A WOMAN COVERED IN GREASE - IT’S SO HOT!

Posted on | September 7, 2008 |

We are on our way to Pittsburgh… no wait!  We are swerving our way to Pittsburgh, and it is evident that unless we figure out Sugarcube’s problem, we’re going to kill ourselves and others on the highway.  So we stop at Blue Mountain Travel Lodge - complete with a Roy Rodgers and an ice cream bar!  

We’ve already deduced that it could be the weight we are carrying (five women, cinder blocks for the set, the weight of the full set itself, merchandise, our personal travel needs, and our newly crafted seating - which is also a compartmentalized storage unit AND folds out into a bed thanks to Pippi), it could be some aspect of our steering (we’re in a 1990 Ford E350 Diesel; Pippi likes to say, “Ford International 7.3 Liter Diesel!”), it could be our tires… who the hell knows?!  But we have to figure it out or cancel Pittsburgh.  Etta is our activist coordinator and location scout in Pittsburgh and she calls up Johan - the mechanic saviour.  Together, at 9pm, they drive the 2 hours and 45 minutes to get to us in the middle of Pennsylvania.  As we wait, we pull out the bed and all five of us lay head to foot in a tentative slumber.

Fisch and I secretly plan our escape back to New York - sharing what we’d take and what we’d leave behind (me - I’d take my Samsonite fanny pack with my brand new Blackberry, Playboy lip gloss that’s a gift from Raquel, my i-pod, tea bags, ultra fine point Sharpie, tampons, to do lists, id, and debit cards; Fisch - she’d take her brand new MacBook in it’s cardboard box). 

 We laughed it off, knowing that hitchhiking as single Black females back to New York is far more dangerous than eating like Naima and Alixa, using grey water bathrooms with their friends, and unloading and loading sets is challenging.

Johan says it’s our right front wheel bearing and sway bar bushings (whatever the hell that is!), and tells us to get some sleep - we’ll try to find an open car parts place in the morning - LABOR DAY!  

Alixa and Naima go off to find a place near this rest stop to pitch a tent, now that we’ve got two extra people who have driven so far out to save us we have to do a bit of camping.  When they return they tell us, “Your suite awaits, second tree on your right!”  Amazingly, it can fit two full sized air mattresses, and we rest our heads for 3 hours.

Up again.  We’ve seen three different shifts at dear ‘ole Blue Mountain Travel Lodge.  And we’re off to get wheel bearings in a place called Shippensburg, Pennsylvania (40°2′58″N, 77°31′26″W).  Johan and Etta drive behind us as we sway to and fro trying to stay below 45 or above 55 to avoid the most dangerous side to side action.  As we drive through some of the most beautiful farm country we see plenty of Amish folks. 

 It makes me think about how little I know about the Hasidic Jews I see so much of in Brooklyn, and that I don’t know anything about the Amish outside of how much they remind me of the Hasidic Jews.  

We get the part, Johan and Pippi do the damn thing and off we are to Pittsburgh, still swaying - yet telling each other, ”Oh, yeah, it’s a little better.  Can’t you tell the difference?” I’m in the back with my internal dialogue saying - “HELL NO!”

Grey Box Theatre.  It’s complete with Gina and Doug (who I’ve nicknamed Christopher Robin due to his stories of his life sounding like adventures with Winnie the Pooh and he’s nicknamed me Bomba since my new way of cursing has been shortened to a bastardized version of a West Indian bad word). We have our first home cooked meal - compliments of Bekezela.  Alixa exclaims, “These are the best chick peas I’ve had my whole life!”  And truth be told, I wasn’t sure if it was that I was starving or was happy for warm food - but they were slamming!  The place is cool, but the best part about Pittsburgh for me was the woman who lives above the theatre.  She appears to be a normal, youthful white lady, but she’s got tools and equipment cleaning gum off the corner of the joint.  At first I thought she worked for the theatre, but then I saw her plastic cup of red wine left chilling on the sidewalk…  Doug and Gina tell us that the woman has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder AND… insomnia!  So she spends her nights making sure this one corner is immaculate.  Deep…  I told them I’d love for her to come visit Brooklyn.

Awe… Brooklyn.  Right as I am greeting folks from Pittsburgh to HURRICANE SEASON, I am hit with this overwhelming feeling of nostalgia for my beloved Brooklyn.  I started dreaming about the Halal spot on Bedford and Fulton, since I’d been eating pita, hummus and avocado for two days.

Some dude tells Pippi, “A woman covered in grease, it’s so HOT!”  We pack the bus in record time - 3 1/2 hours - GO TETRIS GO!  And we sleep to get ready to head to our next stop - Cleveland, Ohio - where great food, loving friends, and our first performance of HURRICANE SEASON in a church awaits!

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