gene's car is gone

My god.

I get a phone call from Gene, and rush to his apartment as fast as possible. Earlier Friday evening he was driving along the access road of 35 not a quarter mile from my home. Some stupid woman driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee with a real brush guard on it came down off the freeway and tried to take a hard right into a hotel parking lot. She smashed directly into the drivers side of Gene's Honda. Apparently it totalled the car; Gene says it is most likely destroyed.

He's okay, and I'm amazed. Just this enormous lumpy bruise on his arm where the pillar between doors crumpled inwards. His window shattered into glass dust and he had some cuts from that. But overall, he's in good shape for someone who was just in a terrible car accident.

The police cited the woman with the Jeep, and EMS checked Gene out. I keep telling myself he's okay, he's lucky, he's safe. But damn. Damn damn damn.

moving in July is a bad idea

Today is why people stay friends with me despite my insanity and weirdness and periodic silence. I try, and I make not always be the best friend. But I do try to come through when they need me to help. After all, they've helped me out a lot.

In the over 100 degree heat and 70% humidity of the last day of July in Texas, I helped Gene clean out the last stuff in his apartment. We loaded up my car, and then with Alan and Al unloaded the stuff at the place Gene is staying this weekend. We went back and packed up the last few things, and cleaned the hell out of that place. Mopped the wood floor, scrubbed the bathroom, etc. I forget Gene has that neatnik streak, he was doing all the cabinets.

At one point, this guy from the building next door came to bitch me out for dumping a bag of trash & a monitor into the dumpster on the street. "That's criminal trespassing, I could call the police and make you climb in there and pull it out, blah blah blah." Motherfucker. I apologized and tried to explain that my friend had been in a car accident and I was cleaning out his apartment, but this dick wouldn't listen. He was one of those guys who seems to think wearing black plastic glasses and socks with his birkenstocks make him a cool guy. Ratfucker. I'm really sorry I put something in your dumpster but I honestly didn't know I couldn't and don't fucking bitch at me about how environmentally irresponsible I am for throwing out a monitor. I don't fucking care right now. Thankfully, I kept my temper and didn't scream at him.

So we cleared it all out. It only took some hours and some sweat.

When I came home, a large group of Ethnic Minority #1* was crowded around a car parking in the middle of the drive with a dozen children. Once I got around that, I had to avoid a car stopped for what was most likely a prostitute right in front of my building. Do they all have to be in the middle of the freaking street? WTF? My neighbor of Ethnic Minority #2 is currently blasting music with that awful bass beat so that I can hear it outside the building and in my apartment.

But really, I feel better now that I've had an ice cold shower. My back aches a little.

I'm surprised that Gene is as well as he is, considering. He's pretty sore, and looked pretty exhausted and miserable by the end of the day. But the worst part is over now. I tried to keep my motherly instinct in check, but I worried about him towards the end. Al took him and the last few things back.

The last thing we loaded into Al's jeep was Gene's bike. When he tipped it sideways and slid it into the car, this reddish brown fluid started pouring out of the frame. It almost looked like old blood, and we were stunned by the randomness. Rusty water, I guess. We all started laughing hysterically and Al stuck a whole roll of paper towels under it. A nice moment of hilarity to end off a hard day.

Right now I never want to leave the house again. I'm so tired.

*Note: I always feel a bit weird about talking about my neighbors because the majority of them are black and hispanic. I don't want to come off like that rude white girl from the suburbs and I agonize over this every time. I've had some shitty creepy white neighbors, but it happens that the bad ones here are all of color. I wish I could shake this feeling that I'm commiting some liberal crime by saying so. Ugh.