should do this every day

-Listening online to my new bff, the deputy mayor of my city, and city council member, also renowned pipe restorer and expert at the county's best pipe shop, jazz and New Orleans enthusiast, historian (French intellectual history/European history), philosopher, and poet. He is so well-spoken and I find his voice soothing. I find myself having to pay very close attention to his words, though, so I do not miss anything. Sometimes hard to follow. Radio Archive

Why the new bff? Another typical Mara random encounter story, as I call it. It happens from time to time, and vibrates my life, gives me fresh breath. I can name some notable stories of this type, like Hippie Joe with the long gray hair and B.Franklin spectacles who bestowed a silver Om3 necklace upon me, homeless people like 30-minute memory Steve, toothless Rose with a baby she can't care for, my airport soulmate Matt in Germany, London Sky News guy who took me to coffee, Muhamed and Sherif who helped me with my first flat tire (and ended up hanging out constantly that summer week & now are regular friends a year later), Andrew from a cafe I spoke Spanish with (who ended up becoming too demanding of a friend in the end), more plane and train friends, friends off the street, not even counting people I've met at bars, etc.! And Now Last Night's Story.

Pic: The reason I bonded with the deputy mayor of Champaign . Also, whistling.

-Treated to lunch by my favorite Man in town, outside. Oh, it is not like that, he is our organization's guardian angel and we love him for all that he has done for us: he hath paved the golden brick road to the Emerald City. He is truly the Wizard!!

-Saw a ticket upside down under an A/C unit on my walk back to the office this afternoon. Almost let it be (trash), then decided to see if maybe it was something cool, a show that hadn't happened yet... Well, what do you think happened? A ticket to Pink Floyd's The Wall in a few weeks, $10 value, at a cute local theater several blocks away. Score! Trippy, I'm sure. I'll be sure to come prepared.

What did I do yesterday... some serious rollerblading, tested my first incline!! Fell 3 times in that hour, not even a scratch on my hand though. Lucky

-met Andrew & Kim at the park all sweaty, ran into an old acquaintance named Emory there who joined our circle by the gazebo, started an Autoshop business after college, and Andrew & Emory were wearing the exact same blue shirt blue jeans outfit. Had to blade back after 15 minutes, though, as I was late to my Indian girl date dinner. Hugging Rekha goodbye on campustown is where the adventures started.

After the deputy mayor escorted me back to my car at after finishing currant cider at the local pipe shop (smoky after-hours), bonding with the distant blonde cigar enthusiast he keeps around (over some mutual friends from the Wookie house), I drove home.