birth: airport trip - okay, lets do this. Uh oh, she rolled a joint. Well, SURE.
Once you smoke a joint with someone on the way to the airport, that's when they've gotcha. Next thing you know: heyyyyy, can you run some errands for me? yea yea yea ok.
Next move, attempt to escape the airport. smile at security guard.. not too much, uh oh.. that was too much. bye bye rent a cop.
Run errands. nerdy boys smile at me because when I'm stoned & lazy, I look less like a nerd and more like a doesn'tgiveafuck rockstar. Oh well, they can think what they want.
Next move. I want something. Something just for me, a special treat. Contemporary museum? Closed.
Next option: Revolution bookstore. I sift through used books, touching their spines lightly and eyeing dubious titles. Some are luckier than others and I lift them from the shelf. You, you and …. nope, not you.. yes you. wandering around the small store, my fingers softly play over titles and pages… I sniff the air. Mmm. books. they're tantalizing.
The woman running the store eyes me as I prowl through the room, sniffing out titles that stir me. I show her what I'm currently reading and ask for recommendations.
I walk out with 9 books, a local poetry publication and an invite to a reading.
This is the moment when I would normally conclude my town adventure and head back to the country. But not today. Excerpts from my brain to follow:
It's not that the concrete and ground littered with sidewalk that feels good - the strangers I stare at, the loud cement & funny looks I get for being so starstruck by normalcy. It's that I'm out of my element, my world - there's a shift in perspective today.
Mopeds - one two three.
I wish I was eating with chopsticks. I didn't want the plastic fork, but I didn't see the chopsticks either.
A man is sitting next to me. I temporarily ignore his plastic - although probably recycled - bag that flutters towards me like a legless pigeon. Maybe he'll grab it. Oh, I guess not. Now I'm returning it to him… (you just bought food at a hippie health food store, damnit - why do you even have a bag?)
I still wish I had chopsticks.
A girl walks by, pushing her one speed hipster bicycle. I thought the grimace on her face was just a town thing, but really I think it's her flat tire.
Aha! Finally in this sea of strangers, it happens. 15 minutes on the sidewalk. A familiar, surfboard filled new VW bug - Hello North Shorian, way to mess with my pretend anonymous reality.
There's a man. He is confused.
He parks his car, steps out and looks up at the sign:
TOW AWAY ZONE
3:30 - 6:30
Except saturdays, sundays and state holidays.
I can actually SEE his thought process:
(Hmmm. isn't today Colubmus D… huh, Discoverers Day? Isn't that a holiday still, even if it is bullshit? Wait, STATE holiday? Federal Holiday,") He fumbles around, waiting in the gutters.
FUCK IT MAN, who cares, just GO.
I finish the day with my bestie: my book.
Yes boys, I see you, can't you see I'm on a date with my book?
We go to the coffee shop and read.
We go out to sushi and read over wine.
We go to a bar and read.
(We get distracted by: emotionally needy acquaintances that beg for the secret to happiness and self fulfillment , offers of free horseback rides and grown boys that want to get lost in my eyes. All of you, stop it and let me READ!)
We make it home together, with all ten books in tow.
We crawl into bed together.
Satisfied.
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