What a scary dream!

Of course it had to do with rats. I was in the basement of my parents' old house, the one where I grew up, huddled underneath the staircase one floor above - you know, that cozy area that looks like an upside-down staircase. Cozy for creatures like rats, that is.

Except in this dream, the rats were running on the ceiling of the basement, their little claws dug into the concrete to keep from falling. And then one of them lept off the ceiling, and made a noise like a wet towel hitting the floor -- slap! It shuffled, no, scurried (no, galloped, it was so big!) its way right at me! Virgil was there too. And then, just before I could make out up close its little red flames for eyes, its dank, matted brown pelt, I woke up. I grabbed icee (the ice bat of course) and breathed a sigh of relief, beads of sweat on my forehead.

I'll never forget that slapping sound. Goodness gracious!

popsicle dessert after dinner

sometimes virgil lies and then gets upset. for instance, i the lobster am only turning 23 not 24. i live in a house far away from anything good, and it is filled with song. not because it is happy place, much the opposite actually. it is filled with old r&b songs and christmas songs in the month of october. these songs are belted out so loudly that they are impossible to ignore and the only option is to go crazy or leave. i am choosing to leave. today i saw a rat in the park. it was running across the marble wall next to the fountain.

dinner

sometimes the lobster comes over dinner. and still other times, when she comes over for dinner, she flirts with the doorman. we are hoping this flirting will result in a marriage proposal prior to her 24th birthday after which time she will be know as "the old maid."
i havent seen any rats in the park for awhile, though i did see a pair chasing one another uptown this afternoon.