it is like this:

E is sleeping. her alarm has been ringing every fifteen minutes for the last hour and a half. She doesn't budge.

Stooges is sprawled diagonally in the doorway in a position carefully calibrated to be the most inconvenient possible. I step over him, avoiding his long tail. Will he still be here when I get back?

Hawky McLoogie is chainsmoking in his backyard, alternating puffs with audibly phlegmy projectiles into his garden, periodically calling to his wife in incomprehensible yokel-speak. I hope he has moved by the time I return.

S wandered down to Mardi Gras Zone for apples and is making pancakes. She reports that it is warmer outside than in the house. We turn off the heat. 15-foot ceilings and no sun-facing windows will be amazing in May but right now = expensive.

I am sitting on my very large bed, surrounded by clothes. I am looking up weather in Addis and trying to remember what I wore to stay warm in the diesel-and-woodsmoke coolness of the evening air. What shoes were best to stop from tripping on the uneven pavement? What clothing should I pack to pass unnoticed by the children selling cigarettes, but still gain entry to the horrible but necessary oases of restaurants and hotels filled with expats?

9:42 a.m. - 2010-03-07