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April 30, 2000
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sunday on caffeine and going for Barouqe I slept kind of late. I woke the third or fourth time dreaming complex dreams about trying to clean and organize things in a house full of relatives. I poured on the Capresso juice and managed to actually feel like I'd accomplished a little by day's end. The more time I spend at home, the more coffee I drink. And this is because of the Capresso. Yummy mug after mug, preferably in an official Too Much Coffee Man mug. (Forrest bought me six so, careless as I am with them, I almost always find one.) Forrest has a new toiletry kit! And all outfitted. It's one I decided was too big for me but will allow him to carry an electric razor and other important stuff. I dumped a lot of ancient things out of the old one while digging out the things he really needed. Very satisfying to ditch stuff. And he has some brand new things, too, like a new toothbrush and a combination shoehorn and clothes brush that I found in one of those giveaway Business or First International free toiletry kits. I also checked out my own kit and added toothpaste, shampoo and hair gel. (I always check out the travel size and trial size aisle of any drugstore I go into to make sure I have plenty of just the right size containers.) I also went through my travel drawer and sorted out all the stuff. I'm always doing this but it always seems to need to be done again, once for each trip. There are lots of things in there I need for only some trips (converters, sun screen, insect repellant), some junk I'll probably never use again or never did (different styles of security pouches I DID NOT settle on as my favorite, a small shortwave radio, a Visa applicaton for Russia and old passport photos) and there are also strange things like an old bulky compass and loose change for a variety of countries. I don't really clean the thing out each time. I sort the stuff to find what I need for the trip at hand, throw away a few things (like out-of-date drugs) and try to organize the stuff by 'type' and throw it back in. I'm a sucker for travel 'stuff' as well as bags. Can you tell? I also made a trip to Eckerd's and got a camera battery, APS film and some other batteries I needed and got some APS film developed with some cool pictures. (I do a lot of things with my digital camera but also use APS and regular 35MM.) Forrest and I pulled out lightweight sweaters from the moth balls to air out. New York City may still be cool enough for a sweater. Austin is definitely not. We also sat down and poured through our books and magazines, tentatively deciding how we were going to spend our time. Basically it's this: museums, shopping, cabaret music, jazz music and last, but not least, dining. We are taking a few maps and guidebooks but we flipped through a huge stack of them. (I can't resist books. I'm sure I will be shopping in bookstores in NYC. Gotham Bookstore, for one, in the Diamond district. I think it's still there. I haven't been there in over a decade. But I never really consume the guidebooks I buy.) Forrest is still studying who is singing where and when. We decided to take neither raincoat nor umbrella. So expect torrential rains in New York City. We plan to borrow umbrellas from Four Seasons if it rains. Or buy one. I got a few e-mails off I'd been needing to write. To my niece and to a childhood friend. Where DOES the time go? St. David's Foundation has a series of small, personal benefits. We went out on a limb this year and picked one that was a private tour of some of the Suida-Manning collection followed by a meal in a home near the University. It was great! I don't know squat about Baroque Art or old Austin but I felt I was steeped in both tonight. I couldn't believe the hospitality at this home. I was offered a glass of white wine in this wonderful etched crystal German glass. Want another? A different, equally beutiful, etched crystal German glass! Then the dinner was served with these wonderful silver place settings, beautiful china (salt cellars!) and crystal. And beautfiul linens! I don't have all that stuff. You get rentals at my place. But I do love it. It turns out that we sat with the realtor handling the townhome that allows us to buy the house the parents move into. Oh, and Dad called and he offered his buyer a month's rent to delay the move and it was accepted. That works well. We also shared the table with the lady of the house and she knew the long lost cousin Robert. Grew up in his neighborhood. It's a small town, Austin, if you just know where to scratch.
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"The power of a country road is different when one is walking along it from when one is flying over it by airplane. In the same way, the power of a text is differnt when it is read from than when it is copied out." Walter Benjamin, One-Way Street
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This machine is EXPENSIVE and yet a bargain if you consider it only costs about 300 Starbucks!
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