It turns out there's a very fine line between the smell of leftover kimchee and just-turned garbage. I learned this tonight when Eric and I stopped by Book People on the way home from the Korean/sushi restaurant. When I got back in the car I thought someone had left a bag of eggplant-and-used-cat-litter sandwiches to rot in the backseat over the weekend for an April Fool's joke or something. But no, it was just Eric's still-warm takeout box sitting on the floorboard, emanating visible squiggly cartoon smell waves. I like kimchee, but woof. Adequate ventilation is vital when fermented cabbage is involved.
There was a book signing at Book People tonight for Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq. The author was just finishing up and sort of aimlessly hanging around the store when we got there. Finally his cab pulled up and he said, "Well, thanks," to no one in particular. Then he got in by himself and rode off. The whole thing made me kind of sad for some reason. I don't know why; for all I know the signing was a smashing success before we got there and he was taking the cab to meet some hottie for a steak dinner. This guy's the chief military correspondent for the New York Times, for Christ's sake; I'm sure he can fill an evening by himself. And even if he can't, who the hell cares?
I think about shit like this for way too long sometimes. The only logical explanation is that my brains are turning into mush. Maybe I need to lay off the neti pot for a while.
Anyway, I was greatly cheered by the new notebook I bought there. It's 5x7" with thick blank pages, a magnetic closing flap, placeholder ribbon and a big accordion pocket in the back. It's really the notebook I've been searching for my entire adult life. My attractive but slightly too-big sketchpad was getting full and its spirals were starting to unravel, so it was time for a new one anyway. I think I'll quit bemoaning my malodorous car and the lonely book-tour fate of Michael R. Gordon and go pop my notebook's cherry with some vague, useless doodles.
P.S. Be sure to check out Roo's neti pot contribution.