Outside In The Hall
Wrote an entry last night and put it on a floppy to upload at the office and I forgot it this morning. Is this a sign of flagging interest? No. Just a sign of the times, another day in the week after a move and maybe something to do with sleeping on the floor on a mattress. I dunno. It's strange. Perhaps I should reassemble my bed this evening. Perhaps. The walk in to work was nice, however, and having a new battery in my watch told me it takes 30 minutes. Maybe it will get shorter, maybe it won't, but I feel better. Let's see if I'm doing this in a month. When it rains.
I've just now returned from a 7 - 11 at the base of the hill, more to get out of the house than anything else. Young woman in front of me at the counter with two Swanson's TV dinners, a can of Campbell's chicken noodle soup and something to drink is charged $12.75 for the lot. What? How much for the Swanson's TV dinner? $4.67. She is surprised. She pays the $12.75. Not many supermarkets around here, although they're rebuilding a Safeway about a mile up the street. You hear about downtown prices. I buy a Coke and a bag of chips for $2.06. There's a whole lot more price competition down at the bottom of the food chain where I'm buying, so the prices are in line. $4.67 for a Swanson's TV dinner. I didn't see what kind.
But this isn't a complaint. Across the street the lights shine above the path circling Lake Merritt.
They look like industrial strength Christmas tree lights, 20 or 40 watt bulbs, strung up high so they look nice with the city lights reflected in the lake behind them. A kind of carnival feel without the carnival, people walking along the path at dusk. I wouldn't necessarily want to walk around the lake at midnight, but who knows? First I've got to learn the territory. And then be up at midnight. I'm feeling tired and grumpy and unwilling to think at the moment, but I'll chill out soon and start exploring. New places are exciting for those first months before you think to yourself, well, I've seen that, and stop looking. Bad to live that way, worse yet for a photographer. I do it all the time, but when I remember to take a second look it makes it worth while.
Good walk back from work. The last three blocks are up a relatively steep hill. Not so hard, not so easy, but it would be a good thing if I continue. One of those things you think about years hence when you're staring at a white ceiling under florescent lights, listening to the quiet voices outside in the hall.
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