saturday july 5 2003    |    1:56 p.m.

i'm not checking, but i believe i tend to start these entries with a brief weather report. i like it, setting the scene like a wash of paint. so this morning it rained, giving me an excuse to burrow deeper in my bed after brad left for work, rather than get up and off to the beach before the tourists. so i'll just commit beach-loner suicide and go tomorrow, which is sunday. i hope seven a.m. is early enough to deter other beachgoers from heading out, at least until later.

so how do a spaniard and a texan celebrate the fourth of july? well, we had a small steak between the two of us and some mango. i cleaned the kitchen. brad went online. i talked to his parents and he talked to mine, and vice-versa. his father has such a thick accent that half the time i had no idea what he was saying, and, socially adept as i am, all i could think to do was laugh a bit nervously and --presumably-- change the subject. eep. we talked ourselves and made plans. lit up a couple of sparklers and threw some of those popping firecrackers. went to bed before midnight. yee-haw!

today we make up for our lack of enthusiasm by having dinner with my parents. tomorrow morning i go to the beach without fail. this morning i got up at seven, after brad left, made strong coffee and finished reading breaking clean, which means now i maybe have to give myself a day to take stock and re-adjust and then choose between mister franzen of oprah-snubbing fame or c. d. payne of youth in revolt quasi-fame or one of my languishing rock n roll bios (nick drake is almost finished, tim/jeff buckley barely started, england's dreaming hoping for a re-read) or historical bios (london, china). i should be ok for a while, in that respect.

please get me out of my office. i know two and a half languages plus snippets of others! i type fast! i like being outdoors! i read and write coherently! you will like me! please employ?

(i'm already getting nervous because i'm a bit past the halfway mark of this long weekend.)

so also this morning i shopped online for clothes and books and cleaned the room. i am rarely in a cleaning mood, but some weekends it just hits, and this is it. i have laundered and dusted and 409'd and tidied and arranged. yes! and it's barely 2:30!

it rained, like i said, but that was earlier. then the weather recovered and hurled more scorching heat down upon us. how do tourists do it? all that walking and outdoor malling. for locals, a.c. is a way of life, baby. at home, in cars, darting into shops. crank it or bust.

so yeah, it's all about the early morning around here.

happy long weekend, all.