sweetdango@hotmail.com #904 (1 of 2) starplane.blogspot.com
Out the other noon to go to the library – had to return a biography of David Bowie, and a DVD of Alias.
On the way, dropped into the garage on the same block as the hotel and told the car mechanic, Frank, about our mutual friend D., who had been calling me during the time he had fallen off the wagon. Well, he just called me this afternoon and says he’s getting back with a non-drinking plan, going out to a live-in program on Treasure Island this week. His binge was a final fling before that enforced abstinence.
And got to the library, to a computer. As I was using it, up comes Jayson, a guy I know – he’s a musician and has frequent performances around the city. I said it was good to see him but, indicating the clock on the screen, I had a limited amount of time on the machine. And also, really didn’t have much to say to the man.
And afterward using the computer took out the twenty-five discs of a Tom Wolfe novel, I Am Charlotte Simmons. Then back to the hotel – had enough to buy two potatoes and a Top Ramen, with a few pennies left. Gave it all to the counter man, told him he might as well take it all.
And about this time had the last of powdered vegetables and herbs given me a few weeks back by my Former Lady Roommate. Expensive stuff, supposedly pretty nutritious. Told friend Cathead about this once, and he was, as usual, very skeptical. Figured it’d be cheaper and more nutritious to just buy whole vegetables.
And got a call from friend B.D. – he was the next day coming into the city – he does that once a month – and wanted to know if I wanted to see him. Didn’t…am withdrawing again, in general. Not drinking…coincides with me not being sociable.
And turned on that Tom Wolfe disc set. Was at the part that was excerpted in Rolling Stone a year or two ago. And…thought of an idea: that you, we, are not our names. And: prolonged description of the co-ed bathrooms in the dorms at the university the title character goes to. Is that the way it is now?
And…it being Tuesday, yesterday? Or two days ago? Got through 70 digital voice notes, six pages of blog worth, in the once-a-week evening time for free computers. Mostly what I found interesting during the Oscars.
And back in the room…8:14pm…alone, but at least it’s warm – definitely chilly outside. Had the makings of oil soup – vegetable oil, soy sauce, salt, tap water.
And had looked at the latest picture at Sasha Grey’s MySpace – a negative image, with the caption mentioning ghosts.
sweetdango@hotmail.com #903 (2 of 2) starplane.blogspot.com
And showered, shit, did yogic lifts of my abdominal muscles, the usual. On the way back to the room, surprised at a regular white guy walking down the hall – a lot of black guys in the hotel.
And in I Am Charlotte Simmons…line: “…no matter how perfidious his motives…” – liked the use of “perfidious”. Which means “tending to betray”. Recall William Burroughs using the adjective to describe a “ba”, which in Egyptian thought is one of the five parts of the soul.
And yesterday, 12:21pm, called Odd Fellow brother Pat – wanted to know the status of the bicycle he said he’d be able to get me – had sold it to him months ago, and now it languishes, unused, in a Berkeley woman’s home. He’s still working to get it back. A solid ride, as I recall, more so than the one I’ve got now.
And about this time found a penny in the pocket of a pair of pants I hadn’t worn in a while – my entire cash wealth. Denver, minted there, last year. And out at 1pm to use a computer at a neighborhood center – found a dome of bread in the hotel lobby, took that. Walter at the front desk – he prefers that tenants don’t talk to him. And on the way to the center, found the latest Onion.
2:32pm, back in the room…twelve hours until money. Had found a sandwich at the computer center – ate only the processed meat, threw out the highly-processed white bread and the highly-processed cheese slice. And got into that dome of bread, just the crust.
And had enough of the Tom Wolfe audio book to last until money was downloaded into my account in the hours after midnight and before dawn. And around this time made a dipping sauce for the dome of bread, from four packets of hot sauce mixed with water and soy sauce. But it proved too hot for my palate and I threw it out, despite a certain hunger.
And was also chewing, for the sweetener, sticks of Orbit gum I’d had sitting in my drawer – satisfying, to some extent.
And turned cable on for a little bit – still had the 81 channels I’ve had for a while. Comcast should be turning that off soon. But it’s a confusion of cables in the basement, so it’s possible it won’t get all shut off. Was down there once with one of the technicians and the chaos of wires there seemed to bewilder him.
9:03am, up. Called Bank of America – the usual hundred-and-22 minus the fine I’d been levied, over thirty dollars, geez. A significant amount of the money I get. Another 800 and some coming tomorrow, or the next day.
