Tag: candles

Logging Activated Thu Oct 17 15:07:57 2002 PDT
Jamitch teleports in.
Christi says, “hihi”
Christi says, “albertsons..”
Jamitch says, “kio okazis?”
Christi says, “so, we went to the albertson’s last night, and
they were having a sale on candles!”
Jamitch says, “uh oh..”
Christi says, “they were only $.70 each!”
JamitchD
Jamitch 😀
Jamitch says, “how many did you get?”
Christi says, “so, we got 20 of them. and as we’re loading
them into the cart, this overweight guy with a comb over starts staring at us”
Jamitch says, “ok”
Christi says, “and comes over and says “are you girls starting
a candle factory or something?”
Jamitch says, “???”
Christi says, “and we’re like “no” and he stares at us some
more, and then says “well, then why are you buying all these candles?”
Jamitch says, “ok”
Jamitch says, “so clst kicked his ass?”
Christi says, “so celeste looks at him for a second and is
like “my mom is dying, and we’re buying candles to put by her.”
Christi says, “no no. the ass kicking comes later”
Jamitch says, “so what happened next?”
Christi says, “so, he continues to stare at us, and then is
like “you know what? those candles won’t help. only the love of jesus can
cure your mother”
Christi pokes celeste
Jamitch says, “ack”
Christi says, “hehhehe”
Jamitch says, “i think i met the guy before”
Jamitch says, “one night at that albertsons”
Jamitch says, “with jenny”
Jamitch says, “he said “hello young christians!”
Christi says, “buying diet coke and way too much toilet paper?”
Christi says, “heh”
Jamitch says, “and “praise the lord for such a beautiful
night!”
Jamitch says, “we pretended not to understand english”
Christi says, “yeah, that’s him. he started yelling prayer at
us, and telling us that he could lay hands on her and cure her”
Jamitch says, “then clst kicked his ass?”
Christi says, “so we said that would be great because she was
missing half her brain and was in a coma.”
Christi says, “but he wouldn’t commit to that, and just
promised to pray for us, and if we just read our bible hard enough we’d be
able to cure her”
Christi says, “and we said thanks, and started off with our
candles, and he starts back into the “the candles won’t work! put back the
candles! you need the bible not the candles!”
Jamitch says, “christ”
Christi says, “oh, and celeste told him that they had a non
resesitation order for her mom, so we couldn’t pray”
Christi says, “yes, so anyway, celeste told him that her mom
was scared of the dark”
Jamitch says, “fuck”
Christi says, “and he told us to get a lamp”
Jamitch says, “what a jerk”
Christi says, “it was fun”
Christi says, “he was hilarious!”
Christi says, “and he kept yelling prayers at us”
Jamitch says, “he’s lucky tiffany wasn’t there”
Jamitch says, “hehehehehehe”
Christi says, “he was praying and celeste was smirking at him,
and he told celeste that he really believed in her love of god, she was such
a good christian”
Jamitch says, “HAHAHAHA”
Christi says, “and off course wanting to know how well she
knew her bible”
Christi says, “which is pretty darn well.”

So, yesterday, I left Christi in the East Bay and came down to Cupertino with our only automobile (did you know that “east bay” is pig-latin for beast?). Christi convinced Tiffany and Luoi that they wanted to drive doen to Lucy’s Tea House (La Teejo de Lusi) in Mountain View for dinner. So those three, Mitch, Vince, Tammy and I had tea and some food. I asked Mitch where I could buy candles in the area and he sent me to Albertsons on El Camino, in Sunnyvale, right next to highway 85 and that big empty mall that used to be an Emporium. They had hundreds of candles. We now have candles in reserve. We meant to buy one of each, but accidentally skipped a few. Even so, we ended up with twenty two candles. There were on sale for twenty percent off. I was extremely pleased. I was returning to the aisle with a grocery cart when a guy walked up and asked if we were buying one of each. I said heck yes, there’s a lot of them and they’re on sale to boot. He asked why we were getting them and I said my mom was sick.
“Lighting a candle isn’t going to help her. Getting on your knees and praying to Jesus will help her.” he said, but not immediately. He seemed harmless at first but quickly accelerated up to preaching us the word. He told us about how his daughters had the power to lay hands and heal. I said they were welcome to lay hands on my mom if they wanted and I was sure nobody would mind. We got lots of folks praying at her bedside. The more, the merrier. He decided it would better to pray right there in the grocery store. and he held christi and my hands and asked Jesus to bless us and my mom. It was the first time I’d ever prayed in the grocery store. The stock boy thought it was a bit odd. I think they guy was a bit embarassed at some point, cuz he got really quiet when folks started staring. I think that if you’re going to proclaim the word in a grocery store, you ought to be out, loud and proud (to co-opt a queer saying), but I guess Jesus doesn’t necessarily want people to stare at you if you’re going to get thrown out of the store. But he really did not want us buying the candles, so maybe it would have been worth it to him. He asked if I thought the candles would heal her, and I said no. He said, “that’s right, only jesus will heal her!” but why was I buying them anyway? “She’s scared of the dark now, and an electric light is too much light, so these are perfect.” He suggested a kerosene lamp. But there were none in the ethnic foods aisle.
He must have told us fifty stories of people being healed by prayer. Some guy died right there in a church pew at church and the congregation prayed for him and he walked out alive. I said, “oh, but we have a do not recessitate order for my mom.” and he had oodles of stories about people praying instead of calling ambulences and being healed. Are fundamentalists more likely to die of heart attacks because of delaying treatment? There’s a study and some graduate degrees waiting there.
Despite Jesus’ amazing power to heal, this guy’s cart was full of diet foods and he combed over his bald spot. He didn’t say anything about praying instead of going to the barber. If jesus can cure his daughter’s tumor, can’t He grow hair on the top of this guy’s head? What about the Jesus diet? Pray five times a day to cure obesity. One man, he said, had his asthma cured by prayer, but refused to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior. “And do you know where he is now?” “burning in hell!” I said. Hallelujia! (apparently it was a rhetorical question.) Anyway, it was getting late, so I said goodbye to him. At first he just seemed very lonely, but then I realized I did a bad thing by encouraging him.
The checkout woman said, “did you get one of every candle?” Had almost the same conversation again, except she said, “I guess she needs a lot of praying.” and let it go. I don’t understand why millitant atheists vince and Tammy want to stay in the south bay. People are praying all over the place.
Anyway, Margie is off at Albertsons right now, because she’s very keen on candles and likes to buy them on sale. It seems she and her sister regularly burn twenty two of them in a week.
I came back to my parents house and refilled the distilled water on her oxygen generator and set my watch alarm to go off every two hours and tried to sleep. Mom’s breathing was very rough and uneven. Its the sort of thing that makes me think she won’t make it to morning, but she’s as strong as a horse, so I wasn’t sure. I turned up her oxygen, elevated her head, have her more morhpine, but none of these things helped. The hospice nurse arrived this morning while I was in the shower and discovered that I had cross-threaded the bubbler part when I refilled it with water, so my mom had gotten no oxygen during the night. Her breathing is fine now. Ooops. I feel bad about it. Mom is still going. Her kidneys are still going. She’s part camel.
I’m going to see the Saint Francis opera in San Francisco tonight, unless something dramatic happens. My dad is encouraging me to stay in Berkeley tonight. He sarted that encouragement after I threatened to slug him if he said anything more about Jimmy Carter.