Photo by Camilo, taken Dec 30, 2003

I still haven't completely unpacked from my 6-month stay in New York. Yet on Monday, I'll be back in New York for a week. Oh, I'm not complaining: I'm looking forward to seeing my New York friends. But 2004 has been a dissappointment so far, if only because I've been sick the whole year. I've been unable to shake the cold I contracted in London. So over the last week, I've consumed yet more gallons of tea, fruitlessly, since I never seem to get better. I usually get over colds in two or three days, but not this time. It's holding on for grim death.

I'm partly to blame, I admit. On New Years Eve, I was so determined to go out and party, that I persuaded myself I was better. I did in fact feel fine - no sniffles. And even though I'd almost completely lost my voice, I went out with my friend Stephen to Metropolis, and had a great time. But when I left, around two-thirty, still not feeling in the least tired despite having been up for almost fourty-eight hours, it was raining. And I'd forgotten; this is San Francisco on New Years Eve. No cabs.

I waited fifteen minutes in the short line for cabs, and not a single cab arrived. So I decided to start walking. Metropolis was in a rented space in an entirely industrial area of San Francisco. It was only when I tried to figure out how to get across to Cezar Chavez Street that I realized there was no way through except by car. So here I am, recovering from a cold, walking bear-headed in the rain at three o'clock in the first morning of 2004, jetlagged, asking for trouble. And sure enough, the next day I felt wretched. My voice departed for good, not to return for five days. Five days of snorting, blowing, choking, coughing and watching many, many movies (I saw Gone With the Wind for the first time).

And ... Hummmph. I'm not sure I have anything else to talk about, since I've done nothing this week, and seen virtually nobody. I am feeling a little better tonight, so I believe I'm going to finish getting my apartment into shape after my prolonged absence. Next time I write will probably be from New York.