After the last post, it is as appropriate as it will ever be to share my friend Jimmy’s joke.
Q: Did you hear about the new corduroy pillows?
A: They’re making all the headlines.
On wednesday, i turned in my thesis and then turned back into a person. I had not realized how consumed I have become by that work over the past year. In the next couple, I would sometimes crack up, out of the blue. Sitting alone, I would laugh. I took time to listen. Bike, instead of drive. Talk. Eat. Exist. It felt so good. One night, a huge dog interrupted a peaceful moonlight bicycle commute home from town. He snarled and ran after me in the road. I huffed, puffed, escaped and then had a good laugh.
There is a coffee shop in town that a few of us jokingly call “the office,” because we study there so much. Mike, the guy you see in the photo below, draws amazing pictures with paint markers. I had never had the time to look at them before. My friend Tony Lo took this photo.
One day, I went to Willytown–Wilmington that is. I used to spend a lot of time there, when time was freer. Now, I only go about once a week to play with kids in the park. It felt strange knocking on once-familiar doors and asking for old friends.
“Shane, you ain’t been here in a minute! Where you been at?” the mother a friend said sadly.
My friend was out somewhere, she didn’t know. We talked a little while. I asked why she seemed so sad. With tears in her eyes, she asked for help. It was serious. A few short minutes later, I was struggling to pull the naked body of a large man from the bathroom floor to the bedroom. He had collapsed, and could not move. This is relatively normal for him these days. Being willing to put your hands in somebody’s big, sweaty armpits says “I love you, I care” stronger than any words. Life is unfair. I am understanding more and more all the time that I am on the sunny side of this imbalance.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Jeremy from Gable Music Ventures came across the poster for The Paper Janes’ CD release concert in a kiosk on Market Street. It has long been a dream to play at the Grand. I remember staring up at the ceiling as a child, feeling so small.
wow, I hope the guy with the big, sweaty armpits is doing okay; that’s a sad situation. And yes, life is not fair. Not for anyone. We get more than we deserve; we get less than we deserve. “We” being humanity.
And the Grand! So exciting. And haha that picture is funny–I look kind of annoyed and you look like you just told a joke. But that can’t be the case, because your jokes are never annoying;)
I always wonder who takes these photos of people at your “office.” I feel like there should be a webcam pointing there so we can all watch you working. Accountability and big brother and all that stuff, yep. ^_^
I used to hang out at Brewed Awakenings back when they had the big porch bench thingie up there. I dunno what you’d call it. We’d sit there and drink coffee and laugh at how many times we saw the same car circling around main street. That was back when that side of the street was the “punk side” and the other side was the “yo side”. Man, now I feel old. But I’m not old. I just FEEL old. haha
My friends and I took a lot of video back then…..I wish I knew where that was!
Where do you go in “Willytown”? I’ve lived here for the last year and am just starting to make friends. We’re gonna have a block party 4/28!