This morning before work I was putting stuff in my bag (camera, phone, water bottle) but couldn't find the book I'm reading right now - another Charles Simic essay/fragment collection called The Monster Loves his Labyrinth. The monster loves his labyrinth, I love the monster but cannot find the monster. I'm sure there's some cryptic life-clue in there somewhere, but I can't find it either. Also missing: a book about cholera. Where have they gone?! Did they go there together? I hope tomorrow provides the answer. I took a Margaret Atwood collection with me instead (Good Bones and Simple Murders), which is great - she's so smart and funny.
I walked to Burgerville on my lunch break - walked right by Mr. Peeps/The Peep Hole, an auto parts dealer, a mexican restaurant with sharpie written signs hanging in the window, across the street from the car dealership and the enormous fabric store, the thai restaurant with an unused drive-through window. The jukebox was playing polka when I got there, which I thought was rather jolly and surreal. When the polka began to wind down (how can you tell??), one of the old guys sitting near the jukebox shuffled over and punched some buttons and VOILA: more polka. The same roll out the barrel and we'll have a barrel of fun polka, in fact. He danced all the way back to his seat. I made a deal with myself that if he did it a third time, I had permission to roll out the barrel, stuff him in the barrel, nail the lid on the barrel and then send the barrel over a waterfall. But it didn't play a third time! After the polka interlude, the Wurlitzer took up with the Beach Boys. (Wurlitzer wurlitzer wurlitzer. I spent the whole drive home after work trying to decide what the best first name would be if your last name was Wurlitzer.)
Later in the evening I was working at the circ desk and heard a voice say JENNIFER LASTNAME! I looked up and saw someone I used to work with but haven't seen in probably 6 years or more. (Leslie, it was Stephanie.) She said "my mother just asked me about you last night!" ha ha ha. It's so funny how that happens sometimes. I'd seen her name on hold slips before, but I'd never run into her until tonight. Good times!
Finally, after what seemed like 400 hours but was really only 9 hours, it was time to come home. I walked out of the building and the first thing I saw was the waxing crescent moon tipped on its side, looking for all the world like the smile of a gigantic, vanished Cheshire cat.
I walked to Burgerville on my lunch break - walked right by Mr. Peeps/The Peep Hole, an auto parts dealer, a mexican restaurant with sharpie written signs hanging in the window, across the street from the car dealership and the enormous fabric store, the thai restaurant with an unused drive-through window. The jukebox was playing polka when I got there, which I thought was rather jolly and surreal. When the polka began to wind down (how can you tell??), one of the old guys sitting near the jukebox shuffled over and punched some buttons and VOILA: more polka. The same roll out the barrel and we'll have a barrel of fun polka, in fact. He danced all the way back to his seat. I made a deal with myself that if he did it a third time, I had permission to roll out the barrel, stuff him in the barrel, nail the lid on the barrel and then send the barrel over a waterfall. But it didn't play a third time! After the polka interlude, the Wurlitzer took up with the Beach Boys. (Wurlitzer wurlitzer wurlitzer. I spent the whole drive home after work trying to decide what the best first name would be if your last name was Wurlitzer.)
Later in the evening I was working at the circ desk and heard a voice say JENNIFER LASTNAME! I looked up and saw someone I used to work with but haven't seen in probably 6 years or more. (Leslie, it was Stephanie.) She said "my mother just asked me about you last night!" ha ha ha. It's so funny how that happens sometimes. I'd seen her name on hold slips before, but I'd never run into her until tonight. Good times!
Finally, after what seemed like 400 hours but was really only 9 hours, it was time to come home. I walked out of the building and the first thing I saw was the waxing crescent moon tipped on its side, looking for all the world like the smile of a gigantic, vanished Cheshire cat.
That's so cool that you saw Tebbanie! I wonder about her from time to time. Glad to hear she's using the library!
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