the upshot is this …

In the summer, when I moved from the small town, I thought I’d given up lunch. In Mac, lunch is commonplace. Do you know that you’re lucky Mac? In cities, I suppose, too. Yes, it’s only suburbs that are devoid of everything, though in my own suburb down the road, lives a woman who’s made a whale and a dolphin from colored rocks. It’s nothing to shake a stick at.

The point, about lunch, is that yesterday I went and I should make this a habit. I met the great Ms. Martini and we lunched at an inviting little space called Higgins and if the Great Martini had lived in Mac and we were having lunch, I’d have had moules frites at Bistro Maison. But stop that, be in the here and now for God’s sake, me. Here and now I am in front of a fire and it is cold outside and earlier I was at lunch.

It’s hard to tell you about lunch because there are other things we’ve missed. There is work, there are people I’ve forgotten to call back, there are my roommates who look nice with their haircuts. There, of course, is the dog. There is Larry, who wrote a book called No Ordinary Joes and I went to his party and Jack Ramsey was there, and it’s quite good (the book). There is Leanne who is publishing like mad and gave the most charming reading with a Dickman twin. When I have a giant party I’ll invite you and make them read. There is Tim who won’t stop running and there are the Biggio-Haminas who knock out dreams like ten-cent bubble gum. They have a wine bar now, and their own big blue sign. Oh, damn, I should have links for these things, I know, but I slept poorly last night, my energy’s down. (Update: I later added some links.)

The Great Martini, at lunch, inspired me today. She writes a column and goes to school and is writing a book that sounded smashing and creative energy simply seeps from her.

My roommates and I sing a song in the mornings, it’s about camels and snakes and we sing it twice. The first time is crossing the camel humps before 99th street, the second time on the snakey turns of Hazel Dell Road. There are cameos in the song from some mice and a lizard, we also wrote a fairy tale where someone dies of amnesia.

You see, I am just blurting things out. I am reading the new Sedaris book to my roommates. It’s a collection of little animal stories, there are lesbian chickens and squirrels dating chipmunks and a murderous rabbit; the cow was notoriously cheap.

Patti Smith, for Just Kids, took home a National Book Award tonight. Patti Smith is a rock star, she should not get book awards, too.

I have two movies overdue and a TV show coming on, so I think I will go. If you want to have lunch, let me know.