A Staggering Friday

• Friday Fall Off
• $17.50 Saturday

Friday morning, I hadn't slept in 24 hours, and was off to pick up the Thanksgiving offering, using the voucher that Howard won.

I took the bus over there and was confounded to discover that the bulk of the box contained Avon items (as mentioned in their flyer) for women. Lipstick, nail polish, foundation, and other types of lotions and potions, designed for women.

There were 4 boxes given to each, and I was able to whittle mine down to just the largest box, containing most of the canned food, and one good bottle of conditioning shampoo, several travel-sized antiperspirants, a few boxes of razor cartridges (which will require the purchase of a Shick razor handle in order to utilize) and that was about it. I set the box of Honey Nut and Oats cereal on top of the box, intending to give it to Howard, and was back at the apartment to drop the stuff off at about 11 AM.

Somehow having not slept for a day was the trigger for me to stop and get a small bottle of red wine, which I drank, effectively breaking a 7 day fast with it.

The next chore was to use the all day bus pass that I had to go to the music store to get a Stagg harmonica, the kind that I paid 14 bucks for, and which outlasted the 10 dollar ones by 4 times, and sounded better to boot.

I was disappointed to find that the Staggs were marked $24.99, and nobody could figure out how I had gotten one for 10 bucks less, unless it was because the (new) manager of the store had sold it to me along with other stuff, like the Stagg tuner and a set of strings, and might have been giving me 10 bucks off the whole package, attributing it to the harp being reduced.

I had 21 bucks on me.

The wouldn't budge on the price of the thing, so I wound up spending just 4 bucks with them on a set of strings out of the discount box, and then going across the street for a 4 dollar bottle of Fish Eye Shiraz, which I sipped on the way back to the neighborhood.

This made me hungry, and after running to the store for food for myself and the cat, which I am temporarily naming "Harold," I stuffed my face with spinach and boiled potatoes.

I didn't go out to busk, as the Shiraz really started to drag me down, and, after such a long fasting and cleansing period, had me shitfaced in no time. I started to stagger towards the Lilly Pad, but only got as far as the corner of Royal and Iberville, where Troy the guitarist and harmonica player who looks enough like me that we are sometimes confused by people, was there smoking some really "loud" weed with Jay the Really Loud singer.

They smoked me up and then let me keep the roach, which was as potent as a whole joint of regular stuff (which isn't as loud) and then it started to sprinkle, so, in my euphoric state I returned to the apartment.

I made a desert out of the box of cereal that I had been saving for Howard.

The whole box.

I guess I was craving starch and sugar. When I was a kid I would eat almost a whole box of cereal at one sitting; and so maybe I was reverting to my childhood, using the cereal as comfort food.

I found a harmonica in the key of B flat that I had thrown into a desk drawer which I use as a graveyard for harmonicas. It too was missing a note but the ones that worked sounded better than the ones that worked on the 10 dollar one that I had blown out in one night, as this one was one of the Marine Band harps that Leslie Thompson had bought for me about a year ago, during the fiasco of me trying to live at his house, just a few weeks short of me getting into Sacred Heart Apartments.

I went out and played with it Saturday night, after tuning my guitar down two half steps to match it; and, after a first hour when I might have made only 4 bucks, I rallied in the next 45 minutes and left at about 1:30 AM about $17.50 to "the good." I only drank a half pint of brandy while I played.

Sunday (now)
I now go for cat food and litter and wine and food for myself (although there might be some overlap between myself and Harold the cat, as I plan to have fish tonight) and then I plan to take Harold to see Howard, as the latter and I watch Sunday Night Football, which has become a weekly indulgence  that keeps me from busking on this one night; unless I want to start a bit late, say 11 PM.