duck-shaped pain

(When I broke my leg, I was on an enormous amount of painkillers for a few weeks after the incident. During this time, I had very weird dreams. In one of them, I dreamt that I had been kicked out of Spacemen 3 for not doing enough drugs.)

I spent a good portion of tonight drinking coffee in one of our local coffee establishments. I won't tell you the name, but they're the only one open "late" at night (until 9) and they have bad coffee. But I really wanted to go somewhere and just sit and read for awhile, and my choices were limited. I could choose between Horrible Coffee, the coffee shop at Barnes and Noble (went there two days ago, can't bring own books in anyway), Denny's (no -- too full of high school kids and scary old men. I am now too old for the former and the latter are starting to become more interested in me than I'd like...), or go to a bar and try to sit and read.

I've done the bar thing a few times, but it's most successful at odd times of the day. Friday night is not one of those times, especially if you're a chick going there alone. Men see your book and take it as a challenge: hmm, can I make her put that down. Tonight, I didn't feel like being anyone's goal.

I had forgotten about the live music. I really don't like live music at coffeeshops, most of the time. it makes it hard to read and talk, and that's mainly what I go to them for. I thought they only had live music on Saturday, but lucky me.

The music was okay. It's always worrisome when the performer is wearing a cape [2], says that she only does covers of songs that no one else covers and then breaks into her renditions of "Summertime" and "I Can See Clearly Now", and tells stories about knights between songs. But she also came over and talked to me during her break, and she was actually pretty nice. So I can't say anything too bad. [3]

I didn't get much reading done, and mostly ended up writing in my journal. I guess it was good that I didn't, because I really didn't want people seeing The False Promise of Desert Agriculture laying there on the table. Then again, had I gone to a bar, that book might have been a good deterrent for anyone seeking to disturb my peace.

I kept wanting chai the whole time I was there. I suppose I could have ordered some, but I was unsure if they had any. They had something on their menu called "chia," which could be chai or something else entirely. I thought about going to the store to get some chai mix, but I only had enough money on me for that or beer. So, I struggled with the Chai vs. Beer conflict for a while, and ended up getting neither one. None of the stores here have the chai I like, and I had homebrew waiting for me in the fridge anyway.

I drove around for awhile after leaving Horrible Coffee, listening to some tapes I found. I had a whole bag of them that I brought back with me from Oregon, but forgot about. I listened to Hindi film music for awhile (I found a whole stash of it at a thrift store once), before deciding that this was less the thing that I keep around to listen and more to annoy others with. I finally listened to some old mix tapes I made a few years back.

It's been almost forever since I've made a mix tape. The last good one I made almost two years ago for someone else, and I lost my own copy. Which is too bad, since it was probably the finest mix tape I've ever made. Almost everything on it worked together perfectly, and it was the culmination of a few years of serious mix tape theory and practice. I can't replicate it, even through I kept a careful log of what went on it and where. I don't have a lot of the things on it anymore. I had to sell about 2/3 of my CDs and records when I left Oregon, which has put a big dent in my enthusiasm for what I have left.

As much as I love music, it's been a small part of my life over the last year. Not always by choice -- the stereo I was using for awhile broke a few months back. There's actually a variety of reasons why this is so, but I haven't sorted through all of them yer and some, I just don't really want to write about right now.

Right now, I'm listening to Eureka by Jim O'Rourke. It's pretty good, but I'm always suspicious by any album where the best songs are the covers. But, it has an excellent cover. I'd put it on my wall if it were bigger.

After that -- came home, ate (Santa Fe flavor Gardenburger: easily the best flavor of Gardenburger, no matter how dubious I am of anything described as "Santa Fe" something-or-other), drank beer. A good end to the day....

[1] The latter having "Aurora Borealis", one of the finest instrumentals ever, on it.

[2] A rule I established early on in life is to stay away from people wearing capes in public. Sure, that might be a little harsh, but so far, it's a rule that has served me well.