Los Angeles Catharsis (Entry from Monday May 4 2009)

We're in L.A.
Our hotel is in the business district of downtown.
It's about 1pm and everyone wants to get sushi.
I had just woken up from a long van ride

and I really desired breakfast.
There was an IHOP about 5 blocks away.
I had the perfect breakfast there:

~ two eggs scrambled with american cheese
~ hash browns
~ a strawberry crepe with cream cheese icing
~ orange juice
~ and two partially cooked strips of bacon
(I spared the bacon)

Swine Flu talk was still in the air.
Even though I knew you couldn't catch it from eating pork,
I still chose to not eat it.
Besides I rarely eat pig and its a dirty meat anyway.

I finished my meal

and after reading the LA Weekly decided to leave.
I noticed when I left that I was the only customer there.
Strange.

I walk down the street.
It's a casually busy sidewalk.
A few men with suits.
A few female joggers with their dogs.
An older man with glasses reading a book outside a cafe.

All of a sudden I felt something shift in the air.
I noticed a few guys looking intently down the street further to where I was heading.
Something was happening but I didn't pay any mind to it.
I continued walking.
Then I saw what they were staring at...

Right in the middle of the road,
in the middle of busy lunchtime traffic,
was a fairly young asian woman
(Japanese or Korean, it was hard to tell)
probably in her late 20's or early 30's.
She was wearing plain white sneakers, a short jean skirt,
and a light brown shirt

that had "DIG 4 LIFE" written in orange letters.
In defiance of everyone,

she was waltzing around in front of stopped cars,
rolling and crawling on the ground,
She would open her mouth

and whine like something horrible had just happened to her.
She also started raising her middle fingers at everyone

as if it was our fault for her state of mind.
It was obvious she had no underwear on

because when she sat on the ground
you could see nothing was covering her private area.
At one point she decided to lift up her skirt and shirt up to her neck
displaying her naked body.
I wasn't sure if I should feel repulsed and look away.

I couldn't.
I just kept observing.

All of a sudden she ran into a nearby hotel entrance.
The cops and paramedics finally showed up

and I didn't see her again.
I went on my way back to the hotel.

some highlights on the road

Spider House Cafe in Austin, Texas


Rest Area in New Mexico


The Grand Canyon in Arizona


I experienced a renewal here on this cliff.