Monday July 3rd

Monday, July 3rd

today’s my birthday. happy birthday to me! not much of a birthday really, pretty much like any other day, and that’s not bad… my days are pretty good as days go, you know. I don’t think anybody in Cincinnati knows it’s my birthday, so that facilitates keeping a low profile.

bytheway, for anybody that doesn’t know, I’m in Cincinnati. I got here a week or ten days – I guess – ago. I got back to Venice from Guatemala on june 2nd, spent three weeks there and then took the train from there to here. it was great to be back in Venice, it was very good to spend time with my friends and the ocean. stayed the first half of my visit with michelle, and the second half with aliza. saw quite a bit of tim, and managed to get down to the beach for a swim almost everyday.

I probably stayed a little longer in Venice than I should’ve, I got pretty used to it and it felt good. one part of me really didn’t want to leave, but I had committed myself to going away and working on these new paintings, so I stuck to that resolve. it was hard to leave though… but good to be here – although it’s awfully hot and I’ve got a lot of work in front of me.

the train ride was good. sleeping in the coach section wasn’t as comfortable as it could’ve been, but after the first night I had figured out a few tricks that made the following two nights go pretty well. daytimes, I spent in the lounge car and met an interesting variety of people, unlike those I usually encounter… suburban, I suppose.

I ought to be writing about the raising cain project, but I’ll do that later, I’ll keep this brief – it’s been mentioned that perhaps some of the earlier entries were a bit wordy, so I’ll aim for brevity for awhile, but I will add some photos from the train trip here.