Newspapers / Lambda (Carolina Gay and … / Feb. 1, 1998, edition 1 / Page 9
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Feb/^ sugar, just looks at me with her eye brows raised when I spoon it into my coffee. She’s beautiful when she raises her eyebrows, her blue-grey eyes open wider, briefly, “Sure, do you want any thing?” she says, walking back into the kitchen. “Nope. I’m fine. Let’s go eat Thai for dinner.” I hear her drop ping the crushed Diet Coke (only for Diet Coke) cans into the paper bags. The recycling is only picked up once a week, on Mondays. “Whenever you read or watch anything about Thailand you want to go eat Thai food, Miriam.” Louise doesn’t really like Thai food it’s too spicy, she says. But she eats it anyway, always getting a sweet vegetarian curry. I eat something dif ferent each time. I like the spiciness. The opening sequence to the documentary is coming on and there are Buddhist Thai monks in saffron- colored robes walking across the ’ screen. I hope this isn’t going to be an expose on how the monks really live homoerotic lives. I wonder if the monks know they are being broad cast in the U.S., or if PBS film-mak ers just shot them, without permis sion. Our futon cover is smooth, saf fron velvet; the monks’ robes are coarse, thin cotton. “See you later.” The door clicks shut before I can say good-bye. LAMBPA (My) Sensual Geography by tyrell haberkom we met at my friend pilar’s house, we found each other on her front steps, i usually spend most of pilar’s parties on her front steps, even when it’s really too cold to be out side. i feel visibly awkward talking to people i don’t know and somehow the steps are my solution, like i could be out there to smoke because pilar won’t let anyone smoke in her house, even though i don’t smoke. louise came outside with karl, pilar’s boyfriend, to look at her windowboxes. wow, nice flowers for the city, such brilliant purples and vibrant oranges, she had four boxes full of petunias, karl went inside and louise stayed outside, she sat down next to me. i still felt too big or small for my body and was‘forced, when she asked me if i wanted a cigarette to say (too quickly) i didn’t smoke, i found myself telling her that my fa ther grew up in wilmette and that’s why i came to Chicago when i gradu ated from college, because my fa ther left my mother and me when i was fourteen, going on fifteen, she didn’t leave, and instead she nodded and i noticed her shorts were the same color red-brown as her hair, almost sepia. she liked my earrings (be cause they were green, like my eyes) and i liked her nail polish (because i always wanted to wear nail polish but felt foolish doing it) and it seemed so unlikely, two femmes (i was trying to be butch, even then), with equally high voices, both liking to be sexy, and sexy meant something different every day. but maybe it makes sense, you know, they say lesbians are very narcissistic. when she put her left hand on my right thigh it stuck to it. like there was something sticky on it. she’d been eating watermelon, by the time she touched my face her hands weren’t sticky anymore, even though it was august. We eat at Thai Diner 201 mostly because it's cheap and we can walk there, but also because I love the purple and orange vinyl table cloths. It's unclear where they came from -1 don't think they're Thai, but maybe they are. "How's your curry?" "It's really good. It's very uh- spicy. You want some? The sweet potatoes are tender but not stringy." Because I know she would rather be eating somewhere else, I feel respon sible for Louise liking what she eats. Which is silly - we probably eat Thai at least once every two weeks. Plus, if she really didn't want to come, she could say so. I still feel responsible. "Um, not of the curry. But I'd love some of your rice." Myphad- thai is spicy. She puts three spoonfuls of her rice onto the edge of my plate. She's very precise. "Is that enough?" "Yeah. So what does your week look like? Are you on any nights? I can't remember." Louise works at a low-budget women's shel ter she helped found. The seven women who started the shelter alter nate staying there nights. Even though Louise and I have lived to gether for eight months, I still can't figure out how they decide who stays overnight when. There seems to be no order to it. She's still chewing a mouth ful of rice. She puts her fork down and says, "Wednesday night I stay overnight, I think. I actually need to check the calendar tomorrow. By the way, how was that PBS documen tary? Did it piss you off the way the Italian one did?" Three weeks ago the "lesbian and gay interest" (the TV schedule's words) documentary was on lesbians in Italy. The entire documentary was about two nuns who left their Carmelite convent to live in Venice together. I know there are other les bians in Italy— god there's a very ac tive lesbian cultural scene, especially in Florence- and PBS focused solely on two nuns. Whatever. continued on page 15 mangos and half-and-half, after we
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