this would be bearable if the entire house didn't smell like some disgusting cloying lemonsweet "let's mask an unpleasant odor" scent. how this came about:
last night i called a really close friend in chicago. we talked on the phone for a while and i was call-waited by john. so i told him i was on long distance and would call him later. the first conversation got into some fascinating territory, and i told my friend, "hey, let me call you back in 10 minutes? i need to call john back." so he agreed to call me in 15. i called john and was having a pleasant conversation when a stranger appeared at the front door. he opened it, looked in, said, "oh, good" and disappeared. oooo-kay. we were speculating about what *that* was all about when the stranger came back. "hi i'm dave i know bud and roger [two of my housemates] i've *got* to take a leak" he slurred as he stumbled past me to the back of the house. oooo-kay. so i figured he'd pee and leave. he came back into the living room, sat down on the couch, lit a cigarette, listened to me talk to john. bleah. so then i got call-waited again and told john i'd catch him later. only it wasn't the friend from chicago, it was a friend here in austin, kinda drunk, wanting to talk. so i'm trying to figure out if this is a stress thing or a friendly thing, and i get call-waited again, this time by the chicago friend. i explained to him about the other call and how i hated to leave what had been fascinating stuff but that i wasn't sure what the deal was with the other guy on the phone and besides, it would be a healing thing to talk to him, i thought. so we made arrangements to talk saturday afternoon. i switched back to the drunk friend but he'd just hung up; i muttered "damn" and dialed his number. the guy on the couch was watching all this and laughing. he said, "you know, i like you already." i just glared.
so i had a coolweird talk with my friend and the dave person passed out on the couch. around 4 am, my friend realized he had to leave for work at 8.30, so we hung up. the drunk guy was still snoring away and he was a lot bigger than i am, so i just turned off the lamp and closed the door. even left the kitchen light on so he could find his way to the bathroom.
this morning around 8, i awakened from a feverish sleep to hear leslie (my third housemate) being outraged and bud trying to figure out who would be home at 2 to let the cleaners in. seems dave wet the couch in his sleep last night. wheeeeeeeeee.
about the only thing that's keeping me from barfing is the knowledge that if it weren't sickly-sweet lemonshit, it'd be human urine i'm smelling.