April 08, 2004

Restless in Danville California

This afternoon, simply amazed at how dull life can be sometimes, I drove up to Berkeley to drink a cup of coffee at the Starbucks on Oxford Street. I went all the way down College Ave., took Bancroft way and took a right on Oxford St., then turned around somewhere and went to a library in downtown Danville-21 miles away from Berkeley- to finish a book I had started reading a few weeks ago. The book's name is "Funny in Farsi" and I really had to finish reading it because I already started reading another book, a few days ago, called "Reading Lolita in Tehran". Later, I ended up sitting outside a Starbucks in Danville reading the last chapters of "Funny in Farsi" and watching the young people who were hanging out in the streets. The author in a chapter called "Judges paid off" relates the story of her trip to the Bahamas Spanish Wells:
"
I asked the owner (of the hotel, a British man) what he did before he moved to Spanish Wells. "Well," he said , "I worked somewhere you have never heard of."
That's what I say whenever anybody asks me where I was born.
"Where is that?" I asked him.
"Abadan, Iran," he said.
I had to hold myself back from an a cappella rendition of "It's a Small World."
"
And as I was reading this part, I heard a man sitting at the next table start greeting a woman in my native language "Farsi". I didn't look at them, got up and left the place because I didn’t want to overhear what they were saying. Now I am reading the last pages of the book. It was a good and easy read and I hope I can concentrate on “Reading Lolita in Tehran" as the restless time is passing by.

April 8, 2004 11:55 PM

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