|
october warmth At the moment I am still riding my post paper writing high. No. High is not the word that I want to use, but it will have to do. I seem to be caught somewhere in between anxious and relieved. Writing a paper always leaves me feeling that way. I hope that the effect wears off soon. ... There are so many days when I truly do not understand people and today was one of them. Early this morning I was at the laundromat, working on my paper while the machines did their thing with my clothes. Suddenly the elderly woman who works there starts to talk to me. She asks me how I am doing and I say that I'm fine while wondering where this conversation might be going. I also kept wondering why she approached me. The place was rather empty, but I still found it odd. Then she hands me a coupon for a free wash the next time that I come in to use the machines. I guess that that was her way of doing some promotional work for the place which would have been fine except that she started to tell me about her toilet that had overflowed. It seems that she had to use four large bath towels to soak up all of the water. Soon she was building up to full speed with her story saying how she has to do things by herself now. From what I could gather she became a widow about two years ago. At this point I didn't know what to say and hoped that she would trail off and walk away. ... Through an odd set of circumstances I had to go into work tonight to print my paper. I had told Ann that I would be showing up, but she didn't seem to be too interested in talking when I got there. It wasn't as though she was busy working, because things seemed fairly calm. Eventually I teased her about her lack of enthusiasm and said that she should be jumping up and down to see me. Naturally this led to a mildly impressive display of exaggerated excitement on her part complete with her patting her heart. A few moments earlier I had teased her about looking for the state of Wisconsin at the front of a road atlas. She tried to recover by saying that she was looking for Milwaukee, even though the book is organized by state. It seems that her mother is coming for a visit and I have an odd feeling that that might not be a good thing for Ann, but I could be wrong. ... While I was at work I had to do a quick history of my previous college career to a coworker that hadn't heard it before. His response was exactly what I had expected, but I guess that I can't blame him. ... On my way into work I hit a small animal with my car and I'm not sure what it was but it wasn't moving anymore. My gut feeling is that it might have been someone's pet, because it was white and raccoons and possums aren't white. I couldn't bring myself to stop and take a closer look though. The idea of me having to carry someone's dead dog or cat to their house was too much for me. If it was a dog I hope that he died quickly. I bet all of this makes me sound like an evil person, but I didn't know what to do at the time and the car in the lane next to me didn't stop either. It was the first time in my life that I ever hit something with my car and it really bothered me.
|