"how is that piece coming?"

Well I just found out Wednesday that I have to move out of my house of five years by Saturday. And Sunday I drive from Oakland to Los Angeles. So I should be able to get the book chapter/article edited/written up by Monday, as promised.

But it will be a push.

Wednesday was Cinco de Mayo. I went out alone, wandering International Boulevard in Oakland for some Mexican food. Isn't this what LA looks like? Wide boulevards and small businesses. I found two of the best stuffed chile rellenos I've had in recent memory, and my recent memory is stuffed with chile rellenos. Then this morning I woke up with an immense surging in my rear end - I spent the morning holding my buttcheeks together as I taped up boxes and filled them with books and games.

I had help - Wydela, part of the real estate cleaning crew who signed up for extra packing duty. Working with her gave me a chance to practice the most basic Swahili - nothing compared to having my brother exercise his Kenya language memory on the phone from London.

And Sean drove down from Davis on his way to other errands. He plans to go to Japan soon; I urged him not to plan a return.

What was a sprawling mess here has been diminished and shoved into two score boxes. I feel lighter somewhat, but unlocking the door this evening after watching House of Games at Compound I, there was some lingering future sense of amputation. Homeless soon, wandering the Bay to stay with friends. Lacking the surroundings of media clutter I've built for myself, my steeping environment. What comes then? Still I'm mostly tempted by that teeming adventure - "where will I sleep tonight?" can make for odd, entertaining bedfellows.

I told a friend that my June trip to the MidEast is sizing up to be Jordan and Israel, maybe Lebanon, but maybe not. I'm thinking more Bedouin than Beirut. Why? he asked. Why go to the Middle East?

Because I compulsively consume media - the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, constantly keeping up with their sense of the situation in Iraq. And I feel increasingly distanced from the human reality of people who live in that part of the world. "Arab/Muslim antipathy towards the United States" looms large in my mind. I want to have a better handle on it.

Justin, he replied evenly, you understand more about the mindset of the Middle East than you do about the 50% of the United States that is Evangelical Christian. You know less about them, and their opinions are shaping more of world events.

I'm surrounded by provocative people. "this is a dude who practically accosts strangers on the street to ask them what he should do with his life" - modesty verve. Some amusing comments.

Right, write, second to last night in bed.
Oakland was beautiful tonight, love, driving on his tail end
I was free to see the lights
industry, city
a low hanging moon
full of heat to come