hey ya'll this here is my first mass
communiquéé and i hate to do this because it's not the most personal way to
send a letter, but if i repeat a story one to many times it looses it's life.
so in the interest of saving this
stories life without electrical shocks i 've had to sacrifice its personal nature i'm hoping that god, and the rest of you,
will find some way to forgive me....please.
for anyone that i forgot to tell; im in europe and have been for almost
two months. i've lived in london for most of this time but this here adventure
thankfully took me out of the grease pit and threw me into the fire.
on just another london night, not unlike this one, i was wondering
aimlessly through the heart of downtown as it beat furiously on in its erratic
pulse. this evening i had my little old acoustic guitar and strummed mindlessly
on it as i walked (ethan you know the no woman / wendy chords i always strum)
looking generally for and at nothing in particular. somehow something in
particular managed to stumbled across me and unknowing i became entwined in the
beginning of a grand adventure. ok ok i'll get to the point and stop all this
dilly dallying around. BAM!! a group of touristy folks walk by and one
anonymous female voice shouts out,
"play us a song" well all of you know( or i think you do) that i
can't play a song on this damn thing and use it mostly just to meet people.
" I can't play a song" i shout back. lucky for me that stops the
crowd and once again the guitar has reeled helpless victims into my
clutches....HA HA HA(think of evil laugh).
"oh come on, you have to know stairway to heaven" and the
voice takes a face, and it's beautiful!!
"no, can't play that one"
"then you have to know free bird.
everyone knows either stairway or free bird"
"nope"
one of the five or six people in the group steps forward and saves the
day.
"i can play stairway" he says
not only that, it turns out he can play
lyal lovet also so you know this guy is cool, but .....he's canadian so he
can't be that cool and it makes it ok to steal his girlfriend. (that's for
steve, austin and the N.B.A.C.H.G. if you guys can even remember what that is)
uuuhhhh where was i.......
oh yea the girl, how could i
forget. As phil plays stairway to heaven i strike up a conversation with
the beautiful girl that went some thing like this.
" So Baby, i couldn't help noticing
that your a sexy sweet little thing from america"
ok just kidding i don't talk like that
at all. i said
"hey, your from america"
" yeah, i'm from california"
" hey, me too. what
part?" and yes i do start every
sentence with "hey"( check the beginning of this message)
"lake Tahoe."
"hey, wow i'm from sonora. do you know where that is?"
"yeah. i have a friend there"
and... blah ...blah... blah
so far this is the general theme of
every conversation here, because something like 40% of people in london are
from some where else. where are you from...followed directly by "how long
have you been here".. and then the amazing finisher "where have you
been here" or the startling change
up "where are you going next"
any how i'm invited to walk with them on
their little sonjour around town. only used sojour cause' i heard it today even
though i hate this word. we walk around we talk around. she tells me that she
just met all the folks we're on parade
with at the hostel, so i know i don't have to steal her from anyone. but damn i
wanted to take her from the canadian and have my revenge for all that canada
has taken from us. well some other time, but beware canada i'm on to you, i
know your little game, oh yeah i know.
As the night goes on i realize more and more that she digs me and this
is culminated in a semi final maneuver where i walk everyone back home and she
decides to say goodbye to everyone and walk the streets with me in the wee
little hours of the morn. sun rise finds us chatting in the park, and me
wanting to but being to much of a wuss to kiss her. luckily i know her and i
see that if i wait she'll take the initiativee and that's always better. as the
sun rises the she makes her move and soft lips touch mine. after a little bit
of kissy face we walk around and talk some more we dig each other and all seems
well. wait wait what's this at eleven o'clock
yes eleven in morning, this very morning of the sun rise she will fly to
paris. aaaahhhhhhhhh i feel this new fire being smothered, she's slipping
through my evil grasp. but what about love ,
sweet kisses america , baseball, apple pie, hippies , day dreams of
european romance and all the other things i thought we had in common? how can
she be gone just like that?
sorry. that was my best attempt at building up
drama and suspense. the punch line is..........
she asks me to fly to paris to meet her
later that very day. hmmmmm we've only known each other one day; i have almost
no money; this girl is in love with me,
i must carefully weigh... my... optio.......OK
i'll do it. still it seems unreal and far off in this daze of non sleep
but the reality of it slaps me hard in the face at the internet cafe where she
uses her credit card to buy me the ticket. time is running out, she has to
catch a train and i have to shower and prepare for my flight. on our parting
just a little kiss and a huge gap, we look at each other and realize that we
are about to part and meet again in
paris no longer strangers. "am i crazy" is the question each of us
must be asking ourselves, yes was defiantly my answer.
