Friday

July 14, 2000

"Man is condemned to be free."

Jean Paul Sartre

for sale on ebay

TGIF

I wake up groggy. I'd like to sleep more but I get showered and dressed and throw my suitcase in the car and express check out. Meetings. Meetings. It's not real work, is it? Is e-mail? Nah.

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I leave at 2:30 for another long commute. I10 is already clogged to Katy. The air conditioner blows cool air but the sun through the window still feels hot where it strikes me. A bank says it's 105. I'm incredibly sleepy. I stop for a giant soda and some Fritos. The act of eating and drinking keeps me awake.

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I get home. Mom and Dad have managed to find places to get Mom's hair done. Dad got a haircut. Dad found a place to buy the coffee drink mix Mom likes. Their friends have invited us all to dinner. So we get a bottle of wine and go over there. At the dinner table we discuss Capital punishment, the decline of literacy, words, language, teaching and how people are losing the ability to do simple arithmetic without a calculator.

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I'm weary. It's Bastille Day. I'm not feeling very free. Quite the contrary. But tomorrow is Saturday.

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