuss his actions/feelings and endlessly apologize) that the shelves, of course, didn’t actually get moved.  In addition to this there’s the burden of her having to explain/front DL’s actions/presence to her family, who, given her grandfather’s impending surgery, were already on edge. 

Although I mostly just listened, I was asked to chip in by DL, while DL and I were talking (alone - Riposte was trying to salvage her moving project.)  I pointed out to DL that I hadn’t seen Riposte for a year and a half, that I was in town for 3 days, and that god only knew when we’d next have time to see each other.  He said he knew that.  So then I ask if he sees Riposte at least once a month.  Yes, he does.  Are they friends?  Yes they are.  Does he know that his egocentric activities are pissing her off beyond belief?  Yes he does.  At this point it’s hard not to grab him by his ears and shout, “You’re ruining everyone’s day, DL, and grossly sabotaging your own interests – just what is your fucking problem?”

Riposte ended up tossing him 3 times – he just wouldn’t leave.  For the rest of the evening (eggplant, wine, stories) I kept expecting to see him peering in through the outside windows or tailing the car or something.

Comments

[bookwench]

She is indeed a wonderful person.
*grumps at you a bit for being that close and yet not telling me.*

Also I have lost all of the contact info she gave me right before moving. Could you email that to me please.
Thanks.

[Scoplaw]

Shall do kid. My apologies for not calling. I wanted to escape but not turn things into a whirlwind trip. But I'll be around - and you can always hie your ass up to DC and stay with me.

Actually (and unsurprisingly given the Columbia connection), your name came up in conversation (all good). There aren't that many people from Athens that C and I talk about.

Scoplaw

[Ginger]

Hey, Scop! Found myself captivated and inspired by the photo above. See Riposte & Rothko.

[Scoplaw]

Interesting, interesting. I told Riposte that it's a good thing I no longer sculpt, or I'd be perpetually distracted by her. As you know, I'm always interested in works that cross genres, hence all my music/poetry foolings, and my basic oralist/auralist stance (which is always a great one for cocktail party misunderstandings - "You're a *what*?").

Anyway, I eagerly await further explanation.

Scoplaw

PS the package arrived this morning - thank you. I'm looking forward to reading both.

[Ginger]

There were two packages, both shipped via Priority Mail. The first contained a book, CD, and MS. The second, two books. Did you receive both, or do I need to raise hell at the post office?

G.

[Scoplaw]

The mail here is horrible. I'll check again later today for the second package. I received the one with the two books. I'm quite excited about Doty's new work.