Now I am 34 years old, for whatever that’s worth. Probably not much!

I am also exhausted, so for now here’s a bunch of nice stuff my friends posted yesterday. Wow! I have such nice friends. And I have blurred their names since I have yanked these things out of the ether and put them someplace else . . . and though I highly doubt anyone would care, I’m gonna go ahead and grant them relative anonymity anyway. It’s the least I can do!

THIS WEEKEND: I reckon we’re all gonna meet up in Temescal and sit beneath some heat lamps and get drunk?? I mean, what else can you really do right now? . . . everything is closed or half-closed, and it’s too cold to hang out in a fucking park, or whatever. But such is the ultimate fate of all January babies. Though you know what: no matter what we do, it will be all right, because I just like having an excuse to see everyone in any capacity. Last year I spent my birthday by myself. The year before, I was deathly ill in Berlin and I woke up to the news that my grandfather had died on the other side of the world. Which is to say: the bar for a better birthday is so low that if you went any lower, you may as well be skydiving off a snake’s dick. (What?)

THANKS FOR ALL THE NICE BIRTHDAY MESSAGES. I AM VERY LUCKY TO HAVE SUCH BEAUTIFUL FRIENDS. I LOVE YOU ALL. OKBYE~ ☆彡

laura and me

I have known Katrijn for a long time now. Many years ago she sent me a surreal email out of the blue. I did not know where she had come from or why she had chosen to write to me of all people, but it was very special thing to receive. I think it’s one of the best things anyone has ever written me. She is from Belgium, and because English is not her first language, she phrased things in a way that I would never think to phrase them. Which is to say that everything she wrote seemed effortlessly dreamy and surreal. I am sure she meant for it to sound at least a little poetic, but it was really beautifully written without feeling affected. Later she would send me handwritten letters on stationary she had got a long time ago when visiting Vienna. She has the most beautiful penmanship . . . you wouldn’t believe it! And I have kept them all in a box in my closet ever since.

All this is to say that she is an amazing person and a good friend of mine. We’ve only met once in person when she came to Oakland, but I’ll see her again in Belgium sometime soon. I said as much on the back of the Christmas card I sent to her and her family, which she tells me is prominently displaced on a shelf in her house as evidenced by the picture above. Wow!

Well: Katrijn, thank you for reaching out to me when you did. I was very lonely back then and it made me feel better to know that there was someone on the other side of the world who thinks many of the things I think and who feels many of the things I feel. I’m glad I know you. I love you forever.

happy birthday dude lol

“see how elastic our stiff prejudices grow when love once comes to bend them”

emma and me at telegraph beer garden in temescal last night

daphne took these for us

mccune and i used to go to the beer garden every week and get free coffee, on account of our friend rachel being the boss there. those were the Old Oakland days i talk about a lot. the place has gotten a lot classier when it had been a dump before, which i preferred, but it’s still just a bunch of picnic beneath a tin roof and right on telegraph avenue, so hey. at the very least, i’m glad it still exists!

if you can spare a few bucks to help with my friend judy’s funeral expenses, i sure would appreciate it