the naked juice cooler

http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/mis/533512562.html
everywhere i have walked today (and it has been a fair distance, as i am in a snotty mood) has been echoing with the dry hacks of the surrounding pedestrians. at first i had the narcissistic fear that they were reacting to either my cigarette or clumsy application of patchouli. but no. i may be the only human in seattle who is not rasping through an uncovered maw. one of my coworkers claimed to have whooping cough. it freaked out some of the (younger and shriller) coworkers, who kept saying "GOD! and she was in here like all day yesterday, getting us all like INFECTED" and looking it up on the internet and babbling about their flu shots. i made a joke about consumption and put my hand across my forehead. the mellower coworkers laughed.
the weather reminds me of springtime in alaska, which was always my favorite season: when 40 degrees was t-shirt weather, when the sidewalk was finally exposed. the difference between there and here? it is pitch black outside from 5pm until nearly 8 the following morning. i was so enamored to be in my lair in daylight (even if it was still so dank outside that i had the lights on) that i slothed around until nearly 3, picking dead leaves off plants; reading about the 48-year bamboo bloom in india that leads to cyclical rat influx, ecological fuckery, and famine; taking unflattering pictures of myself; and listening to devendra barnhart on repeat.
i do love the novelty of a day off.
i left the lair with a bit of day remaining. walked downtown and read at elliot bay until it was dark. went to ballard and bought cheerily-hued tic-tacs because i liked the colors so much. (i am not a tic-tac fan: they are too small to be worth anything unless you swallow half the box at once, and they make your mouth taste like ass, but i needed cash and i didn't want to use the atm. the flavor: CHERRY PASSION! i have not tried them yet.) returned downtown and walked uphill to broadway in the spitting rain. browsed the travel section of the used bookstore. i am now here, at the cafe where they always play somber classical music and have fantastic yerba mate tea, and i am in a much better mood.
i am pretty easy to please.
the kindness of strangers helps. i have to keep reminding myself that i am truly, finally local again. not having any huge part of my life in one spot has made me gloss over 'connections'- too ephemeral- i'm always just a visitor. and now, for what it's worth, i am not. and everything is much more comfortable because of it.
but like a compulsive fool, i checked housing and jobs in new orleans today. the housing situation: good. jobs: nuh-uh. it was that tenaciously repeating fantasy of a steamy brick-walled attic hovel with rain hitting the leaves of the banana plants outside: which would, of course, include never feeling impatient or unfuckably sweaty or overly honkified or sad that other people's lives are still lying in heaps.
*
anu garg lives in seattle. he will be doing a reading on monday! i am so excited! i have subscribed to his site for about 8 years, and you should too.
update: i had the link for what i thought was his site, but it's some fucking dating service. which is rather funny. so go to "a word a day" on google, or don't.