Cabin Fever, Part II.

We’re sitting here in Elgin freezing, the car won’t start, nothing is on TV, and I have excellent evidence that people on the other side of the world are having a better time.

An e-mail comes from a family member: "It is Sunday evening around 1045 and we just got back from a restaurant ...inside the Eiffel Tower. We have been here a full day and a half and have packed in a lot, including visits yesterday to the chapel of St. Chapel, Notre Dame ... and a walk along the Seine. Today we spent most of the day at Versaille, the former palace of Kings Louis 14, 15, 16 and then came back to the hotel to meet a friend ... who went with us to the Eiffel Tower ... We also learned to navigate the Paris subway system, which is cheap and fairly easy to figure out." Another e-mail, a few hours later: "...[we] headed off to see the Lizard King via the subway around 9 this morning, it was snowy and rainy. You would have loved the cemetery, (Cemetiere du Pere Lachaise)it was right out of Poe or Shelley, or Creepy/Eerie magazine. I tried to scratch my name into a nearby crypt, along with millions of others but was stopped by one of Paris' finest gendarmes. Others buried there were Chopin, Proust, Molliere, but everyone at the cemetery was there to see Jim ... After that we went to the Louvre, saw Mona, the venus de milo, winged victory, et al. Amazing Place. Walked from Louvre up the Champes Elysee to the Arch de Triomphe."

Well thanks, that’s all I need to hear. Makes the day that much richer. Now I can ponder how, given the opportunity, I, you know, wouldn't even want to do those things, because I'd be, like, too busy, or something -- you know, so fucking content with my existence that I don't need to travel. Like I am now, going through the songs on the computer and coming up with a mix CD of variously somber or chilly songs -- or ones I just felt like hearing -- and one poem (to state the theme) -- to listen to when I head outside, watching my hands go completely numb as I narcotize myself with coffee and a smoke or three. The CD, after too much wonkish pondering and fearing it would sound too NPRish and not quite ballsy enough -- but who needs ballsy on this oddly lovely day -- includes the following:

1. An Oddly Lovely Day Alone -- John Updike

2. Angel (Lust) -- Joe Jackson, Suzanne Vega

3. Come In From The Cold -- Joni Mitchell

4. Teardrop Sea -- Tonettes

5. See The Sky About To Rain -- Neil Young

6. Just The Way You Are Today -- Barbara Lewis

7. The Ghost of You Walks -- Richard Thompson

8. I'm Not In Love -- Tori Amos

9. The Little Black Egg -- The Nightcrawlers

10. Jesus, Etc. -- Wilco

11. Kentucky Avenue -- Tom Waits

12. Frank Sinatra -- Cake

13. Where Were You? -- The Mekons

14. Road To Nowhere -- Talking Heads

15. Home -- Iggy Pop

16. I'll Be Your Mirror -- The Velvet Underground

17. Elevation -- Television

18. Can't Hardly Wait -- The Replacements