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I took today off from work as a way of continuing a celebration of my birthday.

It was a beautiful day of grey and light rain that as time passed on I felt compelled to wander out into the wet streets of Seattle. Book hunting was my unofficial reason for wandering out, but of course to feel the rain dripping down my face was the actual reason. The 4th of January and a lovely walk though the rain, oh Seattle how you send my heart ‘a flutter.’

I keep looking for a used copy of Down and Out in Paris and London, but for some odd reason I can’t seem to find it at any of the used book stores. I did end up finding some plays by Satre in French today for $3 today though. I thought that reading existential French dialogue would be fun and help with learning more of the language.

I was hoping to round out this wander with some Asian food, but the aesthetic of Café on the Ave pulled me in for a sandwich and a trial of the London Fog drink I heard talked down yesterday. I would have to agree with the verdict of it not tasting too spectacular. From my experience, milk stops the tea from steeping so the attempt to steep Earl Grey in steamed milk hardly makes sense. The number I was assigned for my food was the number 22. I found this amusing as yesterday was my 22nd birthday and the normal number of 4 which usually follows me about is both a product and a sum of the two digits.

While sitting at the café I read more of The Stranger. Finally made it to the 2nd part. I’m still not enjoying it as much as Nausea. Camus just feels too apathetic towards everything. I have met people like this and after a while they just seem to be too much of a bore, because it seems that they are not really too apathetic towards everything as much as they are just too involved with themselves. Can’t seem to think about what might be going through the minds of others because they are too self-involved. Sartre’s character in Nausea was, on the other hand, very involved with trying to figure out what other people are thinking, which from an outside perspective would probably lead one to think of him as being apathetic as well.
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