Prague lasts

1. Cooking

Last night was the last time I will ever cook in Prague. I made brown rice and barley, and sweet potatoes simmered with cabbage and onions. About half of the sweet potato dish was spice and garlic, since I had so much left and didn't want to waste it. As a consequence, you can hardly taste the sweet potato, but it's just nice to know that it's there. Besides this, we have beet tahini sauce, refried pinto beans, whole wheat cous-cous, red lentils, and stir fried vegetables in the fridge. If we run out, I have bags of dried lentils and yellow split peas. I also have enough oats and flaxseed and walnut milk to last for more than a week, as well as a bunch of seaweed, Country Life bread, tahini, and that French sugarfree jam to finish off. There is no way Nicole and I can finish all this before I go; maybe she can finish it before she goes. There's also some vodka, but I'm not going to touch that stuff after what happened yesterday (see 4). The thing is, I've hardly been hungry at all lately. I've still been eating almost as much as I usually do, which, despite what many think, is a lot (Nicole will back me up on this). It's just that instead of eating out of hunger, I've been eating out of habit and duty. Better than eating out of hate, I guess.

2. Aimlessly wandering

Yesterday was also my last day to aimlessly wander. I did a pretty decent amount of aimless wandering in Prague, but not as much as you might think. Once it stopped snowing, it was harder to get motivated to go outside without a real plan. I didn't do any urban exploration, or steam tunneling, or breaking into Prague movie studios, or any of those adventurous things from my past that are still linked to who I am, or at least who people think I am. Who is the real me, by the way? I hardly even peeked into any doorways where I wasn't supposed to be. I did a little bit, but for the most part I didn't see the point. I mean, it's pretty obvious what's going to be in there. It will either be cardboard boxes, a vacuum cleaner and some chemicals, or a person doing their job. In Prague, the only difference is that the room might have piles of neglected Stalin statues or rusted crucifixes. Once I figured that out, I was content.

But I know people expect more from me, so yesterday I randomly boarded a tram that I'd never taken to see where it would go. I found out it goes to some place I'd already been I tried to convince myself that it was exciting and new, but no, it was utterly recognizable. So I got on the metro and decided to find the Prague Eiffel Tower. If I couldn't explore Prague randomly, at least I would have another thing I did in Prague to talk about for returning to the states judgment day. I half-intentionally lost my way, though, and ended up watching a neighborhood football match for a while. Then I sneezed and got a nose bleed. I had no tissues, so I left pinching my nose. I would have left that way eventually anyway, as the football players had to be the worst in Prague. They didn't even have neo-nazi megafans! I walked through a new part of town for me, which had plenty of poverty and communist style "undignified rabbit hole" tenaments (this is what Vaclav Havel called them when he took power in 89, promising to get rid of them all; obviously, he failed). Nobody seemed too unhappy, though. There were picnics, parks, and beautiful walking paths amongst the filth and the pots of urine. From the top of the hill, I had a nice view of the city. I imagined two naked giants destroying it all.

Then I walked down the hill, and ran into the girlfriend of Frederique, the owner of Gulu Gulu who had me fired the first time for cleaning up the broken glass. I didn't recognize her, but she recognized me. "I saw you at Gulu Gulu, two times," she said. "I'm the owner's girlfriend." "Oh, Helena, right?" "Right." "I was fired twice. Maybe that's why you haven't seen more of me." "Oh," she said. I would have talked to her more, but I was embarrased about having dried blood all over my nose and hands. "It was good to see you," I said, and by dark I was home.

This may not really be my last time to wander Prague. Nicole's friend Sam wants us to take the trams and "get lost." I suspect we'll end up at Tesco.

3. Going to the Prague zoo.

Nicole and I are going to the Prague zoo with Henrik and Steve (a British guy who everyone loves, and is characteristically taking the Siberian Express and ferry to Japan to study calligraphy). This will be our first and last time to go to the Prague Zoo. Yeah, I know that zoos exploit animals and that animals are born free. But so what?

4. Getting drunk on my birthday.

I'm pretty sure this is what accounts for my nosebleed. Every day after a night I get drunk, I'm struck with some malady: sickness, blood, demons in the head, guilt; you name it, I'll blame it on the booze. Usually I become more of a genius when I'm drunk, but I wasn't especially clever this last time. Maybe it was the group dynamic. I'm better one on one, sober or drunk. I did have a great birthday, though. We went to a squat to watch our Blind Eye friend Austin play at a benefit show. Czech anarchists, unlike their American counterparts, are a bit disorganized, and the show was no longer happening by the time we got there. Austin played anyway, and he was amazing. It was much better than watching Mystic River for the second time for your birthday. Not that I didn't have a good birthday last year, too! After the squat concert, we went to The Blind Eye. That will probably happen again before I leave, to be honest.

5. Using the internet at a library.

Rachel got me a computer for my birthday. A G-6 1,000 gig triple decker geothermal-charged power-book. Just kidding, just kidding. It only hase 999 gigs. Still, it's going to change my life. Rachel denies this, but it's true. No more coat ladies, no more internet cafe fees, no more borrowing other people's computers. Never again will I be untapped, unconnected, unhuman. I will be immeasurably happier and more productive from here on out. Not just because of the computer. Because Rachel is in my life. Now that is something that will last (in the other sense of the word) for sure! Happy birthday, everyone!!!