It is so hot here, I’m afraid the computer will start melting at any moment. I just filled the bathtub with cold water and sat in there for a while. That’s not bad; it would be better if my laptop worked in the water.
I’ve been piddling with a short story about when I worked as a computer consultant back in Indiana, in the student labs. A lot of weird shit happened on a daily basis, and I didn’t think much of it at the time, but it was really like being in the army or something, we had so many different people working on different things. And every night I worked in the library, it was like Saving Private Ryan, only I didn’t have a gun or anything. So I think there’s enough there to get a few thousand words on a page.
My friend Andrea is in town briefly, and we got together for lunch at John’s Pizza and later for dinner at one of the Indian places on curry row. She’s got a very atypical appreciation for the city that I can’t fully explain. Most people (myself included) who go to a different place try to explain it by comparing it to another point of basis. For example, I might (and did) say, “Alamosa’s about as big as Goshen. But they’ve got a Safeway like one from Seattle.” But A has seen enough cities in enough different eras to appreciate it from a different angle, so that’s cool. She keeps bumping in here during other trips to Montrel or Sweden or whatever, and it’s always cool to see her. I wish I could convince more friends from way back to pop through the city and hang out, too. I don’t really have a great motive to brainwash them into thinking New York is the greatest city in the world or whatever, but it’s always cool to see people, and New York draws more people than Elkhart or something.
Too damn hot. I’m going to watch a few more episodes of The Osbournes. Marie gave me a tape with all of them, and last night I saw my first couple. I love Ozzy and have for years – I saw him back in 96 at the Tacoma Dome, but have been playing the tapes for years before. It’s a cute little show, and usually I avoid shit that everyone and their uncle thinks is neato and trendy, but this is an exception. It’s pretty good stuff.
Maybe if I keep my feet in a bucket of water, I’ll feel cooler…