Category: Indulgence

  • Afterthought (after bath)

    I used to tell people (this is also in the context of noticing, over the years, my increasing tendency to organize my thoughts into neatly packaged anecdotes – a suspicious tendency, but useful at parties, if a bit artificial) that, before I moved to LA, I knew what it was like to relax over a…

  • Cliché

    The bathtub is half full; hot, with oil, smelling of mangoes. A glass of spirits (limoncello as it happens – can’t quite do the cliché of a whiskey, not the kind of thing I drink – and that tells you something about me). Today I had to call around to the HIV patient group to…

  • MacNew

    Sunny, fresh, active, much going on in what feels like a fast lane. How is it possible to experience renewal and excitement and freshness in January?… ah well, stranger things have happened, I suppose. I have a new office computer, one of the new iMacs – Intel chip, utterly immense screen, high-resolution, stylish, and fast…

  • Being-in-the-world

    Still been a bit groggy, and dismayed by the grogginess (though grateful for that extra hour today). Finally forced myself out of the house in midafternoon; walked through the neighborhood, among people doing the things people do (students in couples shopping, a guy with a big smile riding a bike, various children). Mild envy of…

  • Luxuries

    A bit sleepy/groggy tonight, don’t know why. Too much sugar, perhaps?… Brought back from Spain: turrón, several kinds – egg yolk and sugar, which I love (and which I was told doesn’t last, so I bought only one); almond paste and crushed almonds; and chocolate with almonds. Didn’t bother with the wafer and egg whites…

  • Hamam

    Home again. After a hot bath: slow, sensual North African music; lying on the couch, reading ridiculous but fun German gay comics (my beloved Ralf König, who has published some new books since last I looked through amazon.de); a musk incense; late at night; I am unbelievably comfortable… especially after about twelve days of admitted…

  • Dithering (Sitges I)

    What do I want to do? Sitges, the little beach town down the coast from Barcelona, is designed for desires: I want to go to the beach, I want to eat dinner. I want muscat grapes, I want fideuá, I want hazelnuts in honey. I want to walk through narrow streets, I want to see…

  • Through the mazes

    I continue to respond to the summer and its work in a rather murky and unsatisfying way. The weather has moved quite firmly from hot to chilly, and gray to boot (not ‘grey’, it’s not that subtle). I have piles of things that need to be done, but plenty of time to do them –…

  • Living badly

    Yesterday: left the apartment so that the cleaner could take over; had lunch at a nearby Italian restaurant. Ended up eating too much, eating wrong, feeling terrible – exhausted at the end of the day. The patterns: bad eating, no exercise, television, Internet – by the time I woke this morning I was so angry…

  • Temptations

    Dinner with P– on Friday – tapas and two (!) pitchers of sangria. That’s not as dramatic as it sounds – this sangria wasn’t very strong; normally one good glass of sangria can have me giggling and inept, but I suspect this was only the wine, juice and fruit, with no brandy slipped into it.…