The room was open, a large open-air space where the librarians all stood waiting.  It was a beginning ceremony for my session there, and I was not used to such things, where a big commotion was to be made over my own very humble work.  I wanted nothing more than to be left unbothered, and I saw immediately that this was not in the cards for this evening, or for the entire month.  I am not given to make complaints about the good fortune of being able to do work that I love, and for a small compensation that allows me to continue.  It is one of the luckier positions, I feel, and particularly in this day and age.  While it’s true that I would have to get used to the same room, and the same hotel, I was free to eat wonderfully at any place I chose.

India is as far from my home as I could get, so in Singapore I was resigned to eating Indian food, which was no punishment at all but would make my days open up for at least those 35 minutes when I was eating dinner and my lunch.  Other than that, I was on assignment and every minute was accounted for, and so I would go through the library and make a study of their card catalog.  There were going to be changes in the world’s library, and they wanted to make careful notes on the ones they deemed important.

I wanted to make my special post something less ambitious and more austere, such as reviewing minor errors in the decimal system.  But instead they insisted that I look for philosophical incompatibilities.  This was not so that glitches in the universe could be removed, but so that they could be enhanced, and used for our own purposes.  I would argue that eventually allowing a glitch will only open doors for more chaos, as like attracts like.  They said that indeed this is what they were hoping for, because olive oil and oil are interesting together.  I didn’t know what this would mean, until I found a napkin covered with oil from lunch, and some notes at the bottom that were a certain clue.

Singapore Borges is a post from: Moon Petal

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In Austin, there’s a movement by the locals called ‘Keeping Austin Weird’, apparently, there’s another movement wanting to gentrify the city, I do hope Austin stays just as it is. It was my 2nd day in this city and I had a wonderful, interesting and hilarious experiences.

I started out the day at the Sunset Valley Farmers Market; it’s located on the Western part of Austin and close to Hill Country and also close to the industrial, rural side of Austin. I took a few missed turns, before I happened upon a giant football stadium, I was surprised it was only a high school stadium and not a professional stadium. Texas really does take its football seriously, the parking lot of this football stadium is were the Farmers Market is located. There were about 30 to 40 pop-up tents, honestly, I would have thought the market to be bigger.

As I approached, I noted how unusual and yet refreshing it was to see all kinds of people there, yuppies, hippies, goths, senior citizens and everyone in between all mingling and enjoying each others company, and they were all happy and laughing. I would bet if these people met anywhere else, they wouldn’t be so open and friendly, but I guess that’s one quality a good Farmers Market has, it brings people with different points of view about life together; a small eclectic community.

The Sunset Valley Farmers Market had an overwhelming supply of local produce, and all of it was picked that morning. I saw a few grass fed lamb, chicken, beef and bison, but by the time I arrived, most of the meat was sold-out, not that I’d bring any beef back with me to my hotel in Austin, but I bet the meat would have been very tasty when cooked. It was really great to talk to all the vendors. They all were there own producers, there was no middleman there, so each vendor could tell me exactly how they made there products or how farmings been this season. The only thing missing at the market was actual cooked food, something to eat, like a sandwich or soup. So, seeing all this fresh un-cooked produce made me very hungry. I had to leave an find a restaurant quick.

I found this great little sandwich shop across the street and ordered the grilled cheese with bacon, onion and a bag of chips on the side. What was the best part, was my sandwich had all the products sold at the market! Wonderful!

Eclectic Community in Austin is a post from: Moon Petal

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Phillip wasn’t terribly excited about his upcoming trip to New York. That might sound surprising to hear, but he was only going do to a required business trip where he was going to have to represent his regional company and request more money for it and his particular division. He was going to fly in on a Monday and leave on Wednesday afternoon and was going to be in meetings all day so he really didn’t anticipate being able to do anything else. However, as luck sometimes has it, it certainly went in the right direction for Phillip.

He walked into work a week after he found out he had been selected to represent his region and everyone looked at him with a sense of secrecy. For a second Philip thought he might be going to get laid off, he knew he couldn’t be so lucky. He quickly reminded himself that it wasn’t funny and he was actually lucky to have such a good job in the current economy. It was almost as immediately as he returned to a place of gratitude that more reasons for it were bestowed upon him. His supervisor came out and told him that he had won a raffle to upgrade his accommodations for the trip and that he would be staying in one of the four star New York hotels and that he was receiving the rest of the week off and enjoy his time in New York.

That wasn’t the end of Phillip’s good news. When he got home that night his girlfriend Wendy called him and said she had been able to take the time off and could join him. When he mentioned the extra days and hotel upgrade she became even more excited and was sure that wouldn’t be a problem for her. So, what at first seemed like it was going to be a grueling and tedious work only business trip, turned into a great vacation. On their first free afternoon together in the city they enjoyed a fabulous pasta lunch in Little Italy. They had heard about a little place called Puglia’s and they found it and had one of the greatest spaghetti meals ever.

Great Pasta in Little Italy New York is a post from: Moon Petal

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