Paper Walls

I wake up in a room and have no clue where I am. It lasts for only about 5 seconds but is as real as can be before I realize I’m in the same place I went to bed yesterday. It must have been the hot springs.

I look at my phone and see that it is only 8:15 am so I try to turn around and get some more sleep but I’m awake and nothing can change it so I get dressed and walk to the restaurant where they serve breakfast. Some people recognize me from the concert last night and I’m friendly but not very talkative and so they leave me alone and I enjoy my veggie scrambled with hash brownies while scribbling some new lyrics on the back of a business card. I still have that picture in my head where I saw a man sleeping in the rain outside a 7/11 in L.A. covered with a dirty sleeping bag. It made me think of “Paper walls” and how easy it is to walk through them to the other side though they give us the illusion of separation and safety.

After the breakfast I think about hopping in the tubs but then decide to pack and get going. I have another big day of driving all the way to Ashland and might hit snow again. I drive into Middletown and stop in front of an apartment building to see if anybody has WIFI. Bingo, I check some mail and get caught up in the process and spend almost one hour in the car doing biz - strange but necessary. The drive is long and not very exciting and I just put miles behind me. I don’t feel like listening to anything so I just drive on and on. A couple of hours later I stop and call India. She’s such a good friend, wonderful singer songwriter and also working hard on building community. She’s German as well but we always talk english, it seems just more natural to do so. I’m inspired by the L.A. community that I experienced and fired up to share it with my friends. I’m pondering over a letter I want to write and we talk about the things we miss in Seattle. It’s good to know that someone feels the same so one can work together to make a change. Right after we hang up Phil call and tells me about his meeting with the guy that is in charge of Easy Street, the Tower Records Label. Basically I’m doing currently all the right things and there seems to be no short cut - at least that is what Phil is getting out of this meeting and I’m just fine with that.

Several hours of driving later I reach Mt Shasta and make a stop at the Stage Door. Tom is there and we chat for an hour. Then it’s only another hour until I reach my destination. Bill and Cat are home and await me with a nice dinner. Cat has her ladies tea and plays music with a friend while Bill and I get deeper and deeper into a great conversation about evolution, the brain and culture. At around 10 pm we all go to bed and I work on some emails until two in the morning...