Friday, January 27, 2017

this river is wild

I finally met someone here who I do not like. This is almost a relief - I was beginning to think that with all the vegan food and incense, I was losing my edge. But no, I can confirm that I am still capable of taking an intense dislike to relative strangers after a single conversation. Glad to see one of the most delightful parts of my personality is still intact!

sssanyway. I was actually quite productive today, despite getting up later than I'd planned - I woke up at seven, looked at my clock and decided to sleep for another few minutes, and then suddenly woke up again at nine. But I threw on some clothes and went next door to Alchemy, where I had a vegan smoothie bowl and a vegan latte (coconut milk instead of regular milk, and a plant stem instead of a plastic straw to suck through). I got some writing done there, and it was all great until a really stinky guy joined the group next to me and I had to leave before I was gassed out (note: he is not the person I hated today, but I certainly would have liked him better if he had showered).

Then I came back here, hung out in my room for a bit, and then worked on the roof deck all afternoon (with a short break to eat some nasi goreng, which is the official food of my trip). I wanted to keep working tonight, but there were going-away drinks for Sara and Dillon (whom I've hung out with some while I've been here), so I decided to go to that. We went to Bridges, which is the gorgeous wine bar overlooking the river - I'd stumbled in there on Tuesday, and I was quite happy to go back. I had a nice time at the wine bar, and my wine was great and the conversation was flowing...

...but then eight of us went to vegetarian mexican for dinner, and things started to go downhill. First, they went uphill - I had a trial-by-fire first ride on the back of a motorbike, since I accepted a ride from Fenny (the community manager) because it was raining and I didn't want to walk. But I was wearing a long dress, so I had to ride sidesaddle and hike my dress up to avoid catching it on anything; I was holding her purse and my purse and also holding on to her waist and the back grab bar; and it was raining and the road involves a hairpin turn and a steep uphill piece. But it was fun and I survived and didn't come anywhere close to falling off despite riding sidesaddle, so I'm ready for my next motorbike adventure.

But while that was exhilarating, dinner was decidedly not. For one, they had live music tonight and I hate that band (they're way too loud and not very good, which means they drown out your conversation and are also not enjoyable). For another, I was too hungry when I got there and overordered, and then was too full. For a third, I sat next to a woman who got here recently, and she made a disparaging comment about Iowa as soon as I said that's where I'm from, and while I mostly ignored it, inside I started seething. How clueless do you have to be to insult someone's home state the moment you meet them? So that's probably not enough of a reason to hate someone, but cluelessness + disparaging comments about Iowa are two strikes, and I'm willing to go ahead and rule her out.

However, I'll probably see her around some this weekend - a bunch of people are taking a boat to one of the Gili Islands, which sounds great, but I want to keep slogging ahead on the book and so declined the trip. So I'm going to go to bed and hope that I can get up earlier tomorrow and keep cracking - goodnight!

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