Archival.

Well, there is no pretending I have done anything like keep up with this month's 30daysofwrite. The weeks have been busy, and when not so busy, reflective. It is Father's Day. My sis is due to deliver her new baby girl any day now. The weather can't decide, and I know just how it feels.

When uncertainty strikes: make sentences about the weather, clean and organize, read/keep/discard old journals, and if all else fails, put on "War of the Worlds" in the background for motivation. Blahdie blahdie blah to the rest, but I have found some little scrawlings in old journals here and there....to read and then release. Nothing earth-shattering:

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"20 July 2007

Friday. More than 1 month in Zurich. Time to make a document.

I have been away from Texas since....let's see, married April 2006, So just more than 1 year. Away from Austin almost two. I am craving Texas things....gravitating toward burnt orange. I feel patriotic when it comes to Austin, and also for the USA, even though politically things are so skewed right now -- somehow being away makes that clearer to me...

We don't have a TV. (My mother would be in heaven.) This is Daniel's idea and I agree though sometimes I miss hooking into a random movie...

The first time I laid eyes on Zurich it sparkled."

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Dear My Esteemed Local Brewers, Baristas, Buskers and Bean Roasters, Please don't fillet me, or think I don't care about the homegrown cafes and cups. I do, but (from some ramdom sheet of paper from about 2 years ago)....

"Everyone knows that Starbucks is a vortex. It is that place to go and be anonymously at home, well taken care of, and left alone. Starbucks is where to go if you can't remember where you left your muse, or your idea, or your underwear. It is an excellent morning-after-in-foreign-city place, especially if you are still tender-headed. I believe the light fixtures are designed with that taken into account. They are almost the same in almost every city in every country I have been...that sort of gold/orange/red mottled Mexican glass globe -- a comforting caffeine North Star.

I have come to Starbucks in the past to pass the time... when the only money I had for the day I spent on the least expensive cup of coffee, also buying the informal permission to sit there all day if need be.

I have learned Chemistry at Starbucks, hacking through the formulas and text and pouring coffee into myself until I could see the big and little pictures.

Types of people at the north Parmer Starbucks:
the Students
the Moms
the Daters
the Surfers
the Suits
the Teen Smokers
the Microsofters
the Gamers
The hardcore gamers must leave their computers at home...they are too cumbersome with customized accessories and the reason they have ventured out of the house at all is in hopes that a genuine face to face flesh and blood human conversation might alight upon them. Having a computer with you and open generally gives of an "I am working" vibe too, so there is less chance of being chatted up....I once (circa 2002) was chatted up by the skinniest teenager with the deepest Barry White voice and bags under his eyes. Within seconds he had shown me drawings of the characters he was "working on" and he told me his Dad was an IBMer. He asked who I was but seemed to expect an explanation that included a race or subclass of the figment beings in the game he was absorbed in. If I had said "I am a lesser swashbuckler." or "a water fury" he might have known what to say to me. When I told him I did not play he really had difficulty parsing me at all. The conversation did not go much further. His drawings were at a professional level, although he seemed too young to be out of school in the middle of the morning."

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"04-26-2006

7pm leaving Houston

looking out of the airplane window # D8

38 row, seat H

Overjoyed. Tears of Joy. Yay."


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