AUSTIN, Texas, July 30, 2005 — Usually I feel hopelessly behind. But today I feel caught up for some reason. I get up not feeling too great. I've been dreaming about trying to thwart someone from stealing things at a party. I wake up with some anxiety from the dream, a slightly upset stomach and some sore muscles. And I'm groggy. Soon, though, I'm feeling better, have had a cup of coffee. Talked to my dad who is telling me about buying bird seed, seeing birds at his feeders, buying a birthday present for a two-year-old kid who lives next door (he's going to the party in a minute, he says). He's driving a little car, having loaned the van to his friends for a road trip. In a lot of ways, he seems back to

his old self. It's amazing, really.

I fool around with some stuff on the computer and then go to the gym. After sweating away on the bike for fifty minutes and doing a few bicep curls and situps and stuff, I really feel pretty good. FFP is going for a massage or something and we are going to go to New Braunfels tonight. Otherwise I don't feel like I have too many obligations. I have a couple more films to review (shorts). I need to organize stuff, read all the papers, the usual. Nothing too serious. I feel caught up and that I can really do whatever I please.

So around noon I start buzzing around the house. Doing random things. I eat cereal and nonfat yogurt and then some spinach, carrots and green onions with grated cheese and dressing. And a six-ounce can of V8. I watch the AFF entries. One I have seen somewhere before but can't figure out where. I make copies of film forms, fix something on FFP's computer. I read some of the papers lying around pondering payola, violence, renouncing violence (the IRA) and advice for retirmement. I have a little low-fat Laughing Cow cheese triangle, another six-ounce V8, a package of cheese and peanut butter crackers.

In there somewhere I put out some rat poison in the attic, get a shower, watch part of Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man which I've had out from Netflix for a month now.

We head out to New Braunfels where a friend has a house she rents out but occasionally stays in. She is the friend we visited in Bronxville. Invited us over for barbeque and some impromtu music performed by her brother and some other people. We haven't been to New Braunfels in ages. Used to spend our anniversary there with side trips to San Antonio for shopping and dining. I take along some party wine and some water.

As FFP drives us down IH35 he points out how things have changed since last we ventured down. The flyovers at Ben White are almost finished, there is this new, giant Cabela's store near Buda, there are road improvements and the Outlet Malls seem to have grown. We take the main exit to New Braunfels, familiar from when we used to come once a year (in May for our anniversary) and yet changed. There is an oyster bar that wasn't there a decade ago, a coffee bar. The Faust has a brew pub for a restaurant, it looks like. The old bakery and the Prince Solms are still there.

We find our friend's house. It's a charming old Victorian with high ceilings and wood floors. She used to rent it and bought it, furnished, from the owner. We have a pleasant evening, eating barbeque and salad and a bunch of sides and snacks and drinking a little wine (me, FFP driving) and soda (FFP). My friend's brother, whom I've never met, and another guy who is the brother of someone we knew long ago (but whom I've also never met) have brought their guitars and a banjo and they pick out a few tunes. There is another couple there who lives in Austin. Knew them years ago through my friend but also haven't seen them in a very long time.

It's a nice low key get together. At 10:30 we decide to go. It will be an hour to home.

I'm ready to sleep when we get home and that's what we do.