In response to Doug’s hobo psychology post, yeah, I’m totally getting into this weird but good mental place as I wind down and get ready for our trip.

I’m in this mindset of organizing and whittling down. Soon the whittling is going to turn into massive bouts of throwing stuff out. I don’t have a lot of stuff either, so I’ll be left with almost nothing by the time I get through with myself. I like travelling light. It’s sort of a passion of mine.

I also finally broke into “On the road” in a place where I really like it. I had been getting into it, but when I was riding the subway home yesterday evening, half-drunk, it really all started to make sense to me. The book is supposed to be read while you’re at least half-drunk, I think. And while you’re in motion, maybe walking, riding, whatever. I’m up to the part after where he leaves the Mexican woman behind and goes back to Paterson.

I’ve also been doing this thing lately where I go outside - to go to work or whatever - and I think to myself: “Could I sleep outside in this weather?” And then I think about different places I might sleep outside, and where I would try to go to warm myself up for hour long stretches and stuff. I imagine myself in small towns where everything’s closed at night, just stumbling around, trying to stay warm. It’s an oddly fun thing to imagine.

Also, whenever I buy food at the deli or whatever now, I imagine it as though it were all the food I had eaten in a few days. What would I buy if I were absolutely starving? What’s gonna give me the best calorie content, and protein? How can I make what little money I have stretch out infinitely?

These are the things I have been thinking about. I like them. I’m interested in what it will be like to have to put them into effect for real, rather than running through these imaginary scenarios in my head. “On the road” is doing a great job of helping tune my mind into this other frequency, this almost survival frequency, where the things you take for granted become the things that matter most. Like getting some hot food, a place to close your eyes for a little while, a shower, some clean clothes, a little bit of liquor…

It’s gonna be a crazy fucking trip. I can’t wait.