wake up

Sometimes, all I have to do is open the window, listen to the accordions playing (my landlord is always outside playing his accordion on Sunday mornings) and just smell the roasted chickens and potatoes, the clementines and all the fruit and vegetables, all these smells collect and rise up to my third story studio, and it's enough to make me not want to eat because it smells so damn good when it all mixes together like that just the same way the table at Thanksgiving dinner smells damn good. But I eat anyway because breakfast is important.

Susie and Andy came over to hang out. I invited them along with Sally to see Buster Keaton's College at my fave cinema with live piano. It was amazing, as always. And I think I have a huge crush on the piano guy because he loves Buster Keaton too, and he has this sort of Buster Keaton way about him, an almost silent actor way about him in that he doesn't speak much but his little actions really resonate. Like he has this slight smile like he's holding in a laugh. And when the owner introduced him to the audience and said that he likes Buster Keaton films, he said, "Yes, I like them a lot." And, I don't know why, but that made me laugh a little. Anyway, the movie was great and Buster won the girl as always.

Afterwards, fondue dinner with everyone mentioned above and Sarah and Nayo on my street which was so good and filling. It's Andy's last night here which is so weird because it almost felt like he was studying abroad with us. I know Susie will be okay. Their relationship reminds me a lot about my brother and his fiancee because yes, they're great together, but they don't have to always be together, you know? They can handle having their own lives and sets of friends. And that's nice. Having someone but not being dependent on him and vice versa.

After dinner, bid farewell to Susie, Andy, and Sally, and Sarah, Nayo, and Nick met up with us and we had a drink at the Mayflower. It was a pretty chill night and we sat at a corner. I noticed on the wall an old black and white photo of what the Mayflower looked like in the 1920s or so, and it looked so cool. Just seeing what something used to look like. And I felt that I was a part of history somehow by making this my local drinking hole.

Had a pint then left, and I walked down my street and all the stores were boarded up and nothing was open except for the tiny cinema, and God it was so beautiful with the blue Christmas lights still on and flowing down the street. And I saw more because my focus was on the buildings rather than on the shops and I kept noticing all this graffiti I've never seen, and I could see into other people's apartments and their overflowing bookshelves and their Tudor ceiling that looks just like mine, and it was nice. And for a moment then I forgot about home and declining the TA position, and all I could think about was that in six months I'll be missing this and how devastating it's going to be.