X Marks the Dot

So today I finished up at Flat Black. I couldn't make a go of it financially on what I was getting there, plus it's just not quite the right kind of work for me for all kinds of reasons. I never got espresso training, even with all those tests. It's kind of a pity. Oh well, it was somewhat fun to meet people down that way. Dorchester Lower Mills is such a great neighborhood, and I have a nostalgia thing for Dorchester in general. Subrina is with me on this. I don't know how likely untoward incidents really, actually are. I never felt uncomfortable walking around Fields Corner except when this one guy kept trying to talk to me when I was walking home at night. I just wouldn't have it, that's all. Once somebody almost hit me in the head, but they were just gesturing to a friend and didn't see me.

Yesterday I met a Czech guy at the shop, and he surprised me by saying he was from the region of Silesia, which I thought was just in Poland. Then on my way home this afternoon, I was surprised to see a Guatemalan restaurant in Fields Corner and stopped in for lunch. It said something like "comida chapina" on the sign. It was empty, so I ended up talking to the guy at the counter about what part of Guatemala he was from (Palapa) and, again, where'd I'd been in his country. It was nice having these opportunities to discuss different towns and a tad about language of these places I've been and known medium well. It makes me think of returning if there should be some interesting opportunities, dusting off my ill-used travelling shoes and latent foreign language skills. Maybe I should see my situation as flexible rather than as a total mess. I do have the play in Acton through early March, but I'm tempted to take a little vacation in January. I have almost three weeks without commitments other than to the Fuchsia, and I'm not sure I should take those guys seriously. I mean, they're named after a flower, and this is my sanity on the line here. Possibly. Well, I mean I do need to find the time to do the things I believe people were put here to do other than hold down jobs, stay in the same place and be obsequious. Fuchsia and fun do start with the same letter, it's true. Maybe that's not a coincidence.

I thought about writing a short message to Paul's widow Liz on the card I bought and hand delivering it to her place in Savin Hill as I was driving up through Dorchester towards town. Then I realized the card wasn't actually with me. I just thought it might be better than receiving a message from a stranger, but I'm not sure if I should visit. Miller suggested I write the family, and it does seem like a good idea. I tried to find a card with a nice image that wasn't cheesy, thinking that I seem to remember Liz is an artist too, and it was a bit of a task.

I sent the link to his tribute page to Cat, my quirky RISD grad friend who lives in Queens. It wasn't what I expected, just a link to an article about his sculpture at UMB in the CTR (newsletter of CTC VISTA, basically) and also a link to his website, which seems to be only an index page. It's fun clicking on the arrows. Try it and see what happens. Cat said "it looks like you" and I had NO idea what she meant. I asked if she meant the balls, and she said no, she was talking about the Lego creature. I don't see any similarity there either, but as long as I don't look like balls I can handle it.