Pajamdrarama

Kay and Clarissa were picking us up today. They had Jolene, Marcus, Lisa and Dante Marshall in addition to me.

When the van made a stop, I heard Clarissa say "(wh)xxps".

"Did you say the OO-word, or was that the WH-word?", I asked.

"Neither. I just said, 'Oh'," said Clarissa.

After we picked up Dante, Kay and Clarissa puzzled over where to go to change Jolene's diaper. They said the Dollar Tree was on our schedule, but none of us wanted to buy anything at the Dollar Tree. That was when Lisa suggested Barnes & Noble. Everyone said it was a great idea, so Kay changed the schedule to go there.

Upon finally getting to Barnes & Noble, I held onto one of Clarissa's hands and closed my eyes so I didn't see anything that made me purge. She used the other hand to hold onto Marcus. Kay, meanwhile, was pushing Jolene. Imagine that -- a blind man, a logaesthete and a woman in a wheelchair all in one group.

Clarissa took me right up to the restroom, where I went in and purged off a "whxxps" (just in case Clarissa really said it -- I really did hear a P and an S) as she took care of Marcus. Kay, meanwhile, was changing Jolene.

When I got out, Clarissa was there waiting for me. She took me to the CD section. In the pop rock, I found a copy of Third Eye Blind's Blue and wanted to listen to it, but a guy there kept putting CD after CD into the headphone scanner. Finally Iwalked around to the other side of the shelf and used the headphones there. I looked at some Jock Jams and 80's music mixes too. At the other side of the aisle was World Music. I listened to some Irish, and some Japanese, and some African, and looked at something called Latin reggae. Very cosmopolitan.

At the side of the aisle, I saw a Dora the Explorer album called Sleepytime Tunes, or Sleepytime something. Dora was carrying a teddy bear. Was that a pink nightie she was wearing? Or were those pajamdras?

Shortly afterwards, Clarissa collected everyone and took them into the van. I purged off Dora's pajamdras in the back seat.

While we were driving, Lisa said to Jolene in the middle row, "Could you please scxxt over a little bit?"

"Rrrrrrrrrr", I growled.

"Oh, I'm sorry", said Lisa.

"It's 12:00," said Kay. "We did pretty well today, didn't we James?"

"You did", I told her.

Dante's mother had given him a $5 bill. He said he wanted something from the 99-cent menu, but Kay said he had to spend the whole five dollars. They told him to buy a salad, as both Dante and his mother said he liked salads.

"I want something for 99 cents", said Dante.

"No, you're going to buy a salad", said Kay.

Dante kept repeating that he wanted a 99-cent item. He wants to save that money so he can buy tapes. Finally, they ordered a salad for Dante and he handed Clarissa the bill. Clarissa gave him back his change.

Then the van stopped at the Chinese restaurant and Kay took me along.

After I stepped out, I walked across the sidewalk to get to the restaurant. I couldn't believe what I was. There was a girl wearing pajamdra bottoms.

I didn't tell Kay, because she might say the word if I pointed it out to her. Still trembling, I walked inside the restaurant. I ordered chow mein, eggplant and broccoli beef. Kay kept telling them, "No frok".

"No napkin or frok?", the cashier asked.

"I want a napkin", I said.

"He wants a napkin but no frok", Kay clarified.

I got back in the van, now more full than ever before today. As we rode along to Vincent Park, Kay started singing, "Rock the boat, rock the boat".

"Sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down, you're rocking the boat", I sang.

Then I sang Kay the whole song.

"Now, what kind of boat was this?", asked Kay. "Is this a sailors' ship, because they've got whiskey?"

"It's the boat to Heaven", I answered.

"Oh, that's right", said Kay. "You were singing that."

"Is that a real song?", asked Lisa.

"Yep", I said. "It's from Guys and Dolls."

While we were still in the van, Lisa began eating her lunch.

"Don't eat in the van, we're not there yet!", said Kay.

"Dante is eating too", said Clarissa.

"Dante, it's not lunchtime yet."

"First he doesn't want to buy his lunch, then he doesn't want to have to wait to eat it", I said.

"Yeah! How about that?", said Kay.

In the restroom I purged off Lisa's "scxxt". Then I spent a lot time in there purging for those pajamdras. "Pajamdras, pajamdras, pajamdras, pajamdras", it sounded like.

When at last I was done, I came out and Kay gave me my pill. I went back into the restroom and swallowed it.

The two coaches decided to split the drops, so I stayed with Clarissa, and Kay took Dante and Jolene with her. Marcus was dropped off, then at 2:34 I arrived at John's office.

John finally came out. Clarissa took me into his office, and he asked me how I was.

"I've had some rough purging", I said. Then I asked John, "Are you feeling better now?"

"Yes," said John. John said he had indeed been sick for a few weeks, which explains why I hadn't been seeing him lately.

I told him about the SC-word, then I told him about the girl in her pajamdras.

"Does the sight of people wearing those bother you?", asked John.

"Yes, yes. It makes me purge", I said. Then I said, "Our generation has thrown pretty much all social conventions into the trash."

"What do you mean by that?"

"We disregard them as something that has no use. In fact, I saw an article not too long ago on this very topic. It talked about the lacrosse team greeting the president in their flip-flops."

John wasn't familiar with the event, so I told him about it. He said it seemed that some people felt insulted at the flop-flops.

"If someone I knew passed away and I were going to their funeral, I would probably show up in my turtleneck", I said.

"Is that because you like wearing turtlenecks?" asked John.

"It's because that's what I always wear."

"Do you think some people will judge you negatively?"

"Well, if it were Jolene who died, some of the people at her group home would be there, and they'd be offended. But if it were Lamesha, none of her friends would be offended."

"So you think it depends on the person?"

"Yep."

Afterwards, I thought I heard "pajxmxs" in a song that goes "Protection, make me your selection" in Stan's van. When I got home, I googled it. The song was by Mario, and the words is "diamonds". Not "pajxmxs". Whew.