Hounds

It's kind of scary that most of the dogs (and there are many) on Haad Rin beach know me by know. The other night when I was out partying one of the dogs saw me from a hundred yards away and came running to meet me for a scratch on the head. Maybe it's because I live with four dogs that they smell them on me and that qualifies me as dog-friendly. I like all the animals I've had while I've been here. Damian, Caliban, Ying, Jezebel, Shadow, Widget, Smiler, Jessie. The dogs here are really sweet! Even though most of them are half-wild. The ones that live close to the humans learn to be docile. If they don't, I figure they learn to push up daisies instead. It's nice to always have dogs around to scratch on the head or curl up next to you on the balcony.

I'm leaving here friday, which is good. The excesses of Haad Rin can really be rather excessive, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde. I could use a break. Get back to exploring and get away from partying, from the tumbling raucous hen and stag party of The Drop In and the Cactus. Therre are armies of the young and nubile marching around with buckets in handsearching for that spoecial evening. As stupid as it can be, I've met some quite cool people at the parties. Even sensible folks like a party sometimes. It's been rather spicy a few times, such as at the Shiva Moon partry in Ban Tai when a woman flew into a jealous rage because I was talking to some other girls and the shouting match culminated with her punching me in the face. Wow. I can count the number of times I've been punched inthe face by girls on one hand. She was mortified at her behavior the next day. Appropriately. The other time that I can recall was back in New York, when Lopez, Kennedy, surly and I were at a bar after work in midtown several years ago. Two women approached us, and began flirting with us by being insulting. Um... okay. So we started teasing and taking the piss out them, but nicely enough that they stuck around for more. I pissed one of them off to the point that she started trying to hit me, so we squared off and had a boxing matxch that weent on dfor some time. Boxing match is only an accurate term if you discount the fact that I never hit her, just deflected her blows and provoked her to greater exertions. At one point, I said, Ok, I'm sorry, I'm being a jerk, go ahead and give me a good shot. She hauled off and punched me in the face so hard that her wrist swelled up like a pregnant whale and she had to go get it x-rayed. Hey. I have a hard head.