martinimade

"My shaky sense of direction and geography means I have explored six continents in my life with only the vaguest idea of where I am at any given time. Aside from my cockeyed internal compass, I also have a shortage of personal coolness, which can be a liability in travel. I have never learned how to arrange my face into that blank expression of competent invisibility that is so useful when traveling in dangerous foreign places. You know -- that super-relaxed, totally-in-charge expression which makes you look like you belong there, anywhere, everywhere, even in the middle of a riot in Jakarta. Oh, no. When I don't know what I'm doing, I look like I don't know what I'm doing. When I'm excited or nervous, I look like I'm excited or nervous. And when I'm lost, which is frequently, I look lost. My face is a transparent transmitter of my every thought. As David once put it, 'You have the opposite of poker face. You have, like...miniature golf face.'"

- From Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, which I'm finally getting around to reading if only because I borrowed a friend's copy and I'm feeling guilty about not returning it yet. And, as it turns, it is really good. Really. I'm stunned too.