a little after we hung up the furniture delivery person called to say he was downstairs. ‘knew ‘neither of them are louis, i know this isn’t louis’ and gave angry-seeming man $20. i said ‘memorial day, i’m surprised you guys are working now.’ the happier man said ‘yeah i wanna be at a party.’ they brought boxes upstairs. the angry man asked me to initial a paper. resentfully. big time. i asked where he lived. he said ‘around beach thirtieth, little further down than you.’ i said ‘is this the last thing you have to do, then you guys can, like, have fun?’ he said ‘yeah.’ the happier man brought up the last of the boxes. he said ‘you know you gotta call ikea to get them to see when the assembly guy is coming, right?’ we looked at each other like ‘we know things were supposed to happen another way.’ i said ‘oh sure, yes, i’ll call, thank you guys.’

4:43PM: louis called. interesting dynamic, these phone calls with louis. we sound slow and happy and surprised to hear each other’s voices. let him in. assembled table and chairs while he assembled bed. NPR was on and i felt sometimes…like i wanted to say ‘the opinions on this radio do not reflect the other person in this room.’

6:37PM: took cardboard down to trash room. took smaller trash to trash compactor room. an old lady was exiting the apartment next to the trash compactor room. it went like this:

lady: hello, are you just moving in?

me: oh no, i moved about a month ago. i’m just doing furniture things now. i’m megan [shakes hand in atypically cavalier motion she didn’t seem to notice/just ‘accepted’ my hand into hers. she had soft warm small hands]

lady: well i can’t believe i haven’t seen you, you must be very quiet!

me: oh yeah. it’s just me, me and my cats

lady: oh you have cats? i have to show you this, then! [opens door to a small mostly shaven white dog sitting on a carpet. it didn’t move but it looked at us]

me: oh my god, what kind is it?

lady: shitzu. i had to give her a haircut, you know

me: sure, summertime

me: you have a really pretty apartment

lady: why thank you! i’m barbara, by the way

me: barbara. it’s nice to meet you

barbara: [points to cartoon of old lady in superwoman costume] look, it’s me, my grandson made it. does it look like me?

me: [squints] well, maybe the ‘superwoman’ part

barbara: oh-ho-ho [walks down hall] well, it was very nice to meet you

me: you too barbara

barbara

wonder if she’ll ever let me sit on her rug…motionlessly…

maybe we can work towards this

walked back to apartment. door was open to pleasantly domestic scene of louis, from ikea, assembling bed. asked if i could help. he said ‘nah, this, i mean it’s all complicated so i got it.’