Act natural

( Sunday, Apr. 14, 2002 6:11 pm )

>"Indelible reminder of the steel I lack..."

I wound up staying with Ruby's family in the Bronx last night, since it was getting late, and apparently it's not wise to wait for the train in the dark, all alone, in a station without guards of any sort. Go figure. Anyway, I had a really good time: her older sister's family was there, and her little nephew was extremely hyper and totally adorable. His catch phrase was "I'm going to tear you into pieces!" Aww. Her family was very nice to me...her mom speaks only Spanish and I do not, but it wasn't really that much of a problem. I kept feeling that I was right on the cusp of understanding what she was saying, if only I could pay close enough attention, and I got the feeling that she felt the same way. We didn't quite have that break-through, but oh well, gestures sufficed. So far, Ruby and Prissy have only taught me Spanish in the form of rude vocabulary.

I also managed to take the subway all by my lonesome! I got from the Met to the Bronx all on my own (well, alright, after detailed directions from Ruby on how to very simply take one train). Still, I was proud of myself, and tried to be all nonchalant riding the 5 uptown, through Harlem and all, like I did it every day. I couldn't help but notice that I was the only white person on the train the whole way, or in Ruby's neighborhood in general. It was somewhat of a novelty to me, seeing as how I was born and raised (and go to school) in crackerville. Or WASP-ville, actually. I decided I would answer in a thick Russian accent if anybody asked me anything. No one did, but one lady did blow into my ear, causing me to shudder deeply on the inside, silently screaming "no touchee!" Actually I think she was just sighing deeply while looking out the window in my direction, but still, not appreciated.

To go on with my snobbishness, I also caught myself playing "Mental Trading Spaces" at Ruby's apartment, which is when you redecorate someone else's house in your head even after they've been so nice to you and shown you such friendly hospitality. After I was there a while, though, I realized there wasn't much I would want to change, and in fact I think Genevieve and Hildy and the other decorators on that show should head out to the Bronx for inspiration. There were such neat little things in every corner, toys, figurenes, plants, little pictures, magents, silk butterflies...her mom had decorated almost every surface herself. Like, in one corner there was an anatomically correct male baby doll, a parakeet in a cage, and a photo of Tito Puente. Her mom also brought out photo albums (since I wanted to see some embarrassing baby pictures of Ruby) and the albums themselves were such a great collage of things...one she had built on top of a binder of, like, this corny 80's-era book of tips for teenage girls, so there was a great overlap of family pictures with odd phrases and illustrations from the book peeking out. Take that stuff to an art gallery, and she could be a rich woman. Oh, and she had embroidered all the curtains in many colors with her own designs. Again, awesome.

I slept so deeply there. I shared Ruby's bed, which I'm always a bit shy about, but it was absolutely fine, no crowding, kicking, blanket stealing, or sleepwalking, and we had a nice little sleepover-esque chat in the dark. I had barely slept the night before, so I fell asleep almost instantly and was dead to the world til noon.

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