Morning this, no, not really morning because I awoke not until after noon - ok, so afternoon this, I drove my Buick down 10th Street, past the skyscrapers that looked like giant architecture students’ models in the bright sunshine, past Piedmont Park with all its runners and lovers and dogs to the intersection with Monroe Ave. I turned toward the high school football stadium and continued through the light to the intersection with 8th Street. I turned left and went into the parking lot for Saverite Grocery Warehouse. Upon exiting my car, I walked over to the Wachovia ATM to check my balance, since my last paycheck had just yesterday been directly deposited. Account number: ***-**-***. PIN: ****. There is plenty of money to buy groceries and pay off the traffic bond to the Cobb County Clerk of Courts for not meeting taillight requirements. I walk through the mini-bazarre in the corner of the parking lots. Oh, old books, don’t mind if I do. Nothing but Louis L’Amour in that bin. Maybe if I were planning on rocking on a porch in the Storyhills soon. Keep walking. More old books, whaddya have? They may be vintage, but they’re not worth reading. Into the Grocery Warehouse. Finally, bananas that are not overripe already. Ground beef so that I can make hamburgers for Chester tomorrow. Grab a big thing of toilet paper. No one else at the house is going to remember. What’s this, a shoe polish brush? Don’t have one, but don’t really need one either. Oh, iron-on denim patches. Definitely need one for the rear pocket that your wallet has worn through. You are so callipygian. More Indian River grapefruit juice - it ferments in a little over a week because it has no preservatives. Nothing like a little grapefruit martini in the morning to prepare you for class. Better get some sliced cheese; Chester loves his cheeseburgers. Your sweet tooth is craving something. Get cinnamon rolls to share with your housemates next week. Anything else? Oh yes, hamburger buns. That’s all. To the checkout I go. The card reader throws errors on the card all the time. Ask for a plastic bag. Cover the magnetic strip with one layer of plastic. Works like a charm. Thank the cashier that taught me that. Promise not to give the secret to Kroger or Publix. Let their customers panic. We have ingenuity at Saverite.

Back in the car, the Highlands are only a few minutes away. Go to the Atlanta Book Exchange. It’s been too long anyway. Look for that book Greg Daly recommended. Architecture, sexuality, Middle East, American West, American History, English History, Germanic History, Russian History, French History, Philosophy - pick up Bacon’s Essays for eight bucks and Aristotle’s Physics for seven bucks, Science Fiction, Poetry - pick up Rainer Maria Rilke’s New Poems (1907) bilingual edition for ten bucks. Better put the other two back. Can’t spend all the money. CD’s. Anything good? St. Matthew’s Passion? Nah, bought a lot of music recently. Only books. Look down. What’s this? Wine and beer histories? Have a homebrewing guide already. Better get something about French wine. Need to be educated whilst there for the summer. A-ha! The Wines of France: Saint-Julien! Excellent, for ten bucks as well. That’ll do. To the desk. The owner must think he’s in Madamoiselle Jones’ Tourettes encounter. He’s in control of himself, and it’s all under his breath though. He says #@&! more often than any other word in his vocabulary. What’s bothering him?

- 934, #@&!, 934, #@&!, 934, #@&!, #@&!, #@&!. What’s a dollar in pounds?

- I’m not sure. I don’t know the current exchange rate.

- 934, #@&!, #@&!. The dollar is down.

- Yes, I saw recently that one dollar equals point nine two euros.

- And the euro is worth like a dollar ten.

- Do you do a lot of business over the ocean?

- No, I am going to visit soon.

- Really, me too! I leave in two weeks and will be there the whole summer.

-You lucky bugger. I’ll only be there for five weeks. It’s costing me an arm and a leg. Five weeks. People ask how I do it. Just go, I say. It’s worth it. I went to bed at three a.m. That’s ten dollars, and oh, that’s the same, ten dollars also. The total is twentyone forty. Always have your passport handy. Passport. Passport and a couple of these.

Card error again, and no plastic bag this time. Oh wait, it worked the second swipe.

- I went to bed at three a.m. this morning. Talking to a friend about the last time… She was in *******, and I was in *******. I was in ********, and she went to *******. Yap, yap, yap, can’t get her to go with me. I have another friend. twentyone forty. I have another friend that wants to go to New Zealand. She won’t go to Europe with me. She only wants to go to New Zealand. I like New Zealand. New Zealand is beautiful, but that’s all there is. There’s nothing else. You’re out in the middle of nowhere. Paris, you’re in Paris, and you can get in on a train and be in Germany in an hour. Maybe not an hour, a couple of hours. Paris, get on a train, you’re in Spain in a couple of hours. New Zealand, you’re fifteen thousand miles away from anything. Where will you be?

- I’ll be in Metz, France. Studying there for the semester. Taking some engineering courses.

- I’m going to Scotland and Ireland.

- Well, thanks. Have a fun trip!

- Yeah, you too.