12.28.99

I'm in Philadelphia...............Or Thereabouts. Says 7:40 on the clock but the clock is part of the computer that doesn't know it is in a different time zone. The dusty one on the desk reads 11:37; it pushes on ahead in daylight savings time. The current local time is really something like 10:45. Sunny frozen morning. Been cold since I arrived nearly a week ago. (Is today Tuesday or Wednesday?) But yet, the sunshine. Native of the low-cloud place, forgot the sunglasses; D makes fun of my constant squinting. No precipitation whatsoever. Not quite the morning atmosphere for incense, but burning it anyway. Some Japanese stuff we bought from the Buddhist supply store near Chogyesa in Seoul. The thinnest jellyfishes of smoke float up high in the sunlight. And drinking Jasmine tea, the really low leaves on the stem. (I used too many and the drink is too strong.) This is the first morning to myself. Days before D has had the time away from work and we have been holidaying and traveling. To fill it all in it would include getting down the large tea tray, unpacking the mat'cha, whisk and spoon. Oh such big soft pillows we own for sitting on the floor! which we did with candle and drank that fine jade in the quiet. In the dark we did this and we also watched movies he owns for his new DVD player. Matrix once more and on Xmas it was The Last Emperor, one of the best. Xmas itself went well: It was quiet and we were happy with our take. Then we went out driving north toward the Poconos just to see what it was, and it was not much. But the driving was nice; the sunshine was food. Next day we took the train to New York. What a place! I miss the feeling of city and of consensual anonymity. New York is the archetype; all other cities are lesser for not being it exactly. The only other two I can think of that may approach it, or those that, perhaps, set their own standard, are Tokyo and Hong Kong. We emerged from the earth and climbed straight to the top of the Empire State Building, the wind and the foreign tongues lapping at our faces and hair all along the way -- so many different faces, beautiful and ugly ones alike. We walked and walked and subwayed, just being witness to such way of being. (I am not local; I am not wearing black.) Ate Korean food twice, authentic and delicious and Dave speaking in Korean like it was Korea, which it was on that street. I slept the whole train ride home, woke from it feeling sick; still sick, but moving at least. Yesterday spent in bed. Oh my bed! That expansive resting place, the temple of sprawl. The sickness is a kind of Sabbath. Cable TV at the foot issuing relentless homilies. I have managed to escape it for today. Here until Jan 6.

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