Yesterday I arrived in Indiana and saw my friend Andrea for the first time in over a year.
The experience was surreal, both in the fact that I finally saw her after months of yearning and weeks of anticipating but also in the sense that it still feels surreal that I'm in the US at all. I also have an eerie sense that I'm more excited than I can actually feel. One side effect of being so heavily medicated is a general dulling of the senses; excellent when I'm in distress, a real bitch kick to the tits when something genuinely thrilling is occuring.
Andrea has shown me a true welcome to Bloomington, Indiana. We started the day with breakfast at The Runcible Spoon followed by a tour through the Bloomington Public Library and a spot of shopping on the main street where I found a belt to hold my jeans up. We then went to Mother Bear for excellent pizza, the post office to buy stamps (check your letter boxes folks, there's postcards a'comin) and a visit to Goodwill.
Oh American thrift store shopping, how I love thee! I found two fantastic striped tops, because a girl can never have too many striped tops (well, surely one could, but I don't. I only have 17) and fortuitously I also found a Gryffindor t-shirt which came in handy later this evening.
We also visited Bloomingfoods, Bloomington's amazing health/organic grocery store. I can't work out for the life of me why we don't have things like it back home. Over here Wholefoods and Trader Joe's and smaller places like Bloomingfoods seem to do roaring trades. I can't imagine that as a nation Australia doesn't have enough people interested in healthy eating that we couldn't support such a thing. Anyway, it was great. We bought chicken and cheese and crackers and salad ingredients and I even treated myself to a 16oz coffee with organic soy creamer.
This evening we went to a place called Rachael's Cafe where a number of bands were playing including Harry and the Potters (hence the fortuitous t-shirt). There was a fairly average band opening and then a totally kick-ass band called Busman's Holiday. They sounded something like Vampire Weekend mixed with Wilco but influenced by Beirut. I loved them. I had no cash with me to buy from their merch stall but their drummer told me where I can buy their CD and I will. Tomorrow.
Then the headline act came on. Their two main inspirations were clearly metal and Harry Potter, an unlikely mix, but one that was proving very popular. The first thing I noticed was that they pronounced Harry with a drawled 'a' and Potter with a soft 't' which sounded hilarious to me. The room had gotten really packed by this stage and I was already sweating with my woollen top under my Gryffindor tee. I felt like I was being hedged in a bit so excused myself to have a cigarette out in the freezing, freezing cold. Feeling calmed and refreshed I went back inside and rejoined the enthusiastic crowd. Once again I started feeling a bit panicky so I bought another beer hoping the social lubricant would help the impinging people slide right past me. It didn't really work like that.
I've never been crazy about crowds but I'm much worse now than I used to be. I'm glad I went tonight because I did have a good time, some of the music was amazing and it was so great to be hanging out with Andrea again but I'm going to need to think of things I can do, long term, to help me get through such busy social situations.
Anyway, tonight is done. Tomorrow we have exciting plans to visit the Indianapolis Museum of Art and then go to a talk with Crispin Glover followed by a screening of his new movie. Fun times!
P.S. It's cold
No comments:
Post a Comment