Stores are open but I ain't got no money

E-word,

Awesome photo. It looks like the end of the world. That must've been one hell of a trip. Mexico whetted my wanderlust, but I don't think it had the same effect on me as Scotland had on you. After some trips I come back home wondering what I'm doing with myself as well.

What I'm doing right now is typing on my work laptop only wearing my underwear and socks, with a tivo'ed Rick Steve's Europe playing in the background. I hope that the image doesn't disgust you so much as make you laugh and perhaps feel better about where you are in your life.

Speaking of which, it is amazing the choices we make in our lives, and the places we end up. Would you in your wildest dreams imagine you'd end up in D*b? That's like saying, "I think I'll eventually end up in D*b", meaning it's impossible to imagine you ended up there. B*ton, sure, that I can see. Chi*, sure, that's in the imagination. D*b?

Spinning it around, to say the possibility of provincial me potentially living in NY is equally preposterous, but yes, I did go to see El this weekend. I love that town, man. Pretentious, dirty, in-your-face, but damn if it isn't just awesome, too.

I came in Thursday night, so Friday El and I did some bead shopping. A cool aspect of her job is that she has to go shopping for ideas and materials. Anyway, there's a bead place in the Diamond District, so while she browsed for beads, I wandered around the block. On the street that day a kid got hit by a taxi, so crowds gathered around to see what the commotion was. Even the jewelry store merchants all came out of their stores to gawk with amusement at the goings on. The police were brushing people back saying, 'We need space, back up, back up!'. As I started losing interest in this, a fight broke out about fifty feet away from the accident. Since there was an ambulance and a ton of people all around, the cops had no idea two guys were fighting right next to them. Unfortunately I missed what sparked the fight, but these two guys were kind of grappling with one another, a black guy and what could have been an Arabic guy, let's just a guy of unspecified racial origin. The black guy, (who I think might have been homeless) had the body of someone who probably did manual labor when employed, wiry arms and shoulders, but soft around the belly. The black guy ended up manhandling the fellow of unspecified racial origin over his hip, slamming him to the ground with a literal 'whump!' As the guy of unspecified racial origin got up, the black guy bitch slapped him around the ears a few time. By this time everyone on the street(including me [except for the police, amazingly]) were watching with detached amusement as these guys scrambled around. The black guy won, and finally a kind gentleman with an amused look on his face broke them up and said wisely, 'The cops are over there, do you want to get arrested?' The guy of unspecified racial origin wasn't having it, his being beat by this expressionless homeless looking guy just made him more angry, and he tried to attack the black guy, who at this point was no longer interested and trying to walk away from a fight he had won handily.

I have to recommend a visit there if you guys are ever in town. I imagine that it has the feel of old Manhattan, gritty and weird, with bearded and suited in black orthodox Jews rubbing elbows with greasy Italians, Russian models, and tough looking black guys, with tourists nosed up to the displays coveting all the blinged out watches and jewelry.

Hmm, so where was I? Yeah, still in my underwear and socks. My excuse is I was in the midst of changing to go running when I turned on my laptop to check my email.

Toe