Mid-week

I went Downtown to pay a bill, then stayed to check out the gingerbread houses across from the Sheraton.  Not ready to head home, I wandered the streets, window shopping, decoration watching.

I passed a photography class learning to pan their cameras on the holiday carousel.  I admired the zebras, choose that horse as my favorite.  Kids climbed the playground structures in the dark.

Further along, the Sequoia decorated at 4th and Virginia/Olive...is it lonely with no other trees to offer support, surrounded by cement and exhaust all day?  Still, it remains festively lit up against the night sky.  Perhaps oblivious to the traffic passing by.

I wanted to read.  In a bar.  So, I walked and walked through town, like Goldilocks, looking for just the right atmosphere, not too crowded, not too dark, not too fancy...but at 7 pm mid-week, in the Downtown core, not to be found.

I found myself once again in my old haunt, Belltown, near the old Freehold space, now for lease.  Wandering up to a new place, unsure if it was actually open or not, and after standing outside trying to assess for a few moments, I pushed the door inward and entered.  The bartender was just re-appearing behind the bar, I asked if it was open, it was.  I looked for a table with enough light to read.

She brought me a bowl of Marcona almonds with my drink, after I asked if there was any food.  I was trying to finish what I had, but then she brought me more, and I wondered if it would be wrong to put them in a container to take with me, so as not to waste them (I didn't.)  It was a lot of almonds.  I stayed for almost two hours, reading, and sometimes watching the customers replace each other as the evening passed, almost always choosing the same seats at the bar, so that three seats were used over and over, while the rest remained empty.  I read a quarter of the book.

Cops on the street.  Five squad cars for three people.  We (the people on the street) watched until it resolved (some people recording it, just in case.)  Further along, people lined up on the sidewalk waiting to get into a show; I waded my way through the crowd.

The flame burned behind the bus shelter, the one holding it oblivious to anyone that might be watching.  Unsure what that was, but my bus pulled up to the curb just then.  Home was quick.  I found some clarity.

I woke up early.  Wrote, showered.  Reheated yesterday's coffee in the microwave and drank it, then left the house.  I arrived at work a full 1/2 hour early.