northwest siiide

i'm out here now. seattle. my weeklong tour of the country was great. spent a final two days with matt and ben (my champaign boys) and roy and andy (my chicago boys) and christine (my girl, through it all) in chicago. matt and i met up with his little sister louise and spent four days in san diego. hell of a town. we almost went to mexico for a night, but that's fine, because by god i'm going next year and who knows for how long. louise is a nice girl, less crazy than her stupid brother but just as fun and definitely better looking in a bikini. i got one night with jessica and bonk in LA and was made to realize that the more i travel (or is it simply the more i experience?), the more important old friends become. and now i'm here. rental car, temporary apartment, one week until work starts. i'll keep living out of a backpack for as long as it takes, but the big bed is mine for a month. i have my own kitchen. closets. free internet, laundry. i haven't been this alone in nearly four months. tomorrow is the fourth of july. i'll probably check into the hostel down the street and make some friends to drink and blow shit up with. have you ever seen a truer sign of addiction to human contact? something about it isn't right. maybe something about avoiding myself. some sort of insecurity maybe, maybe the same thing that makes me dislike sleeping alone. on the other hand, i'm happy for the opportunity to get some writing done finally.