A Saturday in January.
Saturday, Jan. 27, 2007 - 18:09

I went to the coffee shop today and was trying to read for school but got driven out by a terribly annoying girl, the kind of annoying that looks so unannoying and innocent it's doubly annoying, you know? Oh man if she's a regular there I'm finding a new coffee shop. How I was wishing I had my ipod. (I'm charging it up tonight so I can have it with me tomorrow.) As it was, I had a pair of earbuds and put them in, not plugged into anything, hoping they'd block out some of her voice by virtue of their mere presence in my ears.

They didn't. I left.

I walked down the sidewalk. In front of Charlie's, a guy walks up with his dog. Says to the dog, "Stay". Goes into Charlie's. 4:40 on a Saturday afternoon. Is he going in for a beer? For one beer? The dog looks at the door. The dog walks up the sidewalk, turns around, looks at the door again. Is the dog still there? Did the dog stay? It didn't quite look like it was going to.

Went to a bookstore and bought a used copy of A Confederacy of Dunces for two bucks. The copy I took from the Posada Del Sol in Costa Rica, my old friend the boy has it. Or maybe he doesn't anymore, but that's who I gave it to. I got it into my head the other day that I want to read it again. Even though I don't have time, even though I'm reading Harry Potter, even though I have other books to read after that, I couldn't get A Confederacy of Dunces out of my head.

I walked home in the cold, reading my new book. I was reminded of my friend the girl I used to like. She'd walk down the hall at work reading a book, she'd ride up the escalator to the lobby with her face in a book. She's one rad girl. I thought of her earlier on the way to the coffee shop, too.

I was also reminded of the community of international books. You go traveling, there's this supply of books that circulates through the traveling community. Book exchanges at hostels, people getting rid of extraneous possessions that they don't have room for in their backpacks, libraries at hotels in Costa Rica. You take a book, you go to a different country or continent, you leave the book and take another. You can get books all over the world. I read Tess of the D'Urbervilles that way (oh Tess!), I read Fall On Your Knees that way, I read A Prayer For Owen Meany that way, I read A Confederacy of Dunces that way.

I'm thinking, Australia next winter? I'm wondering if I can do it. I'm thinking, if I actually get a Master's Degree this year, wouldn't that be a nice thing to do afterwards? I'm thinking, for my birthday/graduation present, I'll ask for the following: a hand-crank coffee grinder, a plane ticket to Australia, and AU$2000.