Dispatch from the Border

Posting from St. John, NB.

...

10.01.04 7:15pm

calais, me.

they pronounce it callous. it is the last town in america. it has a chinese restaurant, two pizza places (i'm at one of them), two bar/grills, and a three-screen movie theater in a single-story commercial building right on main street. at the theater they have a computer printout taped in the window of the box office that informs us that there must be at least six patrons in order for any single film to be shown.

directly across the river, which parallels main street--or whatever it might be called; in this rare instance the true name is insignificant--is the infinitely sexier canadian border: the tollbooth-style customs stalls and the sleek, gray, wooden office building that controls them. it has the well-designed Canada (tm) brand-name-visually-appealing-commercialized logo emblazoned on its well-lit side. whatever canadia paid for its image, it was worth it. there's a HUGE sign that says 70 miles to saint john. all the calais preteens just fought their way into the 3-screen theater (i saw them; many were turned away and climbed back into minivans)...are all the teens and post-teens lushing it up in st john? i am going to find out.

this is where i am on my trials by fire: carmen's hometown pizzeria family restaurant. it really has all those words in the name. according to the menu they offer the following calzones: cheese, "carmen's," ham, meatlovers, "spinach w/ or w/o Fetta Chz," mexican, broccoli & cheese, "CarMac," vegetarian, and "Taco." when i asked for a chicken calzone they looked at me like i was fucking nosferatu. then i went out to the car and got my ibook. now you should see how the residents of callous are looking at me.

***

well, the dark meat chicken calzone was not bad, actually. i was just about to gush extrospective but i realized that i'm not yet at tonight's destination. time to clear customs and hit the road. i forgot what i wanted to say anyway.