Return to Paradise,Mounting The Horse And Coagulating Ones Feces

                                              

 Today was a long strange journey. It began with trying in vain to reconcile an erratic sleeping pattern. The seductive allure of living as a night owl began to prevent me from enjoying the ability to join the day walkers club. I write this in the disoriented state of all day travel and time change, Forgive my clumsy tangents as I attempt to gain some familiar footing in order to launch this inward trek via the pen. My surroundings share an odd contradiction of being both familiar and foreign simultaneously. This brings me to the question of what is the nature of connectedness, place and perspective. The idea of different locals evoking different persona spark a curiosity. The weight of who and what I am here in Cozumel strike an interesting juxtaposition to who I am in New York. Since I am in transition I can better observe these incongruities of character. Today's jaunt examines the mental atrophy that accompanies inactivity and perpetual television watching. Having the mixed blessing of an addictive nature I find myself emerging from a progressive 3 month self deluding bender involving non stop consumption of mainstream media. Even now as I write this I shake the thoughtless sucking pull of desire to surf and watch some more. If it weren’t for the obvious symptoms of self loathing and total denial I would still be watching every episode of every banal series available, without a discerning blink of self respect. I find myself at an all too familiar bottom where all my options have been exhausted. This is the first step to alter the direction that emptied my mind and body of its crucial nourishment. Vicariously living through any distraction distances ones essence from its source. I am rounding a ten year milestone of sobriety from drugs and alcohol. {Consider this a side bar, through the dubious advances in technology I find myself given an opportunity of continuing my writing regardless of interruption or venue. And for this I apologize.}
                                                PART 2
   Here begins today’s journey of practice and application. For the last several hours I’ve been studying and learning how to use the latest version of “Word.” Sometimes in life too many options can act like the centipede becoming paralyzed while thinking about what foot to place next. I’ve heard it said “When you refuse to learn the next generation of technology it’s a decision to abandon hope of keeping pace with society. It may also be a sign of realizing when enough is enough. Cozumel is beginning to work its magic on me as I exhale and stop the incessant flood of fear and anxiety that wrinkles my every thought. I never realized just how much stress and fear are bombarding one with every marketing encounter. Be it legal, health or other related. Here the main influx of fear is generated via good old fashion gossip and broken telephone. For those not acquainted with this sociological marvel, allow me to illuminate you. It’s the age old party favorite of whispering something to the person next to you and then having it pass around the group finally to hear the ultimate distorted product of miscommunication. Topics that are fresh on my mind include the election, air travel and in office surgical procedures. I’ll begin with the election. Before I returned I voted as an absentee ballot. In order to do this I went down to 200 Varick St. If you’ve never done this it’s definitely an unexpected adventure. Prior to this I called and verified all the particulars I needed in order to make this journey a successful one. I had a filled out absentee request form and my voter i.d number. Now fearing I might not be registered I reregistered because there was no discernable way to see if I was or not. It turned out that I had two numbers which one might consider good news since as a rule two are usually better than one except in marriage, felony convictions and final days to live. Be that as it may the story went like this. Upon entering this Babel like tower of security and pandemonium my partner and I were fortunate enough to  be herded  into an archaic elevator and escorted up to the 8th level of bureaucratic hell. Our tour guide was a frustrated reject from an amateur stand up competition. Upon egress from our vertical chariot we were handed off to a gigantic colorful gentleman wearing a hub capped sized diamond encrusted letter "A" and a camouflage bullet proof vest. Let's refer to him as Amadeus. He marched us into what can only be aptly described as a detaining room filled with an international mix that would rival the U.N.. Amadeus, our commander in charge, was as well intentioned an individual as I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. He was swamped with question after question and never given a chance to answer. Finally he just raised his hands and surrendered to the ensuing tsunami like wave of chaos that inevitably engulf us. Normally I’m crippled with the ugly and all too common social disorder of extreme impatience. The valiant efforts of commander Amadeus and his ultimate demise inspired a memorial motivated sentiment to rally forth my best and bravest efforts to be patient in his wake. Replacing him was a sad little dungeon master who bears no name except “he who still lives at home with his mother.” His substantial lack of physical stature was only overshadowed by his obvious misanthropic disdain for those he supposedly volunteered to serve. If it were not for the irony I would have felt duty bound to remind our uncivil servant of his obvious obligations. Instead  I took it upon myself to rise to the occasion and lighten the spirits of those stalwart constituents who sacrificed time and sanity to exercise their municipal right to cast a ballot of hope. After watching those who arrived after me get their ballots and vote did I even consider venturing forth to pose a query as to what might be the problem. Fortunately I steered my inquiry to a man who could pose as a contemporary double of Ron Glass from Barney Miller. His keen investigative skills discovered a glitch in the system because of a previous absentee vote I had sent from Cozumel in the prior presidential election. So as it turns out it was to be my last minute voter registration which allowed me to finally help extricate mankind from the strangle hold our current fascist regime.