(New York, NY. 7.4.2012)

I’m sitting in my friends’ apartment, staring at a returned security deposit check from my landlord.  (Much to my chagrin, he has future-dated it so that I can’t deposit it until a day before I leave the United States.)  (Honestly!  Does he not think I have a million other things to do and people to see before I leave?) (Actually, I only have two more things to do and maybe ten people to see, but still.  I don’t like when other people dictate how I use my time.)  The check makes it evidently clear that my affair with the city is drawing to a close.  Seven days and counting! It feels like I should be saying goodbye to the city in some bolder fashion, but I don’t think there really is an adequate way to do that…so as a gesture, I think I am also going to quit coffee when I quit NYC.  (I used to think caffeine had no effect on me but today it is giving me crazy jitters.  The landlord’s menacing threats of “We’ll call you if these guys don’t check out” –these guys being Anthony and his future roommate—hasn’t helped.) And meat.  I may give up meat after an obligatory July 4^th hotdog. (I keep coming upon compelling pro-vegetarian literature. Carl Lewis claims his best track year was the year he ate vegan.  Does he still eat vegan?  I will have to harness the power of the internet to find out.  Now, I have three things to do before I leave NYC.)

(I’m really into parentheses today.)