and then there i go flying.
i have no time to be shocked or surprised.
i have no time for doubt or second guessing.
i'm on a plane then im asleep then i'm in paris then i have to find our
meeting place.
my plane is late. the airport is far from downtown paris. our rondevue point is away from the train station. im three
hours later than our planed meeting. and when i get there she's not there, i
wait and she's not there, i wait and she's still not there.
every minute seems an eternity and
suddenly i have all the time in the world to worry to doubt to second guess.
was she here but thought i decided to ditch out on her and take the free ticket
to paris she bought?? did she change her mind and decide that it was a bad idea
to run to paris with a stranger and stand me up??? am i stupid for being
here???? ahahhhhhh
but then here she is and i feel good i
feel great and life comes flooding in to drowns all the worry.
paris hmmm paris what a shit hole of an
area that we stayed in. it was late night she had reservations at this hostel i
had no place. so again we decided to walk around until late drinking cheep wine
that tasted like gas. but around two an idea struck. the hostel has a deck
right? and i have spiderman skills right? so why not climb up and sneak into
your room? its two in the morning, tomorrow is french independence day, i'm
drunk climbing up a two story gutter to sleep in a dorm with 4 paying strangers
and still nothing seems out of the ordinary.
one nap gives way to another and were
lying on a field in the shadow of the eiffel tower basking in the sound of fire
works and sun. another all-nighter this time in the company of thousands of
patriotic french. at four in the morning when we return to the hostel i walk
right in and they assume that i pay to stay ,and i wonder why i almost fell off
the side of a building yesterday getting in. sleep sleep sleep falafel falafel
falafel "hey dewey, would you come to switzerland with me....please?"
how can i say no, oh yeah except for
that whole almost no money thing that i have going on.
"I'll pay." she says and tells me i;m an angel in
disguise.
this is good this is too good this is
mad wack crazy stupid good yo.
and the dream continues.
this night we spent in a nice little hotel in
a much hipper area of paris that's full of young people, clubs, bars and little
eateries. the whole day however was wasted finding how to get a train to the
jazz festival in switzerland that she wants to hit up.
wake up roll over. yep the world is
still a perfect beautiful place and there is still a pretty face next to
me.
we're on a train then another sleeping sleeping always napping the
nature of my existence.
so this is switzerland. ahhh the fresh air the
alps the laundered money. yes all this is good.
i'm shocked they don't use the euro and
i throw a few remaining euros in my back pack, little do i know that these will
prove to be very handy in a desperately uncertain unforeseen future.
but now money seems to be nothing and
the two of us throw around each others money like confetti. again we arrange a
way to sneak me into the hostel for free. we watch free music we talk it up we
eat hot food and look at booths selling festival junk to the needy masses. two
days pass in this way and we decide to go clubbing on this second night but
first to smoke a little hash given to us by a stranger in paris who played us a
cd of his band and invited us to his up coming show. but no, we had to go to switzerland.
dwelling in the shadows
sitting on the ground
hiding from the eyes
still somehow we're found
and not just found mind you we're out
right caught
by none other than my best friend the
cops.
before i even notice a hand reaches into
my line of sight and pulls the pipe and hash from my hand. WHAT, i look up
agitated. i think some one is trying to rob me but no the badge in his hand
tells me otherwise. we get searched we get questioned we get dragged off to an
interrogation room. yeah!!! boy howdy this a hoot.
after a lengthy conversation with the
coppers where we didn't really understand anything because they didn't speek
English and wow i didn't speak french. it came down to me getting a ticket for
a hundred fifty swiss frances that some how (thank you so much mom) i was able
to take from my account but that left me
with less than a dollar. that's it though, they release me no jail, no kick in
the pants, nothing. well except for all my money. anyhow that night is ruined
and we return to the hostel to sulk over our loss. the morning comes and
reveals a sun it's the first that we have seen of that old chap in a few days
and it really makes the festival take off. previously we had been standing in
the rain enjoying a free two day shower. this night we see the most jamming
dance music i have ever heard. it's this
crazy gypsies get down then back up again music. there are like two hundred
people watching the band and for some reason i'm the only one dancing. i never
dance. i can't dance. but here i am shaking my rump and doing the country music
chicken wing dance. this music was so alive and bouncing i couldn't resist.
ok i'm almost done talking but i won't
stop not just yet not when my luck takes
off soaring to new heights. while walking around i'm approached by the most
beautiful girl i've seen , it hurts to look at her. "hey do you want
tickets to the show tonight?" she asks. "uuhhhhhhhhh..yes?" i
say as if unsure it's the right answer.
