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Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Jumping In To Augustus John With Carver On My Mind

The great and glorious masterpiece of man is how to live with a purpose.---Michel de Montaigne

SHELTER LIFE:
Ah . . . a day off. Finally, I have a little time to myself to contemplate my purpose. I wake up at 3 in the afternoon, slip on some loose-fitting jeans, pull a tee shirt over my head, grab a pack of Sonomas and a lighter, walk out of my room through the quad to my fourth floor balcony railing and light up, hoping for that buzz that comes from tranquility.


"Jump!" yells Marvin from down at the benches, "Jump!" He mimes the hand signals for diving off the balcony and grins. This is the kind of motivational inspiration one gets at U.S. Vets. Forget the tranquility, it's hazing hour the rest of the night.

AND THEN THERE'S MY JOB:
The Children of Waste fed me last night at my Sucko security job guarding the Culver City luxury apartment complex. Two of them. I had gotten a call on the security cell phone, a complaint about loud party noises, and knocked on the party's' door to ask them to consider their neighbors.


It was a bunch of actors having an after theater party. They offered me food. I am trying to establish a reputation at Casa De Toro of being open, very open, to bribery of all sorts, especially freshly catered food, so I accepted.

It was SOOooooo nice to eat fresh, first stage food for a change from the third stage food bank leftovers they serve us at U.S. Vets. The lettuce actually crunched when I ate it! The turkey wasn't gray! The mashed potatoes was made from actual potatoes! It was a lovely surprise for my stomach. The memory of that food energizes me now as I decide what to do with the rest of this night in the shelter.

BACK TO MY HOMELESS VETS SHELTER:
If I can get my roommate Ranger Mike to practice his guitar in the stairwells, I'm going to jump in to an autobiography of Augustus John tonight. What I'd really like to find is some Raymond Carver. Yeah, I could really curl up with some Raymond Carver: much more contemporary and relevant to my purpose than Augustus, considering the company I keep (click the picture for the song).

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