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Edited on Sat Feb-09-08 05:41 PM by supernova
very interesting and varied, a trip around the human mind.
The theme of mental illness made more than one appearance. :crazy:
I got up a little late, and rushed to cook and eat my usual Weekend breakfast of sausage or bacon, hash browns w/ ketchup and eggs sunny side up.
May I say it was a stunningly beautiful Carolina blue day. ;-) With lots and lots of sunshine and warmth, it has been a Spring preview. :woohoo: B-) B-)
I drove out to Pittsboro, about a 35-minute ride, for a writers' workshop, radio blasting and suntop open all the way. I also made a mental note to finish loading up my CDs to my iPod and get a converter so I can use it in the car. Music radio around here sucks. :P
Spent lunchtime listening to three authors talk about getting published, and they did have some very useful information. I was glad that I went, even though when I got there it was SRO and I wound up sitting on the floor behind the cameraman. I'll post some of my recollections of the event in the writers' forum later if anyone wants to read. Someone asked one of the writers the perennial favorite, "Why do you write?" She responded "It's a mental illness." :D IOW, you have to write. She has a new book out and I bought it.
On the way back from the workshop, I stopped and had lunch in Chapel Hill. I was seated at the bar and failing to get into the book that I had just bought. The din of the kitchen and a hundred different conversations was too much for me to concentrate, but the food was fabulous. I had a steak salad, iced coffee, and pie for dessert. :9 As I ate, people came and went. Then one gentleman sat next to me while I was enjoying my pie. He looked a little young, but older too. He was my age or older, but the clothes of a 1950s teenager. The first image that came to mind was Pleasantville. I couldn't figure out why. And, I guess I have one of those faces, people just tell me things.
JIm told me A LOT. Probably some he didn't mean to, either.
He thinks he's been reincarnated and hopes this is his last time, that this is paradise. He just got out of an institution and remembers speaking with a Greek accent. He's just read a book by Kurt Vonnegut called Man Without a Country, and did I like it? Yes, I did. I like Kurt Vonnegut very much. I mentioned he might want to read Breakfast of Champions too. This conversation flitted from Jeeves and Worcester to Monty Python, to socialism, and Jim's equally mentally ill roommate who is apparently a chef who kicks him out on Saturdays to have a cooking class. Then the conversation turned to his hopes to date, and why a socialist dictatorship is a good thing. Jim talked about the discrimination he's faced because of his mental problems. But he somehow thought that people with mental problems would be treated better in a dictatorship!?! "You can do whatever you want to as long as you respect the government."
That's when I decided my stop had come on the crazy train. I was feeling uneasy. The whole time I had noticed the staff behind the bar had been checking up on us, and they efficiently gave me my check. Jesus, it's really hard to be just generally sympathetic, to a point, without people taking it the wrong way. :banghead:
So, that's been my Saturday. How's yours?
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