Ocala, Florida

December 2016

I slipped out from the cold and watched the northern Indiana snow quickly melt and slop into the ditches. A few hours south, the hills were still toasted and brown. Hints of red and yellow rolling into the fallow.

I was home for two weeks and I couldn’t figure out what to do. Magnetically, I was pulled toward the bars and brick facades of every 20th century downtown in America. I ordered beer and drank fast. I wondered how many people in that bar were in every bar? How many characters are there? How many miles between two people, slurring the same words?

I was somewhere in Florida today when I passed a billboard that said “Burger King, next 4 Exits.”

Last night I had drinks with the first openly gay and elected politician in Tennessee. His name was Chris and he was 36. He was kissing a half-Asian boy at the bar of a fancier restaurant. He met the half-Asian boy on Grinder. The boy liked dogs that came from certain places but not dogs that came from others. After they kissed the boy said “I feel like I just watched a drive-by shooting.” Later he said, “If you love kale, know your kale.”

The half-Asian boy met us at a bar around the corner and then drove us to a place where you could still smoke cigarettes inside. We ordered food and it was late. He waited for the entrees to come before he left.