I spat it with a quiet intensity I usually save for enemies: “We buryin’ kids and you worryin’ about a popsicle!” The object of my wrath was no enemy of mine, however, but a kid who lives at the group home where I work. This is the first time I’ve ever spoken to one of […]

Damon Albarn sings, “The world is spinning too fast, I bought these Nike shoes / to keep myself tethered to the days I try to lose.” I’m an aspiring transcendentalist, so I won’t by shoes to tether me, but I will write.
I’m in a place I’ve been before. One year ago I forsook Chicago and […]

We are all at the same time beautifully unique and completely interdependent. Everything that makes up “me” is an external element, so “I” is nothing but the aggregate of things that “I” is not. What, then, is the self? From this arises the Buddhist doctrine of non-self. The individual is like a wave rolling up […]

Coming back is always a pensive affair. I feel a sense of loss.
Life is fast. We are so comfortable with the blur of speed that when we stop for a moment clear vision seems to us distorted: surprise trips to the emergency room, little betrayals we failed to anticipate, moving on after a struggle, holding […]

Last night I dreamed I was back in Chicago. It was dusk and I was walking in the loop. I was supposed to meet up with a group, but I knew they would take a while, so I just started walking. Three blocks passed without notice. I found myself on East Wacker overlooking the purple […]

I’m reading tons of old emails and thinking, Do we ever really change? I keep finding evidence that my character hasn’t changed, it has just unfolded. I’m remembering when I was thirteen and I got mad at Mark for not figuring out how he was going to get home from a Boy Scout event so that […]

The other night we went up to the Haight to catch a movie at a worker-owned theater. Having arrived early, we pulled out the footbag.
A few different folks joined us and we had a good-sized circle when a passing hipster wanted in. He stayed for two or three serves, thanked us for the game, and […]

This post marks the end of the first unofficial jackvalentine.net hiatus and the beginning of my time in San Francisco. Here’s a rough breakdown of the past six weeks:

57% idle time in Chicago with excitement for the move at a stalemate with the tedium of last days; no energy to write
28% traveling through the midwest […]

Minneapolis. Dinkytown. Espresso Royale Cafe.
On the road–finally.
Starting to think all people are just manifestations of various archetypes; I swear I’ve met this one at least twice, and a couple first-time repeaters just walked by.
Meetings with old friends are as familiar and ephemeral as recurring dreams.
Am I as tough as I think I am? What’s […]

Seventeen days and counting until I begin the trip that will, a few weeks later, land me in Oakland. And I certainly am counting.
I’m in a lull I haven’t felt since last year before I moved to Chicago. I’m totally disconnected from this city, from these people, even from myself. All I do is wait. […]