Last night, I visited Skin, as he asked me to, at the Carmella. It was karaoke night though, so I couldn’t bring myself to linger. He told me that he got word from Shaggy, another barman at the Brown, that Warren retrieved his gift. We were all surprised. I didn’t get the deeper details, but they say he was behaving awfully big headed about it. That’s alright. Maybe the next time a woman says she misses him during the winding down of a phone conversation, he’ll feel flattered instead of frightened.
Skin looked kind of disappointed that I wasn’t staying for the karaoke, but I have to hear it every week from across the street. I know what I’m missing: hours of melancholy wailing songs.
It always starts out fun, with people singing happy, upbeat songs, but this is Israel. Soon as people get good and drunk, they want to sing about heartbreak, war, and death. That’s really the last thing I need. From outside, it’s easy to close the windows and grumble about it. From inside, if you have a shred of empathy, you get caught up in it, and because I am actually feeling my feelings full force now, I’d end up crying.
After the visit, I went with Wizard and Wilma to Rubens, a new sandwich shop in Mercaz HaCarmel. It’s low on bread, heavy on meat, and they smoke and cook their meats right on the premises. I wished for a natural sandwich shop, and it came true. I hope it lasts. It’s the best sandwich in the area for those of us who like it natural and moderate carb.
I fell in love. I suddenly understood what food addiction might be like. It’s like opium made of beef. Thing is though, one could have one of these sandwiches every day and not gain an ounce. Once you eat it and it’s settled, the B-12 kicks in, and you can walk it off easily. Just the salt is a concern, so it can’t be an every day thing. Once a month is okay though.
We had a nice conversation with one of the women who works there. I think I’ve made a new recruit for natural dieting, thankfully before she got fat. It gives me a warm feeling to prevent a catastrophe, just as it does to reverse one. She was already getting to the point of always feeling tired and emotionally drained. So I started preachin’ it.
After I got home, I saw there was a message from Slick asking if I was alright. I answered yes, and thanked him for asking, and asked how he was. He said he was hungry. I told him about Rubens.
