Sean in Bozen
26 July 2006

Wednesday was my birthday. First thing I did was to go get the electricity connected.

I had a good birthday. My co-worker Stefanie brought in this cute cake with candles, and she made her computer play "Happy Birthday" when I walked into our room. We shared the cake with everybody when we went down for the coffee break. People were wishing me Happy Birthday in German, Italian, and English, and sending me cute emails.

I tore the paper, for those of you who know what I am talking about.

I had asked Sepp if he wanted to have dinner with me that night, but he was out of town and didn't get my email in time. I ended up staying at home, and it took all evening to get the place organized. This was actually a very satisfactory way to spend the evening, because I was enjoying being in my new space, and it was like the apartment was my present to myself.

Then I drank some wine and blew soap bubbles out the window, watching how the wind caught the bubbles and sent them spinning around. Then I had some more wine and watched people walking by, while listening to Philip Glass on my headphones. The florid music, the vehicle and pedestrian traffic, and the wine somehow fused together. When I got to the end of the 13-minute "Spaceship", I thought, "Wow. That was amazing." I shut off the headphones and went to bed, completely satisfied; nothing else that evening could have topped that.