"i saw the two of you walking
around with back packs and i thought you looked like you could use some free
tickets to the show."
"thank you i would love this"
i go on to tell her that this is a great final night for me after getting
robbed by the cops the night before.
"oh that's so sad" she tells
me and offers to get me stoned to make up for the bad luck of last night. i
grab amy (the girl i'm traveling with) and the three of us find a secluded
place to burn one down. a bunch of talk leads our new friend to ask us where
we're staying tonight. uh we have no
place. "oh really, come stay with me on the couch at my place" man
this just keeps getting better. we end up talking for hours and the show she
gave us tickets to is over but we go back to her place and smoke some more and
then hit the sack. morning finds me alone with fourteen dollars in my shoe.
hmmmm... a little investigation and i find the girls chatting in the kitchen
soon amy must leave to catch a plane to spain and i must find my way back to
london. we have tea and a chatty time. i'm now in love with our hostess,
despite her boyfriend, and want to marry her and have fourteen children who are
forced to decide between careers as models or rock stars. but we don't always
get what we want do we. just most of the time.
it's time to part ways with my romance as Amy is given a ride to the
train then off to spain. goodbye...parting is such sweet sorrow.....and all
those other worn out statements. we will meet again in london before the end of
an era. the decision has been made i'll
hitch hick back to london form switzerland the way i was meant to live this
life. the fourteen dollars or swiss frances actually that are in my shoe were given
to me by amy who was afraid that i would starve on the way home to london only
because i was actually down to zero dollars. i spend all day with my new
friends and stephen (the boyfriend) prints me out a map of the best rout to
london from where we are then we drink beer and i convince him to show me a
slide show of his year long trek around the world. we talk for hours then
around five ot six i realize it's time to actually get this mission underway
and ask for a ride out to the road. but no these people wont let me go. they insist on extending to me even more generosity then i
can handel. i tried the "no no i'm fine you don't need to give me
that" tactic i tried the old chinese thing i heard once where you say no
to any gift two times to be sure that your not being helped out of courtesy but
out of genuine interest in you, but no matter how hard i tried i couldn't leave
until they had forced upon me fifty five euros, food, beer, and a bag of weed.
damn these are good people.
my luck rarely seems to stretch it's self thin and the first car that
drives by stops and i'm bound for france. it's a mere two and a half days to
the cost and the quickest ferry to england. my rides were fun, most of the
people didn't speak english resulting in fantastic one sided conversations each
of us saying a thing or two then letting the other talk with out a single thing
actually being communicated. i see now how little language matters and how far
you can get with hand signals and facial expressions. i make it to the cost it
was easy. i'm down to twenty euros the ticket is 27. this is when i rifle
through the pack hoping that some money had fallen from heaven and accidentally
found its way into my back pack. WOW, it did. the euros i had forgotten when i
arrived in switzerland, the pound and a half left from england and the swiss
frances amy gave me all added up to just enough to push me past the 27 mark.
the wine is cheep but im still abel to make out the white cliffs of dover
through the haze in my head. oh yea i forgot that once i'm england i still needed
money to reach london. only a small miscalculation, nothing a few hours of
busking can't fix. busking is the english word for playing music or performing
on the street for money. i take a bus. i land in london penny less with the
security of a job waiting for me in the morning. i know in a few days i'll be
rich and in love again . the world still hasn't lost it's gleam though i've
lost a few days of sleep and all my
money. hell i couldn't really have spent a better week if i had planned it for
years.
lots of details left out some intentionally
some forgotten others to boring or lengthy, ask for them if you dare i might
find some time is by busy schedule as a traveling salesman to tell you anything
you might want to hear.
bye ya all
love dewey
ps by the time you read this i'll be in
liverpool trying my luck selling paintings. themoney is good and the people are
better. last week i made around $600 in four days so i'm rich again for the
time being. later everyone.
pps i hope everyone gets my canadian
jokes
This Notebook Analysis is part of retrospective
of my life taken from emails that I sent or received on the First of the
Month.
