Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Good Morning, Lily.

I woke close to 10am, just in time to slip on my shoes and move my car so that Phoebe can drive her van to work. I stay at the house a while longer to wash up and get my things together to go to town. I finally arrive at Berea Coffee & Tea at 12:30pm to order what once was my regular lunch: a mocha and a roma panini. I set up my laptop to transfer photos off my camera card and onto my computer and to check email. While I stayed there, Micah arrives and we chat a little on and off again about his trip to Greece, also as he showed pics to his female friend on the couch. Nathan does a double-take when he recognizes me in the coffee shop. He tells me he just bought a little tractor; he's excited about it, and he reminds me to post a message to his wife Jessa that I'm in town (although she never responded to it and we never meet up). Joan comes in for a moment and fixes herself something to drink and takes it back to the church where she is working. Loranell comes in and visits me for a few minutes, sitting at the table and sharing her plans about belly-dancing, etc., and the book tracking she does for next door; It is all manual. I call Jack and make plans for dinner at Main Street Cafe with him for Wednesday night. I communicate via facebook messages with Kit and Normandi to plan Thursday's visits to Lexington and Frankfort to meet them. After a while Beth C. comes in and says hello. We talk about writing and it looks like she is a lot happier working for the Berea Citizen than where she worked before. Jack stops by to solidify our dinner plans and he talks a while. I wonder if he will bring some other folks to have dinner with us.

I finally decide to see the campus so I walk across the street to see the Fee Glade, taking pictures, and some familiar spots around the library and other buildings. I step into the library and visit with Julia for a minute and then Susan, too, before they head home for the day. I make it back to my car before the rain comes down too much. I went to Robie & Robie books and looked along their bookshelves for a while thinking I might get a book or two, but I never found anything that I couldn't live without.  Plus, I was looking for a copy of Chinaberry; I will probably have to order a copy online.  The rain didn't last very long and I drove around town a bit longer before deciding that I would go visit the three places where I lived in Berea: (1) The little red brick duplex leased to me by the college for a year and a half, and this was my favorite humble home and I had several little parties and friends and memories made and left behind; (2) The hole-in-a-wall apartment that was directly across from the railroad tracks, but that was soon forgotten when the fleas hatched in the walls and my poor cats were harassed with these little buggers, never mind the bathroom shower-only drain twice flooding the apartment floors with kitchen-sink sewage; (3) The townhouse apartment where I made the chakra collages, where I began learning the banjo, where I was introduced to bourbon, where I sat on the back porch with a friend listening to him talk about poets, where I began writing Rise When the Rooster Crows.  I took pictures of two of the former homes; The last place had its doors open with new people moving into it during my visit to Berea this year.

1st home: Sweet Memories

2nd home: Dreadful Days

Loranell's Electric VW Van

I find Robert on facebook; We plan to meet at the coffee shop, so I return there and meet Nick for a while. He tells me about his new apartment, his train ride out West, all his friends moving away, and again about his super cool vintage apartment. Nine rolls around on the clock and I move my perch to the table on the front patio and wait for Robert to arrive. Just when I was about to give up and he rolls up in a borrowed red truck. We sat outside until about 10:30pm talking and catching up on all the new things going on in his life. But I was tired by 10:30 and finally said goodnight, but not before Loranell finished up closing next door and drove her electric van around the corner.  It is the quietest moving vehicle I've seen yet... 

I drove all the way back to Phoebe's, in the dark, worried about a wrong turn or awkward dip in the road. I got home, looked to the sky, and found a map of stars, unfolded and revealing. I should've stayed and stared but instead I packed up my laptop, camera, and bottles of water for returning inside Phoebe's gypsy home. So upon entering Phoebe woke and told me about her day at work, being yelled at, leaving early in tears, coming home to read and nap and try to get rid of a headache. And we talked about differences between how the town looks and her and another ostracized female in the community, the town's response to their actions and decisions and what that meant for the women and for the community. Bubbles broken. We began to settle down for bed; I'd already switched to the PJ pants when a knock came on the door as it was being opened. Brian came in. So Phoebe comes out, face incredulous, and they talk for a while on the back porch. I finally go to sleep.

Danforth Chapel, Berea College campus

Danforth Hall, Berea College campus

Hutchins Library, Berea College campus

Boone Tavern & Inn, Berea, Kentucky