2003-11-10

Hello nurse! I am traveling around the US and writing about it, and there seems to be no end in sight unless I die or go to prison or something.

I am looking for nice, fun people who can put me up for a few nights. This would involve me staying at your house for a few days, showing me a good time (since I like good times), and whatever general mischief we can get into. If you think it might be fun to host me for a day or two or three, email me at justingrace AT mac DOT com. Please make sure to include your address and phone number in your email to me so I can be in touch!

I am especially looking for places to stay in the southeast USA and the East Coast. I will be traveling all over the USA, though, so email me no matter what! Here are the places I will be in the next few weeks that I am still looking for a place to stay at:

� Portland
� San Francisco
� Louisiana
� Mississippi
� Alabama
� Florida
� Tennessee
� North/South Carolina
� Georgia

Please contact me ASAP if you want to hang out!

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US Tour Day 55: Last Night In Austin

Austin. I feel so inelegant saying it, like there must be better words for it than this, but here goes: AUSTIN IS RAD.

Tonight is my last night in Austin. I fell in love with this city. Damn it. Why do I have to fall in love so easily? I fell in love with Los Angeles, too. They are different kinds of love, is the thing. We get different reciprocal energy from different places, people, things. Who can think they will spend an entire lifetime marriage and not fall in love with anyone else? Love propagates between open, electric hearts. There's nothing you can do stop it. And the love affair may last a second, a weekend, thousands of years, or somewhere in between. The real question is, what are you going to do about it (the love, that is)?

In the case of Austin, it is difficult. I love it. I didn't think there was love for me here, but I was wrong. The problem is that I didn't really start to feel good about being here until a few days ago. And, now it is time to leave again! And I hate leaving. Grrr.

I'm sad about leaving the Pink Palace. Janice Joplin supposedly had lived in this house. There was a chocolate chip cookie cake anonymously delivered to our doorstep a few weeks ago that had "JANICE LIVES" written on it in frosting. The guys I live with are incredible, especially John. He is like me�the straight guy that everyone thinks is gay. Jorge is the guy across the hall. He epitomizes bad roommate�loud, loud, and loud. Oh, and he stays up late and is loud and plays DRUMS.

LATER THAT DAY:

Went to the post office, left because the line was too long. Went to Kim Hill's and picked up a packet that had been sent there for me. Walked around Guadalupe looking for a shirt for Dave Marr. Marla was sitting at a table outside a coffee shop and ran out to grab me. She walked with me for a while and I asked her to come to the party at 8 PM.

LATER THAT DAY:

Most of the food was vegan or vegetarian. Thank god that Mary Jane understood that there must be balance. She brought "chicken" fingers with WHITE GRAVY. It was disgusting and excellent and I found great joy in eating them with my hands and feeling the gravy drip down my fingertips.

Life seems like a movie. I had such beautiful moments this evening. I'm sad. I don't want to go. And yet I know I need to go sometime. I guess now is the time.

Jorge and I tried on one another's glasses and took a picture so we could see how we looked.

Epiphany, Michael, Mary Jane, and me!

Ah, Kim. What a beautiful and inspiring person she is, although from this picture it only looks like she is trying to lick my cheek. I think she kind of looks like a squirrel.

So many people showed up for my going away potluck. I was surrounded by food and friendly faces of people who really cared about me. I couldn't believe I'd been so lonely just a week or two earlier.

Clockwise from bottom left: Alyssa, John, Marla, Valkyrie, Rachel, Audrey (half hidden), and Jamie Motherfuckin' Smith.

Brent and Jamie relax on the bed in my room after the party, winding things to a close. These two people made my stay in Austin so much more beautiful. I think I want to be them when I grow up�genius and funny and fun to be around and kind.

Jamie and I take a blurry self�portrait in the armoire's mirror.

The ceiling, as viewed from the bed in the room in the Pink Palace which I had the great honor of sleeping in.

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