2003-12-28

IMPORTANT NEW NOTES FROM JUSTIN:

Ah yes, I am finally back in Florida after 16 days home for the holidays. I'd been itching to get traveling again, and it feels good to be out here. Plus, it's WARM! I'm trying to keep life low key so I can catch up on the last two or three weeks of writing. Let me tell you, Florida is the place to do it! It's a pleasant place to be, as long as you don't mind the Christians everywhere.

So, is there no end to this journey? There definitely seems to be no end in sight. There are so many people to meet and enjoy, so many places to fall in love with, and so much to share and learn. So I continue to move with the winds; I continue to entice the winds to follow me.

So, one of the things about this experiment in love and motion and travel is that I have—against my will—assumed the challenging variable I like to call 'being broke'. So, that means I am doing this crazy trip while living, ahem, very frugally. For example, my slutty pants that used to be tight aren't tight anymore—that kind of frugal, you know?

So, what does this mean? Well, staying in a hotel every night is out of the question. I am looking for nice, fun people who can put me up for a few nights and really host me. This would involve me staying at your house for a few days, showing me a good time (since I like good times), feeding my stupid mouth (in an attempt to make my pants fit me again), and whatever general mischief we can get into. And, the best part is that I get to learn about your life and write about our times together! That is part of the experiment, see. I am meeting with people I've never met before and living some life with them. 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 everywhere on the East Coast. I will be traveling all over the USA, though, so email me no matter where you are because I will probably come visit! Here are the places I will be in the next few weeks that I am still looking for a place to stay at:

� Alabama
��Florida
� Tennessee
� North/South Carolina
��Georgia
��Virginia

Please contact me ASAP if you want to hang out!

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US Tour Day 105: Modesto, California

Stupid computer. Stupid video chip delaminating from the mother board. Stupid me for not taking better care of the thing. You'd think I would've learned after ruining two others by mistreating them.

My dad and brother and I took the defunct iBook apart—partly because I was irritated at it and wanted to see it in a million pieces, partly because I wanted some of the parts to give to friends.

I felt great throwing the disassembled computer into the garbage bin. It had wronged me, and I rejoiced in its punishment.

We celebrated the way I usually do, by eating cheap Mexican food. I asked my dad if we could go to this place by Inga's house in the bad part of Modesto. I had to laugh when he asked why I chose this particular restaurant. I answered honestly. I had driven by it the day before. It was the shabbiest looking place I'd seen in a long time. It looked unsafe, unclean, and like the kind of place that had really uncomfortable seats.

Strangely, my father didn't exactly understand why these characteristics would make someone want to eat there.

I explained it has been my experience that both the food quality and cost–value of Mexican food are inversely proportional to a given restaurant's cleanliness, modernness, and quantity/quality of seating.

Basically, a Mexican place with immaculate floors, fancy signs and menus with all the words spelled right, comfy booths with adequate lighting, and restrooms where you won't get scabies mean the same things every time: the food will not be as good as it costs. The kind of place where you're scared to sit down (not that there is anywhere to sit down), the place where the sign is painted with leftover house paint on a piece of plywood they probably found in a dumpster, the one that doesn't even have fountain soft drink technology, now that is the place for heavenly value and taste.

As soon as my dad parked the car I knew this was the best place in town. Outside restrooms are always the filthiest restrooms and a sure sign of a dodgy operation. These low–budget restroom solutions require patrons to leave the dining area and go to a door around the side of the building. My dad had parked right in front of the door to their feculent, little toilet cave.

Now, not only were they showing signs of glory by having outside restrooms, but they'd also done something even better than the usual misspellings. The masterminds behind this classy operation transcended misspelling—and language itself—by making a gross error in what were supposed to be "universal" pictograms! The man and woman figures on the restroom door each had only one leg!

I couldn't wait to go in and see their seating area!

Once inside, my dad pointed out that they definitely had plenty of food splattered on their windows. Oh, and the floor, too. The seats were plastic and orange and looked old and terribly unpleasant. Abrasive Mexican omm–pa–pa music blared from the ratty jukebox making conversation difficult.

By this point my mouth was totally watering. It was as if this restaurant had been perfectly engineered according to my theories! I wondered, would it be chicken or carnitas today? I could see the news headlines in my mind, "Dozens Injured in Taste Explosion."

Oh, how my mouth celebrated that day! I ate some of the most glorious carnitas I'd tasted since my last visit to Mexican Fast Food in Tucson, Arizona. And my wallet celebrated, too. My whole meal was less than $4, including a cistern–sized soft drink that tasted a lot like a cistern, too!

I was pleased to find more evidence supporting my Mexican Food Theory, and the day felt like a victory—even without a working computer. Hopefully I won't come down with any debilitating after–effects from the Mexican food experiment!


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