Let's Get Brainwashed.

This is what he heard in the elevator, from floor 4 down to the ground floor.

Woman 1: I just spoke with Millie. She's got a black eye.
Woman 2: How'd she get a black eye?
W1: Racquetball. I told her mine is almost faded. Imagine that, two of us with black eyes!
W2: You know her birthday is Wednesday.
W1: I bought her a gift, but I left it on my table. You know today is Victoria's birthday.
W2: Oh really.
W1: So what session do you have next?
W2: Comforting the Heart.
W1: It's great. I went to it this morning.
W2: Really? Where is it?
W1: Up the stairs.
W2: You've got to be kidding.

This time the routine is down. He packs his suitcase in record time! He doesn't doubt if he missed anything. He knows how to shuttle through the airport's security checkpoint quickly. He sets up an anthropological experiment for the front desk - he removes his glasses. The previous 2 visits, the front desk clerk had complimented him on his glasses or shirt. This time he wore a plain shirt and hid his glasses - the experiment was to see if the front desk clerk would try to compliment him on his bland jacket or shirt. But alas! This time it was a different clerk, whom he found had been doodling a strange little sketch of a cartoonish bald man. He asks the clerk about this, who in turn seems embarrassed, so he reveals a little detail about his own life: "When I'm bored at work, I start making things out of Post-It notes." The clerk seems a little more relaxed and says there needs to be something to pass the time.

This time he is on the fourth floor! His room looks into the indoor patio. This is much better than the view of the parking lot on the third floor he has had in the past. This time the room only has 1 bed! He likes the coziness of the smaller room, and the angled wall that the desk leans against.

He is really battling to keep up this anthropologist enthusiasm for the rest of the week. (I think I really just want to go home and watch for the hummingbird eggs to hatch in the olive tree.)