LokiGen~XD

Are We Riding the Crest of yet Another Big Wave?

It's nine in the morning. What the hell am I doing up?

I hear hacking and spitting coming from my bathroom. "Jude, hurry the hell up!" I yell through a haze of cannabis and coffee. Finally he emerges from the bathroom wrapped in a veil of steam that smells of Old Spice and off-brand dandruff shampoo.

We're an unlikely pair embarking on our mission of mercy. I grew up in a military family and I was even in the NLCC-Navy League Cadet Corp and was set for a military career like my father until the doctors found a spot on my knee that disqualified me from service. After that I spent most of my adult life making money on my feet; I've worked construction, I was a ski and snowboard instructor, I've been a chef, I used to run clubs in Seattle-I was always active and working my ass off made me happy. That was before a back injury and my body's inability to absorb calcium caught up to me; now I'm in my thirties, my bones are brittle as toffee and I have Fibromialgia, which is the medical term for "I've been in chronic pain for so long that my nerves are damaged, which puts me in even worse chronic pain." Jude is my friend and caretaker. He's a psychology student prone to migraines and just sane enough to have avoided doing the Thorazine shuffle so far.

We're headed for a sanctuary where we can relax and be at peace. It's a haven like a cabin in the mountains in a winter storm, homey and comforting, and the voices of the greeters soothe me like the sound of waves caressing white shores. My mind races as the medicine takes effect and settles on the music-yet another rendishtion of John Lennon's Imagine-and I've again attained the meditative state I call "Duh." I know it won't be long before I move on from Oregon, but brief as it's been I'll never forget my time at the Oregon NORML Cannabis Café.

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