That was then. Now this is my last night at the hospital. It's been a very entertaining night. I woke up to a pretty girl asking me, "Is it was ok if I tap dance?" It was my room mate's wife. She was a Broadway dancer and she was practicing for her performance. Was I hallucinating again? Very entertaining. Just when I thought things were getting weird, two state troopers showed up at my bedside. They started askimg me questions. Were the drugs kicking in? That was very very entertaining. It turns out they were questioning me because my roommate's ipad had gone missing. I said. You're welcome to search my room, but listen, guys, there's a drug addict down the hall. Let's put one and one together. We got a drug addict and we have stolen property. They spent a few hours searching the floor. They finally found the ipad conveniently it was left in a communal area. That was entertaining. And when things didn't get bizarre enough, the drug addict showed up in my room and started giving me a hard time. Never a dull moment, I'll tell you. I often forget this is a state hospital. It's like a New York City bus. You have a full spectrum of people, from drug addicts to federal judges. The cool thing is, the staff and the people who work there are really cool. They treat everyone the same. You never know who you're sitting next to. I just want everyone to know that the people that work there at that state hospital, Helen Hayes, they are great. I can't believe the patience they have. Anyway, I went off on a tangent there. I'm just impressed by the staff.
I'm home now. They figured out the right cocktail of drugs to prevent seizures and do not get me wasted. Everyone is different. It just takes time to find the right combination. I am going to go see a specialist though. It's important to have a second opinion.
Let's tell a story. It's about a place I used to shoot at called Palau. It's halfway between Guam and the Philippines. A beautiful group of islands. If you're a diver, or a snorkeler, I highly recommend this place. But check on the dates that it would be safe to go there. The tides can be really dangerous. Anyway, I have a cool wood carving from Palau. The way I got the wood carving is an interesting story. I was in my hotel talking to my guide and I said to him, "What's cool and well known from this group of islands?" He said, "Oh, the story board wood carvings are really popular." They're basically a piece of wood that's carved they pass around the campfire. An Elder would tell the story that's on the wood carving. It's basically a story board. Anyway, the only place you can buy one is in prison. So I gave the guy some cash and he took me to prison. The make up artist overheard me and said, I want to come too. I said, all right. No problem. So we all went off to the prison. When we got there, our guide paid off one of the prison guards and we went inside. There was a group of old guys carving some storyboards in a small square courtyard. I picked one out I really liked and bought it from the elder. Then, I look over and the hair and make up artist is scorinig some weed. I was like, "What on earth are you doing? You're buying weed in prison." She said, "Sure, they're cool with it." I thought, my God, I'm never going to leave. They're just going to keep me here. But she bought a little weed and we quickly left. Was all a bit bizarre, but I still have the wood carving. The story of how I got it is more interesting than the story carved into the wood. Oh, yeah, when I went through Australia customs, they asked if I had any wood carvings. I left that box blank. The customs agent said to me, "Nothing to declare Mate?" I said, "Nope." He said, "All right go on then." Then he said, "Hold on Mate, you forgot to fill in this box. Do you have any wood carvings?" I said, "Nope." He said, "All right then, open everything up." I said, oh shit. So, of course the first case I opened had the wood carving in there. So he pulled it out and he yelled at me, "What's this Mate?" So I looked at him, I looked at the wood, I looked back at him and said, "That? That's art." He said, "That's a wood carving." I said, no that's art. We argued back and forth. They finally x-ray'd it and gave it back to me. They were actually pretty cool. It was a great trip. I have lots of other stories from that trip, but not enough time. The other stories involve a big shark, deadly tides, multibillionaire's yacht, a Japanese Zero in the water, a Japanese airbase from world war 2. Lots of stories, but I'll tell those later. I'll just tell you one other story, real quick. I don't know why I feel compelled to tell you, but it came across my mind.
I was in India. I was very young and with my parents. We went to a fortress outside of New Delhi. It was very windy. I got lost and separated from my parents. It was kind of scary for a young boy. Anyway, I kept hearing little bells. Bells. And I would look up and through the dust and the windy red soil I'd see a bunch of temple girls giggling and laughing. They were dressed in bright silk robes. Very colorful. They were waving me on showing me which way to go. I followed them for about 15 minutes. They kept appearing and disappearing around each corner. They finally lead me to my parents. It was pretty cool. I told my mom, we looked around but we didn't see any temple girls. I had forgotten about that event until recently. I was photographing an indian princess. She knew of the fortress which I was speaking about. She said to me there's no temple girls there. And no one dresses like that, at least they don't now. She said, oh, you probably saw some ghosts. It kind of freaked me out. Anyway, whatever it was, or whoever it was, it did lead me to my parents. It was a pretty cool adventure.
Just another story I would think about when I was lying on my back. I'm pretty tired, so I'm going to sign off. I'll talk to you guys next week. Love, B. Nice
