letter to the bay
m:
did you write me before i wrote you? the sequence of those messages was..odd? anyway, i haven't been that many places even though i've been gone over a month...i kinda like to stay and get to know a place a little bit anyway. i took a train from oakland to portland, ran into dumpy on the street and hung out with the older crusty kids for a minute, cursed the endless hip cafes, camped on these bluffs, drank a lot of coffee, then went to seattle where another bay area acquaintance was kicking it, we went with this australian kid to port townsend, a little beautiful touristy town on the olympic penninsula...then that guy was gonna hike mount rainier so i stayed and watched his dog in tacoma for 4 days (i am in love with that dog). when he got back i hitchhiked a took amtrak to portland again cause i wanted to hang out with brian on my birthday and he brought me a bike and ice cream sandwiches and we rode around and got the best ethiopian food i've ever had. spent a while longer in portland, miguel and paul and his friend andy were also in town and there was an "anarchist book fair" or something. got the new aufheben and the beirut pogrom by perlman. mostly though i've been trying to read fiction, i got some garcia marquez shorts that were awesome!! and now i am working through something that is not quite as amazing, but the subject matter is interesting, it's fiction about chiapas right after the mexican revolution called the book of lamentations by rosario castellanos. back to portland, i tried to catch out of there with some people i knew from santa cruz and we did, but only i got pulled off in spokane. it was the hottest ever there, i arrived at a truck stop like 10 blocks from where i got pulled off beet red and scary looking from being on a train. managed to get to missoula after hiking and camping in glacier national park for a couple days. it was kinda weird being by myself surrounded by older couples and young families. plus there's all this "don't be alone" bear-scare propaganda. but everything was fine, the worst thing was mostly living off gas station trail mix for three days. missoula was rainy and college kiddy and besides the old huge brick houses and the train bridge i couldn't find that much of interest. i got a ride with some truckers directly to minneapolis, about a 17 hour trip with one of the two truckers constantly driving. this city is pretty great, lots of good vegan food, friendly people, good bike project, diverse population, cool trails by the river. the tunnels last night were fucking awesome. went to two different sets, the second we entered into a manhole right on someone's front steps basically and walked through a short brick walkway which gave way to gorgeous yellow-orange striped sandstone caves complete with bats and carvings from everyone else who had been there before us. today i'm taking some random 17 year old kid who just got here from puebla mexico to the bike project to replace the pedal on his bike and i'm just volunteering there so i can build a bike of my own maybe tomorrow. i feel like i should know more about bikes than i do though and that i'm slowing everything down by being there. next up: pittsburg, upstate ny, new england, nyc, dc, richmond, ashville, athens...fucking college towns...anyway i'm sure this is way more than you expected or wanted but. it's already written. what have you been listening to lately? have you gone to the study group at all? kindof a weird time to be working on the garden, but...i guess the growing season is kinda year round in the east bay...i wonder how my acorn squash is doing...
take care,
z
p.s. sorry i don't know how to make paragraphs
did you write me before i wrote you? the sequence of those messages was..odd? anyway, i haven't been that many places even though i've been gone over a month...i kinda like to stay and get to know a place a little bit anyway. i took a train from oakland to portland, ran into dumpy on the street and hung out with the older crusty kids for a minute, cursed the endless hip cafes, camped on these bluffs, drank a lot of coffee, then went to seattle where another bay area acquaintance was kicking it, we went with this australian kid to port townsend, a little beautiful touristy town on the olympic penninsula...then that guy was gonna hike mount rainier so i stayed and watched his dog in tacoma for 4 days (i am in love with that dog). when he got back i hitchhiked a took amtrak to portland again cause i wanted to hang out with brian on my birthday and he brought me a bike and ice cream sandwiches and we rode around and got the best ethiopian food i've ever had. spent a while longer in portland, miguel and paul and his friend andy were also in town and there was an "anarchist book fair" or something. got the new aufheben and the beirut pogrom by perlman. mostly though i've been trying to read fiction, i got some garcia marquez shorts that were awesome!! and now i am working through something that is not quite as amazing, but the subject matter is interesting, it's fiction about chiapas right after the mexican revolution called the book of lamentations by rosario castellanos. back to portland, i tried to catch out of there with some people i knew from santa cruz and we did, but only i got pulled off in spokane. it was the hottest ever there, i arrived at a truck stop like 10 blocks from where i got pulled off beet red and scary looking from being on a train. managed to get to missoula after hiking and camping in glacier national park for a couple days. it was kinda weird being by myself surrounded by older couples and young families. plus there's all this "don't be alone" bear-scare propaganda. but everything was fine, the worst thing was mostly living off gas station trail mix for three days. missoula was rainy and college kiddy and besides the old huge brick houses and the train bridge i couldn't find that much of interest. i got a ride with some truckers directly to minneapolis, about a 17 hour trip with one of the two truckers constantly driving. this city is pretty great, lots of good vegan food, friendly people, good bike project, diverse population, cool trails by the river. the tunnels last night were fucking awesome. went to two different sets, the second we entered into a manhole right on someone's front steps basically and walked through a short brick walkway which gave way to gorgeous yellow-orange striped sandstone caves complete with bats and carvings from everyone else who had been there before us. today i'm taking some random 17 year old kid who just got here from puebla mexico to the bike project to replace the pedal on his bike and i'm just volunteering there so i can build a bike of my own maybe tomorrow. i feel like i should know more about bikes than i do though and that i'm slowing everything down by being there. next up: pittsburg, upstate ny, new england, nyc, dc, richmond, ashville, athens...fucking college towns...anyway i'm sure this is way more than you expected or wanted but. it's already written. what have you been listening to lately? have you gone to the study group at all? kindof a weird time to be working on the garden, but...i guess the growing season is kinda year round in the east bay...i wonder how my acorn squash is doing...
take care,
z
p.s. sorry i don't know how to make paragraphs