Tuesday, August 15, 2006

bridal veils

before i begin today's bit, let me tell you a detail that has been haunting me that i left off yesterday's.

the lady's green linen shirt had an applique of a butterfly, in white irridescent sequins. right in the middle of her back. my eyes locked on this glimmery butterfly and it was surreal. dreamlike. sometimes my life feels all mystical. this was one of those moments. a perfectly ordinary environment (except for the falls), and normal things going on, but i'm wafted away to this other realm. not like i leave my body or anything, but like life suddenly becomes this other dimensional reality.

the butterfly was mesmerising. it wasn't even done that well, it was just the odd placement and shinyness of it, perhaps. but i can see it now. sometimes these dream images come to light and i feel myself in a waking dream. perhaps strange. but i just deal with it. usually don't say anything.

so we go from the observation deck and they funnel you through the gift shop out to the park which faces the rapids and falls. i passed through there quickly, as shopping has lost all lure for me. i walked out the door and had to find a place to perch, i saw none immediately out the doors, then i turned and there were two parrots on a homeless guy. one a yellow fronted amazon, the other some sort of conure. i couldn't tell the species because i don't know conures that well.

anywhoo, i figure, when my people see the parrots, they'll know to find me this way.

so i keep trucking, and finally light upon a bench facing the falls, though i wanted to delight in the rapids a bit. it was farther than i felt comfortable that they'd find me. we had decided to stay together this trip. i'm notorious for doing my own thing whenever we go somewhere. i wander off alone.

i sat and just put pen to page when they found me. and gave me a tongue lashing for being hard to find. i knew they'd find me. it just might take a while. and i wouldn't have minded that in the least.

we'd set out on this journey at 10am. my family can't seem to get out the door early. so we stopped once and made it to the falls by 5pm. i didn't want to stop to eat because i'm a food camel, and can go forever without eating. i figured we could do a couple things and get food later. there's always time for food later.

so we board the trolley, it's 7pm by now. and my husband is famished. we decide to take in the cave of the winds before dinner. and this was the second time i thought myself fool for willingly going to my doom.

we wrap ourselves in clear trashbags this time, put on some cheap sandals and march to an elevator where they drop us 17 stories in the ground. people were coming out of there looking like soaked rats. so i wrapped everything we had in an extra poncho and hoped for the best. i had my journal with me and a camera. the rest could have gotten wet. but those two items no.

on our way down this drop, the young guy with a sunburned face, he was lobster red says,
they built this shaft in 1922.


not a comfort, considering i'm crammed in there with at least twenty others. and if the thing stops, we'd panic.

we proceed down the long tunnel, to the shoddiest construct of a landing i've ever seen. it is perched on the rocks in front of the bridal veil falls. which moves only 1% of the water going over niagara falls.

when you reach the hurricane zone, you will be twenty feet from the falls.
the redfaced young man announces.

signs are everywhere, watch your step, hold your kids. so i am thinking,
great. this will be interesting.

we march down the stairs and across a low landing. proceed up the slipperiest stairs, which have been covered with plastic tread, and up toward the falls. the hurricane deck is full of people whose ponchos are whipping in the winds. it looks like they are standing in a hurricane.

the handrails were slick with algae. the green draping growths brushed off no doubt by the constant handholding. and where there were no hands to hold the rail, the moss ran with water. it was soaked.

as i'm ascending the stairs to the hurricane deck, i turn around to see how my starving husband is faring, and he is lit up like a christmas tree. the man looked like a little boy. it was great. a grin on his face like you can't imagine. it was beautiful. i wished the camera wasn't wrapped in plastic, so i could have taken a picture.

we watched my beloved go to the hurricane deck, then my girl got up the courage to skirt the deck rather than bypass it. so we started to go up the stairs, while my beloved was proceeding to descent the adjacent stairs some ten feet away. i hollered at him, and he heard me over the falls. it was amazing. he met us at the top and we got our blast of wind and water. then proceeded down. surviving another brush with death.

the rest of the trip was pretty standard fare. sightseeing. whatnot. nothing really spectacular. i wanted to get up early and sit beside the falls. that is my ideal. to go and be there, experience the thing. spend a bit of time with it. but it was more important that i spend the time with my people.

and so i did.

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