I've returned safely from Austin, all in one piece, and smiling. I had a nice week. I've already described SXSW to you, so here is what happened the rest of the time:

1. Jeff took me up on the top of Mount Bonnell. It was lovely and breathtaking. Quite romantic, if you can catch your breath after all the steep stairs.
2. Jeff and I saw some awesome movies. One of which we got into for free, because he has so many acquaintances and connections.
3. I followed Jeff to a few of his classes. One of his classes is to watch old movies. I saw Citizen Kane again. That movie is SO awesome.
4. Jeff and I celebrated Purim with Eric, a Jewish fellow. He offered us wine and beer and the story of Esther. (Getting drunk is apparently a religious pastime if you're Jewish. I'm down. For the record, the Merlot wasn't bad.)
5. I got to know a few of Jeff's Austin friends a little better. Rayhan is the nicest person. He bought me food when Jeff was out. Jeff and I bought him chocolate to pay him back for being so cool. I also really liked Chris Rusch and his girlfriend Ashley. Everyone there seems really cool, honestly. They seem like people I'd like to know.

On the way home I listened to Steven King short stories. Its funny; I really enjoy King's longer works... but, frankly, I think his short stories stink. They're so cheesy and melodramatic! And the annoying synthesizer noises that the audiobook has added in only heighten my sense of amusement. Perhaps culture or age has jaded me enough to laugh at his brand of horror. Though, I'm sure if I saw his ideas in a visual form, I'd be much more disgusted.

Wow, while I was imagining all the blood and guts associated with horror, a bizarre thought occurred to me. Gross, but here it is: (Don't read if body parts and their functions bother you!)
"Human beings are walking bags of potential excrement."
Think about it... we eat and eat, and then we hold all that mashed up food inside of us. Unless we are truly starving, its with us everywhere, always! We carry it like one might carry a purse or wallet, and yet never give our contents a second thought.
And just think, we are full of all that blood too! You think of blood as contained in veins and circulating through tunnels in our bodies... but if you even barely scratch the skin, we still bleed, do we not? It's not so deeply buried... It's right there below the surface, beating against the tissues that confine it.
Eventually, all of this gore is excreted or recycled. Our body is this marvelous, ridiculous, utterly disgusting machine. Interesting how much we ignore ourselves. If we really meditated on our digestive system, I imagine we'd eat a lot less. Haha, a new diet! The latest fad! Another kind of mindfulness?

I muse on how much this idea can extend to psychological or spiritual matters as well? Are our brains equally full of waste? Are we carrying things inside our minds that are just waiting to spill forth? Mental purging and recycling? Do we ignore our mental contents too? Is ignoring aspects of yourself good or bad?

If you can stomach the conversation and the metaphor, what are your thoughts, friends?  ¶ 23:03