ROCHESTER, NY. today, i left cleveland without the food i had cooked. last night, after driving alone to choke’s house and getting lost, i decided to leave. it was a little overwhelming going out to two shows a night, bars, cigarette smoke, etc. i think choke was excited to have me in town. david bond, he calls himself. david fucking bond. he’s doing well, choke. no drugs, no booze. excited about his life. he always is. but he’s unusually happy, too. which makes me happy.

if i felt like i could have chilled more, i would have stayed. but i felt bad refusing choke’s plans to be on the scene, every night. and the endless concrete and winding streets of cleveland got to me, too. the same thing happened in chicago. i was run off by concrete monsters.

so i left.

i picked up a hitchhiker on a nameless crossroads on a small lake-side highway. when he got in and we said hello, i swore he was cuban. puerto rican, he corrected me. from carolina. i once had a student from carolina. this hitchhiker was quite unexpected. sharp, clean clothes. new-looking baseball cap. his english was medocre, but my spanish was worse. he was stranded after taking a bus from nyc to western new york for some party at the invitation of a strange woman. he woke up this morning with no money and no friends. hitchhiking is much more common in puerto rico, so it wasn’t difficult for him to just begin walking with his thumb out. but unlike puerto rico, no one picks you up in the states. well, almost no one.

i took him all the way to rochester where his sister lives. i was planning on staying in buffalo. again, alone in new places. tomorrow i’ll go to the food co-op and pick up more food. tomorrow will be a wandering day through new york state without a map. the scenery is amazing. fall is my favorite.