Time warp

I had the weirdest experience this evening. 

I had to work late. First one in this morning, last one out this evening. Lovely. Anyway, I headed to the store to pick up some dinner and I decided to go to the drug store that is on the floor above my grocery store to get some extra strength wrinkle cream, some antiperspirant, some acid re-flux medicine. You know, just the basics. 

As I entered the store I saw someone who looked like Scott, my old roommate from 19 years ago. He briefly made eye contact and then looked down. I wasn't sure it was him so I just kept going. It looked like him but something was wrong, not just 19 years of age. 

Of course my first reaction was, “Fuck, I weight about 300 pound more than I did 19 years ago, I hope he didn't recognize me!” I usually try to avoid people in situations like this. I don’t know why. If I was skinny it might be different. This happens a lot with people from The Mermaid. I hide, but then I get caught and almost everyone is usually happy to see me and very nice. 

Why do I behave like this? What is the worst thing I could say? “I have this great job at that world famous foundation over there by the Space Needle, next month I am going to Hawaii for the third time this year, and to Italy next spring.” Oh, and I weight like 400 pounds. 

No, there was more than my normal dislike of the human race keeping me from taking to him.  There was something off here. My subconscious was ringing some warning bell. 

I got my stuff and it was time to go. I could see he was up at the register paying. He paid, then went over to the lottery ticket machine and bought scratch tickets. That seemed odd….out of character. The athletic, vegetarian, non-drinking, indie-music loving boy I lived with for five years never was the scratch lottery ticket type. 

There was something a little desperate about the way he was shoving dollar bills into the machine. Then as he was leaving he unscrewed a bottle of some liquid and poured a big pink blob of it onto the floor at the entrance of the store. He kicked up his heals in this little dance of defiance and wandered off. 

It kind of hit me all at once. He was some kind of crazy homeless person. Maybe not homeless necessarily, but off mentally. As I read what I have just written here I can see that none of this adds up to him being wacko (probably just me being wacko), but trust me, he’s broken and weird. I could just tell. 

How sad. In the last year I have learned of the death of several old friends. Other people’s parents have died. AND DONNA SUMMER DIED! Now my old roommate is some weirdo at the drugstore. The world is moving fast and changing fast. I am against it. 

I got out to my car and turned on the radio. From WHYY in Philadelphia this is Fresh Air. Tonight it was the 25th anniversary show. 25 years of Terry Gross. That sent my head spinning as well. I discovered Lucinda Williams on Fresh Air. And Alison Krauss.  And linguist Geoffrey Nunberg. And Maureen Corrigan’s book reviews. I was just remembering last week how bad the Aimee Mann interview was. God, a huge part of my cultural life has come from listening to this show. 

I do take Terry Gross for granted. I don’t listen as much as I should anymore, but I honestly cannot imagine not having her there. 

Now I am all sullen and morose. 

Guess I should just snap out of it and be happy Terry Gross is still on. And that I am still around to buy extra strength eye cream. And maybe I am completely wrong and Scott is happy and normal.

I am still against the world changing as fast as it is. 



.