| Woke up at 11:30 a.m. to a ton of e-mails
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| A friend from Ohio went to a funeral
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| Over the weekend
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| He’s got another one to go to on Wednesday
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| The rest were all business plus a piece of ambient music
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| From Justin but I haven’t listened to it yet
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| I dropped some film off to be developed,
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| That I’m hoping could be right for the Jesu/Sun Kil Moon album art
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| Then was planning on walking down to the Marina
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| When I overheard someone say the word «Creole»
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| And with the power of suggestion I walked the opposite way down Polk
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| To Brenda’s, where I had a bowl of gumbo
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| A waitress working there saw my iced tea cup she said «Oh I work there»
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| I said «Really, I’ve never seen you there before»
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| She said «I work from 6 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.»
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| I said «Oh, I don’t even wake up til 11»
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| On my way back I saw this crackhead-looking guy walking his dog
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| The dog’s hind legs where supported by this little wheelchair type thing
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| And he was wearing this tiny little diaper
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| The guy was walking the dog pretty fast and it concerned me a little
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| And I thought about saying something
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| But the dog’s face looked happy enough
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| And at some point the crackhead guy picked the dog up, wheel chair and all
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| And they gave each other a kiss
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| I could tell that the only thing they had in the world was each other
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| And it was really touching
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| My mind triggered to that horrible scene in 'Midnight Express'
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| Where the cat, the pet who belonged to the prisoner played by John Hurt,
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| Gets hung by prison guards
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| Then I looked down and I was in a sunny spot on the road and it felt really warm
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| And I looked up and I saw my friend Roger’s old apartment
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| He moved to Portland years ago and got married
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| He and I used to go fishing up in Point Reyes, or Bolinas, or Stinson Beach
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| And we’d bring fish back and I’d clean the fish and Katy would cook them up
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| And his girlfriend would come over and the four of us would watch boxing
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| matches or movies or whatever
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| And I thought of Katy as I do several times a day
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| And then I went into a corner market and bought some oranges and yogurt and
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| water
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| I came back to more e-mails and will listen to Justin’s piece of music soon
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| Then I’m gonna re-string my nylon string guitar, read a chapter of John
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| Connolly’s book
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| And see Caroline tonight for dinner
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| September 2nd, 4:45 p.m.
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| In my green chair listening to the kids on the playground
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| I had the most beautiful day yesterday with Caroline
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| We went for a walk through the Marina and Fisherman’s Wharf
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| And for the very first time in 28 years of living in San Francisco
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| I swam in the San Francisco Bay
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| The water is always too cold and the thought of swimming in it has never
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| crossed my mind
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| But I saw three people out there in bathing suits, not wet suits like you see
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| all the time and it was a rare sight
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| So I walked through the sand at Aquatic Park and touched the water
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| It felt almost lukewarm and I couldn’t believe it
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| I said «Fuck it» and I stripped down to my underwear and started walking out
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| into the water like that guy in 'Coming Home', you know, at the end
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| Caroline was smiling really big and she said «You're really going out there?»
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| When I got about knee deep into the water, it wasn’t as warm as I thought
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| I kept inching my way out there a little at a time, until a wave came and hit
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| me in the balls
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| Once your balls are freezing, that’s all that matters, the rest of your body
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| can handle that same amount of cold
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| So I dove in and when out to where my feet couldn’t touch the bottom
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| I swam around a little, came back, sat in the sun, looking out at the boats
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| with Caroline and I warmed up a
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| little
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| I shook as much sand as I could out of my clothes and got dressed
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| It felt so refreshing to go out into that water
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| We came back to my apartment and it was nice taking my clothes off
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| and seeing some sand fall onto my floor
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| A nice souvenir from the beautiful day
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Caroline cooked dinner and I flipped through the new movies on On Demand |
| And I stumbled upon 'The Stanford Prison Experiment'
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| I saw that an old cast member, Billy Crudup, was in it
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| I hadn’t seen him in anything for a while and so we watched it
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| I gotta say this was definitely one of his best
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| But Caroline and I were both pretty tense as we watched it
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| The guy playing the «Cool Hand Luke"-style prison guard
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| Was enjoying himself a little too much
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| But the tension finally eased when the movie ended on day 6
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| Of what was set out to be a 14 day experiment
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| And after that I stayed up pretty late, booking hotels for my East Coast tour
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| next month
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| And some flights as well
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| But today has been spent paying bills, and trying to figure out an acoustic
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| version of 'This Is My First Day And I’m Indian And I Work At The Gas Station'
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| for a tour that starts in Israel this month I leave on the 6th
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| The chord changes are very weird in this song
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| And it requires a lot of bar chords involving all 6 strings using my index
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| finger,
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| Which isn’t easy considering how long the song is
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| It’s 4:58 p.m. |
| and I can still hear the kids on the playground
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| I’m meeting Caroline tonight for dinner
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| And the world and everything in it is a beautiful place
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| September 2nd, 9:34 p.m.
