Friday, December 26, 2008

Day 229

business was slow at the organic market tonight. i sat down in my corner at the small table by the window and before long the same owner lady passed by. we made small talk about christmas and she muttered that she wasn't a fan of the season anymore. i asked what christmas was like when she had been a fan and both her and the fellow scott, who is usually behind the counter with an apron, answered that they liked christmas when they were kids and when it wasn't so commercialized.

seems like now that christmas is over, winter is slowly opening its mouth in a lazy yawn and washing down the last of the christmas lights and decorations with a fresh blanket of snow. more powder. here begins the dead of winter- the white bacteria and bland taste since long-passed thanksgiving and now christmas and soon a new year.

we shared some more banter about the origin of the organic market before they drifted away and i fell back into the last pages of my book. this was interrupted by their sudden conversation about flying bats..

this immediately reminded me of the time in early spring of junior year when a bat had found its way into the high school. the whole first period was delayed as people crowded the halls to observe the excitement. girls swung emptied purses and some of the guys clumsily hoisted black garbage bags into the air as the bat continued to dart and circle the hall and foyer. i had just come upstairs from the batting cage after an early morning batting practice session. i was wearing batting gloves and went to a hall corner. half the school was at one end of the hall and another group were down the other. i reached up and around in time to swipe the bat from the air in mid-flight- his tiny head peaking out from a soft hold of the inner thumb and palm. his wings were tucked neatly against his body in the deepest crook of my grip. people cheered and we all walked outside to watch the little guy get tossed into the open air. i still can hardly believe it sometime.


also, we've started the process of recording music tonight. between some combined gear and a basic knowledge of recording technique from last semester, we're officially unofficially starting a cd. ian, one of the guys in our little band, blew us all away with stories about his previous life as a carpenter's apprentice in australia. he lived in a shack without plumbing or wired electricity on the gold coast of australia for six months. this is where, at night, he became the greatest technical guitar player i have ever met.

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