Illustration, in colour

I woke up about twenty minutes ago (it's just after 6:30 am on Saturday). My eyes open, I blink past sticky contacts at the ceiling, and I think immediately: it's grey out, and rainy. Oops! What time does that make it? I hope I haven't overslept. I better get going.... One adrenaline jolt and a few moments later I realise: I don't have to be anywhere until after noon.

That sort of automatic response when waking up is a good sign I need to keep up with this slowing down thing.

On the plate for today: mix up a whackload of rat food (visit Donald's and dollar grocer, get a plastic tub from a dollar store); maybe hit up the farmer's market; wedding w/ Juggler (why oh why am I doing that?); Bob's b-day party; clean rat cages; transport clean laundry to my house; maybe get bike lights at MEC; do a tomato crawl through Juggler's yard; medicate April's rats.

Oh, and dammit: more sleep. I went to sleep at 2am, and it is only six.

Goodness:

Going to farmer's market on an empty stomach. Buying a ripe green stripey tomato, some smoked goat cheddar, and some russian peasant bread. Making open-faced sandwiches on the grass with my pocketknife while eating the abovementioned sandwiches and really, really ripe peaches that were tree-ripened and selected by the fruit guy for me.

Buying plums, honeycomb, and chard for later.

Oh yes.

One Of Those Days

The Quiet World

in an effort to get people to look
into each other's eyes more,
the government has decided to allot
each person exactly one hundred
and sixty-seven words, per day.

when the phone rings, i put it
to my ear without saying hello.
in the restaurant, i point
at chicken noodle soup. i am
adjusting well to the new way.

late at night, i call my long-
distance lover and proudly say:
"i only used fifty-nine today.
i saved the rest for you."

when she doesn't respond, i know
she's used up all her words,
so i slowly whisper i love you,
thirty-two and a third times.
after that, we just sit on the line
and listen to each other breathe.

Jeffrey McDaniel

Reposted, of course.