On my mind tonight

On my mind tonight:

Ganesh Beedies from India, sitting on my desk, I smoked one last night with a dear friend. Beedies are a tobacco leaf simply wrapped and held together with a piece of string. Ganesh Beedies remind me of Rikshaw drivers in New Delhi, and Rikshaw Drivers in New Delhi remind me of goats, motorcycles, carts with chickens, trucks and cows in crowded, narrow streets. Beedies made my lips tingle from the tar and nicotine. I only smoke Beedies with friends. I gave my last packet to Avram, and I am confident he will enjoy them down to last tingly puff.

Scrabble.

Tonight I played Scrabble with my mother and father. It was a rare treat, that hasn't happened since maybe never! My best words were: que, ogre, pox. It was nice to spend time with both my parents. My mom made homemade Mac & Cheese. It was delish. I stole her copy of the Sun Magazine because mine hasn't arrived in the mail yet. My dad made me an after dinner coffee with baileys. My brother Victor stopped in to eat and read his car manual, and then left hurriedly with an cherry empanada to bring to his girlfriend. I scooted over to the west side in half an hour. Didn't die. A good night.

New Orleans

Just a week ago New Orleans didn't exist in my immediate heart radar. Now it does.

There is a story that goes like this: once a man and a woman went out to pick blackberries. The man looked at the woman picking berries. The sun was shining on her face, and the wind blew the hair in her face, and she looked at him with such simple pleasure as she popped berries in her mouth. He remembers the dark juice staining her lips and tongue. She smiled at him and laughed. In those moments that man discovered he was in love with the woman. Whether the man loved that woman forever or just for a few moons, he will always (or for a long while) recall that woman when he is presented with the image, the taste, the word of blackberry, blackberry, blackberry.

This is how New Orleans came to exist for me.