Friday, September 22, 2006

Five Easy Pieces



As a child, I had a weak eye, much along the order of Karen Black, the B-list actress from the 70s. The eye, my left, wasn't weak all the time -- it had a tendency to tire after long days of reading and loll a little closer to the nose than was aeshetically pleasing. My mother took me to the doctor, the same one who had treated my first stomach ulcer (I was five -- the doctor said, Margie, you must get the child to relax, in a thick lovely Indian accent that somehow worked its magic. The ulcer got better). Dr. Kumar prescribed eye exercises. If they didn't work, I would have to go to optomertist, and it would probably require surgery to fix it. So I had incentive to do them all the time.

The exercises made me look as if I'd had a dose of electroshock therapy, but I loved them. Fixing my weak eye, I was taking charge of my destiny! My mother urged me on -- Do you want to look like Karen Black? Do your exercises! You'll be pretty if you do your exercises! I followed lights with my eyes, moved them from side to side. One of her friends said, Is Michelle retarded? She's so quiet and all that crazy eye stuff. I glared at him with my one strong eye and my one eye-in-training. When he got up to go to the bathroom, I took a big sip of his drink, a large screwdriver. The liquid burned going down, but I was not deterred. I gulped what I could before his return and continued on in my manic way until I was dizzy. When he returned, I looked at him straight on and both eyes focused, a breakthrough. There was no question as to what I was looking at.

Michelle's Spell of the Day

"I'm so insignificant I can't even kill myself. " Miles, Sideways

Cocktail Hour

Drinking music suggestion: What's Going On, Marvin Gaye

Benedictions and Malediction

Restaurant suggestion for Friday: Andiamos

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really like both "Five Easy Pieces" and "Sideways." The spotless mind movie, though, is turning out to be kind of a toughie. I think I have a mild case of ADD, so I can't get through the whole film all at once. "Spotless Mind" is clever and funny so far. The film's title comes from Alexander Pope's poem about two ill-fated(maybe not)lovers. Jim Carrey and Kate W. are having problems in their love connection in the movie, also.
The mad scientist, the doctor who does the brain erasing procedure on patients, including Carrey, Kate W. and Kirsten Dunst,is really well played. I've reached the point where Dunst discovers that she's already had an affair with the mad doctor but the memory of it has been erased. How not cool is that, as Rachel Rae wouldn't say. To be continued. Or, I may be imagining things about what has happened to Dunst(please help me somebody (Michelle?)). To further be continued.

Anonymous said...

Aye, Michelle, one thing you are most definitely not is retarded.
Too, a rolling stone leaves no m.o.s.s.

ZZZZZZZ said...

This was such a great post to read! Drinking at an early age eh? hehe When I was three my dad was watching the superbowl and I grabbed his beer out of his lap and took a huge mouthful before he grabbed it away... I then spit it all over his brand new jeans and he missed a big play because he had to change his pants! hehe I still don't like beer to this day... I'll take the hard stuff any day of the week!

JR's Thumbprints said...

Ah, but your eye for detail lends credibility to your fiction.

John Ricci said...

Dear Michelle,
You have the most lovely eyes and are clearly the fairest of them all. Marvelous post, as always. Bravo!