caffeine dreams

My day ended better than it started, with making art and then dinner, tea, late night conversations that I thrive on. It's rare to find other souls with whom I can angst, ponder, and laugh, and getting to do that is one of those things that keeps me alive. We know we can't figure out the meaning to life, the universe, and everything, but there's enough moments of clarity and sudden illumination that come from sorting through all the cultural clutter and intellectual junk that's piled up over our last two decades to make the process seem worthwhile.

And I'm back at the place of employment, plotting out future creative directions, maintaining a steady intake of caffeine, learning the hard way that finely ground Yemeni coffee does not work in the coffeepot, but that's probably just as well, because our favorite-would-be-funny-if-people-weren't-dying-rogue-leader thinks that Bin Laden's come out of his mancave to drug the Nescafe.

Those crazy kids and their Nescafe and bath salts and Four Loko and whatnot. Serious Delirium.

coptic times

"This will keep you up past midnight."

Due to my massive caffeine consumption, I wasn't expecting a demitasse cup of Ethiopian rocket fuel to do much to me, but she was right. I didn't need dinner with the massive amount of injera, savory stews that mean I will never be vegetarian, and spiced bread served with the strongest coffee I've ever had. Celebrating Christmas 2002 on the Coptic calendar and hearing Siyum joke at our expense about the western world freaking out at the time of Y2K was priceless.

I came home late and full of spicy goodness and somehow did end up staying past midnight drinking ginger tea and watching the entire animated Clerks series loaned to me by my esteemed fellow peon.

I'm exhausted today, but it was a beautiful way to end.

dazed

I learned a lot about teaching English this weekend, which left me simultaneously encouraged and somewhat overwhelmed. First time I've really been out "far east" and for me Kirtland has that creepy small town vibe which probably isn't fair, but the sheer saturation of Mormon everything and the weird looks I got in the gas station probably added to my gut feeling.

Got to see my good people this weekend, hanging out, drinking espresso, laughing so much that the candle at the table kept burning out, and dancing til 2am.

Promptly got the flu bug that's been going around Saturday night, and spent the next two days sleeping and drinking orange juice and croaking at anyone who ended up calling me.

I was also served the best cup of coffee ever by a guy who calls himself Picasso. That was awesome.