Two Weeks Left

The Spanish grandmas were there again, as they are most evenings, standing by the staircase leading out of the Montrose station, holding up their copies of Awake! magazine, trying to save souls, theirs chief among them.

At the doctor's office today in the waiting room a transgirl showed her titty proudly to two of her friends. There was an insane and annoying repetition of videos about STDs that were played at too high a volume in the waiting room. The doctor felt my testicles while I stood on a perch and told me to put back on my underwear when he was done. I peed in a cup down the hall, had to walk back through the waiting room with my cup of piss. I set it on the counter.

Since I am leaving my job in a couple weeks, I am milking my insurance for what it's worth since it will be about three months before I again have health and dental insurance. A few days ago, I got my teeth cleaned and set up an appointment to get my wisdom teeth pulled. Today, I had a physical, and tomorrow I am getting blood work done.

The doctor asked me questions about my life, asking if things had changed since my last visit. He asked about my alcohol and drug use and about risky sexual activity. He asked about smoking. I smoke a cigarette maybe once a week I told him. My alcohol intake is way down from what it was a couple years ago. I smoke weed every day, but that's it for drugs. And the risky sexual activity is way down as well, pretty much nonexistent. He asked if I had a partner. I told him I did. How long, he asked. Two years, I answered, putting things together, realizing that in whatever ways I have become more boring, more settled down, have also resulted in me being healthier and safer. Tradeoffs.

While I was again waiting in the waiting room watching the same insane videos produced by the staff of the clinic (for example, one Trecartinesque one featured drag queens dressed up as various STDs with crazy drag STD names screaming about safe sex), awaiting this time the results of my rapid HIV test, I got a text from the guy uptown who I have seen for several years for money, every week or so, whenever he texts me. I told him I could meet him soon. I drank a lot of water from the water cooler there. He's into piss.