rashundatramble.com

The pic to your left is from my home office. I was fooling around with my Polaroid. I’ve pulled out that camera along with the Lomo and the Holga. If the weather is halfway decent this weekend, I may go shootin’.

Thirty-seven came and went. I didn’t notice any new wrinkles and my boobs still defied gravity. To celebrate - the birthday, not the gravity-defying boobs - the hub took me out to dinner Friday night (he had to work during the weekend so we celebrated early).

Dinner at our favorite neighborhood haunt was nice. Actually, it was freaking hilarious at one point.

The hub and I were sitting at a table, minding our own business when an extremely drunk, extremely fat, extremely Swiss man stumbled up to our table after leaving the washroom (the WC was in my line of sight so I saw him coming). He faced our table and started staring at me. He put his hands in a prayer position and said:

“Exxxxcwuse me.”

I said, “Yes?”

“Gah-nah or Nee-gay-ree-uh?”

“Huh?”

“Gggah-nah? Or. “Nee-gay-ree-uh?”

I’m not good with Drunkese, but I figured out that he was asking if I was from Ghana or Nigeria.

“Nein, ich komme aus den USA.”

Now, usually when I say this, folks here start suffering from what I call “The Talking Platypus Syndrome.” If you come across a platypus that talks, you’re so amazed by it that you don’t listen to what it’s saying.

Dude seemed to be so amazed that a black person was sitting in front of him who a) did not come straight from Africa and b) was speaking German.

It’s a trip to realize that not everyone knows that the African Diaspora is…well…a diaspora. Anyway, the drunk dude informed me that when he saw me walk in the door he just knew I was from either “Gah-nah or Nee-gay-ree-uh.” Apparently, he’d spent a lot of time there.

Bless his heart.

In any case, I spent the morning of my actual birthday up at the Einsiedeln Monastery. I walked the stations in the cathedral, visited the Black Madonna and lit a candle for Dad. I even accomplished the almost impossible feat of spending close to CHF60 at the kitschy Madonna icon stands out front. Hey, I need all the help I can get.:-)

P.S. James, your e-mail address keeps bouncing my messages to you.