Swanky Internet Cafe

The cozy mix of Sarah Vaughn and Leonard Cohen, the black and white posters of jazz favorites, the blue walls, the hearth-like smell of second hand smoke gently curling up beside the fireplace of my conscious mind, hearkening back to the Christmastime comfort of Gramma's house in Los Gatos, California, full of blurry white points of light and European laughter, a mix of Switzerland and Silicon Valley, Christmas carols the plastic Christmas tree, the Duraflame log in the fireplace, the savory steaming of turkey, honey smoked ham, the mashed potatoes and the gravy.

Right now I've found respite from the brisk and smokey Santiago autumn just after sunset, and the loneliness. I sit before the glowing LCD screen. I love my Internet cafe, just like I love my exhaustion. I'm beaming with a sense of accomplishment. I'm a child Christmastime, cozy warm and spoiled. But there's nothing to be proud of, just a surprisingly relaxed feeling after last night, when I drowned a week's worth of stress in a week's worth of beer in 3 hours. Great conversation, wonderful atmosphere, and then I passed out.

Anyway, I'm posting today because my readers are starting to grumble. All 3 of them. They're right, it's been a while. So I'll attempt to write something useful and interesting. Hmm. Nothing comes to mind.

Oh! Here we go: if you're looking for an Internet cafe in Santiago, Chile, go to this jazz one on Calle Merced, right next to the shee shee froo froo industrial themed loft cafe-bistro called Abarzua. They've got wi-fi there, too. But this internet cafe has good music, nice, sleek LCD screens and it's really a cool place to be "seen" if you're into that. Chat on MSN Messenger, that's all anybody ever does here, really, it's pathetic.

TTYL.