• Tick tock.

    Stare a the keyboard. Stare at the playful kids. Glance at the magazine headlines. Think about writing. Admire the reflection of the lights on the windows. Wonder where they got their wallpaper. Feel the texture of the carpet under your foot. Wiggle your toes to get that irritating piece of sock out from between them. Look around casually for a good time to pull your pants from between your cheeks. Guess the ratio of face lifts to natural faces in the lobby (1/11). Make eye contact with a random stranger across the room and promise yourself you won’t be the first to look away. Loose at your own game. Go for less of a challenge and pick someone older than five. Think about sitting outside. Listen in on the nattering of a random nice person. Wonder who that person really is; what are their fears, their desires? Wonder if this entry could be confused with an acid trip.

  • Yesterday’s luxuries are today’s necessities.

    Several years ago I got a free Palm OS handheld device. I wasn’t sure how much I would use one, but free is free. It turns out I used it a lot, so much so that now find that I can’t do without it. Today I found out what it was like to do without when mine broke. It turns out the little guys don’t react well to extremely sudden deceleration. Take an object and accelerate it at about 9.8 meters/second (squared). Let it accelerate for about one meter. Now stop it suddenly – applying the force necessary to stop it on a dime (so to speak). You’ll likely find (as I did) that a Palm OS handheld device won’t quite be the same after such an exercise. This evening I found myself parting with more of my hard earned money. I’d be upset but my brand spankin’ new Palm OS handheld device is tres chic. (Yeah, yeah – the frenchies rubbed off on me a little.)

    Hey Beth, could you do me a favor? Could you take my laptop and drop it on the kitchen floor for me?

  • Release.

    Your team is behind by one with less than five minutes to go. There is a large crowd but they are all just two steps above ambivalent. Disappointment lurks in the background but it is not foremost on masses minds. Everyone is waiting for something to happen to make them care, to give them hope.

    One minute is left.

    You are disappointed. Streaks are coming to an end. You haven’t been to many games and you rue your luck – being there to see it end. The team makes it’s desperate move – pulling the goalie in favor of an extra offensive player. You wonder how traffic will be after the game. You wonder how your wife is doing. You wonder what the rest of the weekend will bring. At ten seconds the player with potential, a label that lingers like an unfulfilled promise, gets the puck near the goal. No one is in position to stop the puck but the other team’s goalie. He makes his move and flicks the puck at the net. Movement barely registers on the goalie as the puck sails unmolested into the net.

    The beast has awakened.

    You are on your feet, hands thrust in the air. You are screaming – not that you could tell with the noise around you. The noise of the crowd hurts, but it feels so good. Like gasoline on a fire, it feeds you with raw power. Like a fire the crowd, the moment, consumes you. There is no you. There is just emotion. There is just release.
    –DAV:EXTENDED BODY: