If you go very long without speaking to anyone, only observing people speaking to each other, you’re likely to begin experiencing a bizarre sensation of isolation. It’s bizarre for its contradiction: feeling alone and invisible despite all the people around you. It’s like something out of The Martian Chronicles. The other day I was reassured…
Some of the things I’ve come to realize as a consequence of being here could have been, or were, explained to me by friends and family before I left Alaska, but no matter how convincing and articulate their promises of what I would find here may have been, there is no substitute for firsthand experience….
I’m making an effort to keep an even lower profile than usual because lately I’ve increasingly felt myself becoming a tempting target of violence and robbery. Steps I’ve taken towards this end: 1. I’ve stopped carrying my backpack. I leave it in my locker, together with most of my other things. I exit the shelter…
My mom started crying at the airport. It was very uncomfortable for me to be around. I quickly left them all after completing the mandatory embrace. The flights went smoothly. No delays, plus both planes flew at roughly half capacity, nice to have a whole row of seats to myself. The picture below depicts the…
For the past few days, anytime someone in my family has done something that usually bothers me, it hasn’t. My father’s audible nasal breathing at the breakfast table, or my mom making the till downstairs with the loud coin-sorting machine, none of it has bothered me anymore. When they happen, I think of how it’ll…
I went to the writing center on campus and printed Bawd Blue Cohosh, but was dissatisfied with the results. It was readable, but not without some difficulty. The imprecision of the printer yielded blurred words. Simply throwing all the paper away seemed a wasteful and uncreative solution, so I walked across to the library, climbed…
Five days from now I’ll be in Minneapolis. I’m excited for the potential that it will be a significant enough change from so much of the past that I’ll be shaken awake and will feel alive. Aside from a few exceptions, I’ve felt like a corpse since junior high. Inventory: passport state ID insurance card…
There is often a wait associated with common errand locations: the post office, the bank, the grocery. In anticipation of having to wait, people entering these premises allocate themselves an amount of patience. Allocating patience is like cocking a gun; the patience should be discharged before too long. Most people discharge their patience in small…
Many objects serve multiple purposes. This is often strived for in the name of efficiency. An object serving two purposes will sometimes do so simply by means of reciprocal actions. For example, a needle & syringe can put drugs into you or draw your blood, depending on the direction of the plunger. One rule that…
I’m sure that a number of people in the early stages of dementia interpret losing their sense of self as an indication that they’re approaching enlightenment. I wonder if their believing this has any impact on the progress of the disease. If you believe strongly enough that you are someone you currently are not, you…