One of the great things about being on the road is the fact that I do ten times as much reading as in 'real life'. Once again it's the lack of distractions that opens up the day and offers time for reading, writing, reflection, working out, music, meeting people, learning. (Damn, I'd make a great 'retired person', and as I tend to say, 'I'll never have enough money for a retirement, so I might as well retire now') And that's kind of how my life feels, not that I was ever in the rat race per se, Eugene, Oregon doesn't quite fit the bill, but there's a hell of a lot to be said for getting out of America and seeing how things look from a different perspective. For starters, you don't have the noise machine of Entertainment Tonight, Fox News, USA today etc filling your brain with the corporate mind-fuck of useless trivia that passes for 'news'. The medium is the message and the message is mind-control. And by the transitive property, I suppose that the medium equals mind-control.... (now more than ever)
When I was in Georgetown last week, I needed a new book to read, so I asked around and found a crazy bookstore that was upstairs over a busy marketplace. There were stacks of English books in no particular order, so I took a look to see if anything was interesting and reasonable priced. The one that jumped out was 'Sons and Lovers' by DH Lawrence, and author I've certainly heard of but have never read, and the price of 5 ringets ($1.70) was just right. A lot of times, places will charge more than the original price of the book, which seems weird, but I guess they can get away with it if people are desperate enough for a book. So I grabbed the Lawrence book, and holy crap, the guy is an amazing writer. His prose is so descriptive, so unique, and I'm sure I'd never get into it were I back home with a computer and television tempting me to abdicate my brain and tune in. At the very least, I understand better why Lawrence is one of the greats. (who knew?) Man, if I could write like that... he paints with words.
And now for the part I was trying to avoid by 'burying the lead' as it were, I made a reconnect with M last night on her day off. I've seen her at work and we're friendly, but there's no time to talk, so I asked her if she'd like to have dinner with me on Sunday. She was into it, flattered I think that I still care about her, so I went by her place at 7, and we strolled to the amazing Sunday Market in Chiang Mai, a teeming mass of vendors, street musicians, food places, crafts people and thousands of folks in the street. We used to go often last year, so it was a bit of a nostalgia tour. We grabbed some food in one of the food areas, noodle soup, a little chicken and some ice cream for dessert. On her day off she doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, and was therefore delightful to be around. It's that other stuff that puts me off, so it was great to see the person who I connected with last year, sans tobacco and alcohol. We still have a great 'connection', and it was nice for both of us to have some time for good solid communication and quality time.
First day of Thai class tomorrow and I'm looking forward to getting started. I didn't care about my lack of language here last year, but this year feels different, I want to get a little deeper than Hello and Thank You. I told the woman who runs the cafe where I have my morning espresso that next time, I'm gonna order in Thai. She said, 'good'. Of course, 'cappucino' is the same in both languages... but hey, small steps. At least I'll ask for milk and sugar with some new words....
