tales from an ordinary world

2000-03-12

"I've been standing in the rain
just to get wet on purpose."
Electronic

So in the early afternoon heat we go down to the irrelevantly named swap meet in Springvale so I can pick up one or two small things. All these things, all more or less the same, in different boxes, for slightly different prices. I make a half-hearted attempt at working out who's got the cheapest thing I want, but in the end I forget and make a second pass around the stalls, settling for something that sounds like a good enough price. I'm sure my thrift quotient must be pretty low - I can never quite manage to stand there in the supermarket calculating in my head whether it's cheaper to buy 6 toilet rolls rather than 4. I'm too busy trying, in a reasonable kind of way, to enjoy life now rather than later.

It'll catch up with me in the end, I'm sure. At least, that's what the Catholic Guilt keeps on telling me.

She's waiting for me to sleep. Maybe I've just been getting too much sleep this weekend, but I'm restless. I can't go yet. The light's down low, and the stereo's on random play because there's no way I could make a decision right now, even about something as seemingly trivial as "what to listen to ?". A million clocks tick forward, beyond half-past-midnight. I step outside, to assess the world for a while. On a night like this, so quiet and so dark, you could feel like you're the only person on earth. But not now. A layer of small bumpy clouds, with a couple of circling lights reflecting off them, and the neighbours next door talking about something or other, reminds you of where you are. You're Here. Right here. And you're not alone. So don't feel that way.