Moved into a new place, in South Austin, yesterday, after lunch tacos. (They would've been breakfast tacos, which are awesome, maybe the best thing one can have for breakfast, but we got up too late.) No Internet yet, so across the street to Cafe Caffeine for iced coffee, curried chicken salad sandwich, and Wi-Fi. Tables started moving around me, then a band set up behind me. Turns out there would be a free beer event that also happened to involve live music and small press fiction and poetry readings. Me excited. Across the street to drop off my laptop and back for a beer and some damn fine country/swing music. Caught up in the excitement of my luck at being right place right time, texting all of the (not so many) people I know in Austin, eyes darting all around the room. Then I realized: I was caught up more in the idea that this was an awesome experience, than in actually experiencing the presence of awesomeness. In other words, I was too enamored with the concept to fully and passionately enjoy the actual experience. Some times it's easy not to get caught up in the moment.
On the other hand, once I became aware of this contradiction, the readings started to get more boring. The MC described the night as "without pretension." I veto that. So a magically alive moment had come and gone without me being aware of it, until too late. But following this, and the subsequent decline in entertainment, came more great readings: Gary Kent's story of taking acid for the first time as "research" for his special FX work on Psych-Out, and Amelia Gray's hilarious flash fiction. So, my night redeemed itself, despite me being late to the dinner table.
No microwave, eating lots of sandwiches, dreaming of my next breakfast taco.
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