Hey how's it going? Yeah sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. It's been a ragged couple of months. In August I took all my stuff out of storage in Portland and drove it down to California. That's when I found out that everything I own including furniture could fit inside a rented Nissan Sentra, which is like a budget clown car. I have very little. It's kind of good in a Buddhist sort of way I guess but I'm from America so it might be depressing, I'm not sure.
After sleeping on my friend's couch for a few weeks I finally found a place in San Francisco, and I had to buy some chairs so I went to the Office Max down the street. I worked in an Office Max back in Jersey one summer. My favorite memory is of the time my boss asked me to take a floor model desk set out behind the dumpster and break it into pieces with a hammer. There was some minor flaw in the wood and it couldn't be sold. When I asked him why I had to destroy it he said "So no one else can have it." It was one of those sad and important life lessons that stays with you even though you don't want it to. I left the store without buying anything--not because of my conscience really, it was more that the dude behind the counter was prohibitively ugly and I didn't feel like waiting in line--but then a few days later I found two chairs on a street corner for free. If there's a moral in the story I have no idea what it is, but at least I don't have to sit on the floor anymore.
And look at me, I'm going to be reading at Wordstock in Portland, Oregon this weekend, Sunday the 11th at 5:00 pm. It's a big literary festival with lots of good writers and I'm going to read some pages from Apathy and maybe a tiny section from the new thing I'm working on--world premier!--so if you're in town come on by. And even more important than that the day before is my birthday. Whether you show for the reading or not, you should probably buy me a present either way. Thanks...........Paul
