June 22, 2003
A Model City
So it's a Sunday morning and I can't seem to get in touch with my ride to church. So I'm going to have to spiritually edify myself this morning. So far I've done so with some marvelous strawberry liquid yogurt. Oh my! Why oh why does liquid yogurt not seem to sell in the States? I seem to find it everywhere else in the world, and it's so good! Anyway, I think that the maintenance of this journal has some sort of spiritual value, so it's a good Sunday activity. I know that people searching for Mormon blogs have stumbled in here and well, part of the reason I'm on here is to make my small voice heard on behalf of my community.
I rode my bike into work on Friday. Rosa's still out of town so it was either bike, find a ride, or take a cab. So I biked. Let me tell you, that's the best commute in the world. I listened to a song called "Spiral" by The Boredoms that made me pedal so hard that I almost burnt myself out five minutes into the ride, but then Redd Tape's Life in a Cardboard Box came on and I just smiled as I rode instead...with a few pedals-of-fury thrown in on occasion. Anyway, it took about 25 minutes of rockin' and ridin' in the morning sun for me to get to work. I showered at the embassy and got to work.
My day was full of research, reading papers, and I got to go to another demarche. This one regarded the next United Nations General Assembly, so we met with two United Nations pros in the Brazilian foreign ministry. The experience was interesting because the two men were diplomatic opposites. One was very soft spoken, kind and thoughtful. The other was gruff, cold, and kind of inconsiderate. Love v. fear in the Brazilian foreign ministry. The interesting thing was that the three of us that went to the demarche all got the exact same vibe and we all got it almost immediately. There must be some sort of science of vibeology. How is it that we can emanate our personalities so immediately? I skipped water aerobics and lifted instead, then I rode home as the sun set. I took this picture on the bridge.
East to West
I learned how to play Mason Jennings' "Drinking as Religion" on the guitar almost immediately upon my arrival home. It had come into the random queue on my iPod and it blew my mind as I rode my bike through the dusk. Wow! I don't think the song is available on any album, but I have a live version of it that I downloaded. Great song. Great! I showered, ate some chicken milanesa that Valeria made for me and laid down to read until the party started.
Sometime around 9, I got picked up and we took off for an encore of the party that we had on Wednesday night. I'll just say that hanging out with a bunch of 'barely legal' drunk kids isn't all that great two times in one week. I basically chilled with Jeff the whole evening, until I got so bored that I jumped into the pool despite the chilly night air. I got home around 2am and was woken at 7 by César, one of the most worthless dogs in the world. The other most worthless dog in the world is a live version of Santa's Little Helper named Bella.
Bella is the outdoor mutt who welcomes all visitors benevolent and otherwise with stilted whines of "touch me! love me!" as she jumps in circles. If you approach her, she will roll onto her back longing to have her belly rubbed. César is the indoor shitzu that does nothing but chew on shoes and lick people's feet. Get the two together, and their combined cluelessness instantly binds them into a trembling mass of fur, teeth, and stupidity as they wrestle on the slippery patio tiles. I love 'em. They're hilarious to watch, but I didn't like being woken by César yesterday, I put him outside and went back to sleep until about 10:30.
I sat out by the pool and read for a while and then got back on my bike. This time I rode all afternoon with nowhere in particular to go listening to Broken Social Scene's You Forgot it in People (the best album of 2002) and Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. I like to jog without music; it clears my head, but biking with music is the greatest. I got a lot of sun, I sweated a lot, I ate a Cheddar McMelt downtown, I braved traffic, I wore the entire day out pedaling up and down the city. I meant to take pictures, but I wasn't feeling it.
Jeff and I decided to take it easy last night. He came over and we ordered some of the worst imaginable food available for delivery from a place called Giraffas. Unbelievable! I won't even get into it. Suffice to say, terrible. We headed up to the local grocery store and got some Ice Cream and fell asleep watching Boondock Saints. I had heard good things about that movie, but I was wholly unimpressed. It's nothing more than a very bad imitation of a Tarantino film. I actually feel sorry for anyone who was involved with it.
Anyway, that was it. A simple chilled-out weekend so far. I've got nothing left but a lazy Sunday with my books. It sounds good to me.
music listened to while writing: Destroyer's Streethawk: A Seduction and U2's B-Sides 1980-1990