AUSTIN, Texas, November 19, 2005 — I woke up dreaming a sort of dream I never remember dreaming before. There were two of us. The other person was a man. I thought it might be FFP. (You know how, in dreams, you have companions who seem to morph from one person to another? Sometimes in my dreams even I am a person who keeps sort of changing roles if not identity.) We were escorted into a sort of hotel suite. I only saw the living room. It sort of seemed to be a movie set or something, too. When I woke up I thought I might have been on a reality show. In the dream that is.

So, I was trying to get the lay of the land in this

situation in the dream when I realized there was nothing to read. I don't know if there was a TV or other entertainment, but it became clear there was nothing to read. About this time my male companion tried to leave the area to go to a newstand that was in view. Then I knew it was FFP. They made him come back so I was really distressed. Nothing to read. I never have dreamed about having nothing to read. (Although on rare occasions I've been in that situation in real life. Horrible.) I never have dreamed that I know of about being on reality TV, if that's what it was, either. (Although the unreal nature of my dreams would actually make good reality TV because reality TV is so not reality.)

I got up, exchanged an e-mail with an old friend and hurried off for a little workout. I did fifty minutes on the bike, some ab and lower back exercises and went home and showered up.

FFP and I have been to a couple of E.A.S.T events. It stands for East Austin Studio Tours. It's so bizarre to go where we used to go only to seek out some real down home TexMex (whatever that means...you know places with caldo and menudo and where the help might not speak English) and see high-end galleries and condos. And studios that are scruffy enough that they might become targets of their gentrifying neighbors soon enough. The event is this weekend and tomorrow we are going to entertain FFP's dad to celebrate (early) his 95th birthday so we are off to catch a bit of it.

We have a map that shows 76 different galleries and studios. We imagine we will see maybe a dozen or so. We went first to a gallery where we've heard that our friend Jennifer Balkan is showing. We pull up there and it's an old store front, maybe it was a neighborhood grocer once, and it's across the street from the scene I shot (very bottom of page). Inside it's a fancy art gallery with prices in three and four figures. Jennifer is there. I particularly like this series of paintings she is working on from some doll parts she bought at a junk shop in our neighborhood. I wanted to buy this one and this one and this one and hinted to FFP that they would look good in a particular place in our house. But he didn't bite. Speaking of which, it was now after 11:30 and I'd only had a Clementine and I needed a bite of food. We asked Jennifer about a place to have lunch. She suggested Chalapa's for some TexMex. We found it and went in. It was crowded with large Hispanic families, one lone artistic type Caucasian man in jeans and work boots and two fellows that looked, well, homeless. The waitress spoke only Spanish to us. But we managed to make our desire for coffee and the TexMex Special known. FFP also ordered a small bowl of caldo with beef which he would later regret. She and her helpers eventually filled the table thusly:

We ate and ate (we'd already made a dent in the chips and hot sauce as you can see from the low level on the salsa). We stopped by after that to see our friend Andrew Long in his in-home studio. We used to support his dance company efforts, but his painting career has really taken off. Then we headed for this fancy pantsy Pedernales Lofts place. There were several toney galleries with some pretty interesting stuff and one artist, Karen Maness was announcing her open house in her condo with the smell of fresh cookies wafting down from the second floor. We enjoyed her art and her condo. After that we went to Iron Gate Studios and Obsolete Industries. At about the same moment we announced to each other that we weren't feeling well. I was feeling dizzy from my congestion and FFP was feeling the effects of the beef soup, I think. Happily, we both agreed we'd seen some good stuff, visited with friends. And seen a bit of East Austin gentrification (and the anti-gentrification graffiti).

We veged at home. I took a congestion cure. I read the paper and dozed.

We had decided to go out with a friend who had just returned from Europe, my dad and another friend. We went to Mirabelle which is a West Austin haunt and is halfway between all our houses sort of. We had a nice and inexpensive wine. But I wasn't crazy about my entree (pork tenderloin). We shared a bread pudding that was a delight among several of us. We didn't get home late (nine o'clock), but I was too full and worthless. So TV and newspapers carried me to sleepy time.