2002-06-05 / 9:18 a.m.

(when i hear my name)

My mother calls and she needs my help. My grandmother is sick and she needs me to help her with some things around the house. She asks if I can come over on Monday. It’s a holiday of some sort and I don’t have to work so I say OK. Then she asks if I can come over on Wednesday – when I do have to work. I tell her I’m not sure, that I’ll have to check with work and get back to her.

That’s not the answer she wants to hear and she becomes very angry with me and hangs up. Suddenly I find myself scrambling to rearrange my schedule and appease her.

At one point I am at work putting the finishing touches on a Bjork mural when He arrives and starts to help me. I tell him what’s going on and how upsetting it is to have my mother angry with me…all the while I am marveling at how easy the conversation is between us…how completely free of tension or sparks…Then my mother calls again – still angry – and just as I start to tell her that she needs to treat me as an adult who has adult responsibilities – the alarm goes off.

last night ... tonight