AUSTIN, Texas, July 28, 2005 — Some days are all over the map. Dress down, dress up, dress down. Socialize with the older folks, hang out with the younger.

And so today. I was not doing well when I got up. About fifteen minutes before I did I had a righteous cramp in my left calf that left it a bit sore the rest of the day. I still had some stiffness also from trying to get back into my routine at the gym. I needed to get off to the gym at a reasonable time as I needed to be downtown around eleven. Downtown, dressed nicely. And so I got off to the gym and did fifty minutes on the bike while reading old New York

Times sections. Then I did some chest and tricep exercises. So I can be sore some place new. I got home and showered and dressed in my blue suit and a nice blouse. And headed to the the Austin Women's Club. I'd never been in the building. It's an ancient fortress-like building I'd never bothered to even notice. I got a parking place and entered the elevator. A receiving line of hostesses greeted me when I got off. I didn't know things like this existed where women had a club with a kitchen and had little programs and dressed up and brought guests. No hats or gloves (well I saw one hat) but still, you know. I was the guest of a friend of ours, a powerful woman in the community. Another friend was presenting the day's program on her travels in Ghana, Togo and Benin. I have to say that the program was very interesting. And I was shocked that they had something like half a dozen deaths to announce (mostly the husbands of members). They hadn't convened for a few weeks, but still. The food was outstanding...a selection of delicious salads and breads. I wasn't the youngest person there, but there were a lot older.

When I left, I headed home and got out of the suit and into cotton shorts, a T-shirt commemorating a birthday party for Forrest in 1993 and rubber pool shoes. I returned calls to my dad and my aunt, got a cup of coffee and finished reviewing the latest stack of films from AFF. I went downtown again, to the AFF office, did the paperwork on turning films in and took a new batch for the weekend. I bantered with the young film types about the films. The AFF office is about eight blocks from the Austin Women's Club. They couldn't be more different.

I headed home. I felt like having sushi or something like that from Central Market takeout but the sky is dark and before I can arrive at Central Market and maybe score some takeout there are drops on my windshield. Ah, what the heck. I head home. A deluge is developing and it is going pretty good when I pull into the garage.

So instead of sushi I ate cheese, chips, green onions and drank a beer. Healthy, huh? I lazed around watching multiple episodes of Jeopardy and then some network shows with FFP while reading The New York Review of Books and some newspaper sections. I could read nothing but the newspapers and old New Yorkers for the rest of my life. How will I ever get to the books I want to read? And now FFP subscribed to another periodical. Sigh.

It's interesting how one spends one's time. My evening was wasted. I didn't start reviewing any more films even.

Finally there is sleep.