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| Just back from dinner with Caroline and I opened my mail
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| There was a letter and a photo from my ex-girlfriend who I haven’t heard from
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| in over a year
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| She’s days away from having a baby, wow
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| I thought of our time together back then and how far she’s come
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| I remember her desk was very close to where I’m sitting now
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| Where she did her homework and was studying to be a child…
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| …psychologist and I remember the summer when her mother passed
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| There’s never a summer that goes by that I don’t think about that
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| The times we spent in Santa Cruz hospitals and Los Gatos
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| I wrote her back and told her how happy it made me feel to see the photo
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| And I send her my love and that I’ll be back in touch
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| After I’m home from my next tour at the end of the month when she’s a mother
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| Caroline wants to watch «Cool Hand Luke"tonight,
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| Because I mentioned to her how the guard in the Stanford Prison Experiment was
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| using the same southern
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| Accent and lines that were used by the guard in «Cool Hang Luke»,
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| starring Paul Newman
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| She’s never seen it and I hadn’t seen it for probably 20 years
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| She just told me that she ordered it and that it was released in 1967
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| And I didn’t realize that before
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| I was born that years so I’ll be paying attention to the movie more than I ever
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| have tonight,
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| Knowing that detail
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| September 3rd, 8:32 p.m.
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| Just back from Mexican food with Caroline
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| Today was a lot of errands and a walk though the Marina
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| I picked up the photos for the Jesu/Sun Kil Moon album art
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| Bumped into my friend Melody on the street whose coffee shop
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| Has recently been closed and we talked for a while on the corner
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| Right in front of the market where I’ve been buying groceries for over a
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| quarter…
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| …of a century, it’s all boarded up with plywood now
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| We talked about our many friends who have left this city due to all the new
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| developments
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| At the end of the conversation, she said «Mark whatever you do, please don’t
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| leave»
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| I said I’m not going anywhere.
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| I got back to my apartment and finally had a chance to listen to this ambient
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| piece of music that Justin sent, and it’s beautiful
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| I’m going to add vocals to it on Saturday, the day before I leave for Israel
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| I just went over the chords to 'This Is My First Day And I’m Indian' again,
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| and it’s still tricky,
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| But I’m getting it
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| An old Sun Kil Moon song called 'You Are My Sun' is going to play on TV tonight
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| A show called 'Mistresses' and Caroline wants to watch it
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| She’s in bed, the cat’s on her lap, and she just told me it’s on in a minute
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| September 3rd, 11:46 p.m.
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| We watched the TV show 'Mistresses' and the song played early
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| And after it was over, we changed it
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| To Dateline Thursday Murder Mystery
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| Hosted by Keith Morrison on Channel 3
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| The cat is sleeping on her lap and hey, I’m 48 and I’m healthy and happy and |
| both my mom and dad
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| Are still alive and I can see the bridge twinkling like gold out my window
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| And I look up and Jimmy Fallon’s face is on TV
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| And just like Billy Crudup or Anna Pacquin or Jason Lee
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| Every time I see them on TV it reminds me of when I was 32
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| Everything I’ve been through has lead me to this beautiful piece of music that
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| I’m listening to
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| While I’m laying in bed next to beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you
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| Beautiful you |