i really just wish bill pullman were running for president...i think we can all unanimously agree that Bill Pullman is the shit...

BERLIN!!!!!
hoorah! thought i would not even make it here, as i slept through my alarm and ended up having to take a train that may-or-may-not get me to the airport on time. these trains are really tricky things. you think because you are told since childhood that thing about trains always being on time that they are...on time. but is not true. trains are evil and, in italy, pretty smelly and given to lateness and weird delays.
anyway, am here, safe and sound. billy met me in the S-Bahn terminal at Alexanderplatz at 5pm yesterday, looking shockingly dapper in his fancy work suit and buttonless black overcoat (an outfit so fancy, he explained, that he could not carry my backpack for fear of rumples and creases...). he is the same as last time,totally insane and hilarious and irreverent, given to moments of enlightenment and severity. really think i am starting to like...like him or something. weird. ironic, at least.
last night was "poker night" which, though it is on a wednesday, pretty much means "drunken gambling night". a whole mess of adorable german boys flooded the flat between the hours of 8 and 3, and i sat nestled in the couch between the two cutest ones reading my book (a prayer for own meany, currently)and listening to them talk and giggle in german with delight. billys friends are all incrdibly friendly to me (except this one irish asshole, but to hell with him) and seem very interested in what i am doing and are chatty and kind. billys friends are so incredibly intelligent and well spoken and witty, seriously every one of them that i have me have impressed me greatly. the only thing is, you kind of have to prove yourself to them; they are very stereo-type-influenced and seriously assume that because i am from america i a) cannot read b) shop at wallmart c) vote republican d) have no clue about...anything e) am shallow, vague, dumb, and pretty much like the girls in american teenage booze and sex comedies. once they talk to me though (and i impress them with my 160 pt IQ and massive knowledge of german history and democratic ideals) they lighten up. now i think they love me! we had a great night, and i used my feminine wiles to help the really cute one win poker by cheating and spying on the other boys cards and then giving him a "tell". evil, i know.
woke up latish today and ventured out into the freezer-crossed-with-swimmingpool-like-world that is berlin. positively brutal weather. i, naturally, have no heavy coat, gloves, closed toed shoes, or sweaters, so i am pretty sure that i am going to come down with pnemonia and die before the weekends over. but at least im having fun!!
berlin is absolutely one of the best places that i have ever been; i totally understand both grant and blakes obsession with this city. it is as though the berliners are saying, "whew, thank god, all that bullshits over, now we can finally be born!". the city is like a breath of fresh air. its exciting, its inviting, its art, its drama, its romance...but in a way that cuts all the froo-froo poetic shit and just goes boldly through he present, like this city knows what pain is and now it cares for nothing but truth and art and adventure. i feel young here.
i cooked for billy and a couple of his friends tonight. i made potato soup and roasted chicken and pan-tossed zucchini. the boys, between the 3 of them, ate the entire pot of potato soup, a pot big enough to have fed a family of 12. they loved it, said it was the best soup theyd ever had. we cooked two hens, and they were devoured as well. love feeding boys. appetites are one of my favorite things to nourish.
so now the boys are watching "independence day" and making fun of american patriotism but agreeing that they would totally be proud to be an american if bill pullman was in charge. totally agree. i think billy and i will go out tonight, but we have to take it easy cause tomorrow is the "big party", at the home of some fancy rich russian artist. billy is going to wear a tuxedo and i am going to wear the FABULOUS hand-made french-silk dress that i got in ROMA. apparently there is to be what billy calls a "wodker fountain", so thats great.
ill keep you posted...