PARTY MACHEN

Taylor and Chip are snowboarding tomorrow, which means I'll have time to recap the past few days then. In the meantime, here's my journal entry from two nights ago in Koln (Cologne to the Americans), Germany...

I think it's now Saturday, Feb. 1. But I could be wrong. We (Chip, Taylor and I) are in an apartment in Koln, Germany. Taylor is across the hall doing God knows what to his girlfriend. Her neighbor is not here and she let us crash here. I'm way paranoid right now. I just bought 2 grams of weed of a friend of Taylor's girlfriend. We met on a street corner and I bought it in an alley for 20 Euro. He didn't speak English, so I got what I could, which was 2 grams (EDITORS NOTE: I found out later it was three grams after I reached into my pocket hours after writing this and found another baggie). Way too much for one night. Tomorrow we go across the border to Holland, where it's ok. I gotta write cuz I'm freaking out. I bought weed of a dealer on a street in Germany. All of that is wrong. Taylor's girlfriend said to smoke on the balcony cuz the girl who lives here is "very legal." So I'm paranoid about leaving shit here. I'm paranoid about someone seeing me out there. I'm paranoid about one of the neighbors smelling it and knocking on the door. I'm paranoid that I acted like a fool and shouldn't have allowed Taylor's girlfriend to hook it up, even though I told her not to many, many times. I'm paranoid someone in another balcony (there are a ton of them here) saw me and is calling the cops. I'm paranoid of getting caught with it. Obviously, this is stress cuz I'm not having such a good high. It's been 11 days, so my tolerance is low, but not this low. And I spent money on something I can't use on something I can get tomorrow (EDITORS NOTE: I have no idea what that last sentence means). She was hooking it up on the phone when I had to take a gnarly shit, maybe one of the most gnarly in my life. I returned and she had scored. I feel like a drug addict and I don't like that. I put my shoes on to go outside and get rid of it, but I decided to write instead. Now that I'm writing, time is passing and things are getting cool. But no more for me until tomorrow (EDITORS NOTE: This turned out to be false). I'm gonna stash it somewhere for hopefully some lucky person to find. I'm munching on pb pretzels and choc-covered almonds and water. I haven't been eating a lot on this trip, but I haven't been all that hungry either. I'm also paranoid about messing this person's stuff up. I'd be shitting if I knew two strangers were in my apartment right now. I'm having a good time, but I'm getting ready to be home (EDITORS NOTE: This is half true and the weed talking for sure. Today I am super bummed we are leaving in two days). Tomorrow is Sunday and we leave early Wednesday, so not much longer. Chip is sleeping and it doesn't look like he's going out. I'm either staying in and writing a bunch or going w/ Taylor and his gf. I was in a shitty mood today for no reason. My guess is I'm tired and missing home. Venice was so awesome, so easy to navigate, easy to find food, so easy to communicate, but Germany is the exact opposite. Many people speak perfect English, but everything else is off. I turned the tv on here and all 30 channels are in German. The best I could find was a pool tournament. Then Chip said it wasn't pool, it was something similar. That's frustrating. We've spent a lot of time in Garmisch and still have two more days. But it's been nice to have a free place to stay with some American tv programming, where I can buy goods with the American dollar. Bitch as I may, the US is comfort because the US is home. I'm not at home here and I'm aware of this every moment of every day. It's part of the rush and part of the scary feelings. It's true what people say about traveling Europe. I have learned a lot about myself and the trip isn't even over yet. I learned that I'm a man of contradictios. One side is wild, adventerous, exciting. The other is tame, boring and content. I like both. I might prefer the tame, but it's hard to say. I enjoy my comfortable life because I'm allowed tiny pockets of excitement. Maybe that's all I can handle. I do crazy things because I know I got one life and I've got to pack as much into it as possible. I want to experience most everything, but I demand them on my terms. Part of the fun of this trip is never saying no. This pen is getting crazy. My right palm is full of tiny ink spots. My big jacket, lent to my by Steve Haggerty, smells like smoke because it was in Taylor's room for a long time when he was burning a pot of beans and rice. It's so strong Taylor's gf Unga (or is it Ugna?) smelled it as we walked in.

There is so much more to stay about the past few days, but I don't have time now. Koln was a blast and the weed paranoia left after a few minutes and the rest of the weekend was amazing.

I heard the Lakers got Pau Gasol for Kwame Brown and Javaris Crittendon. Sounds like a steal to me.