Odd couple of days, it has been. Actually, it hasn’t, but some interesting moments.

Two days ago I had to walk over to another building on campus, just to make a delivery. I was feeling absolutely wretched. Just rough as everything. Was not pleasant. I’ve got the beard of sorrow going, and I can feel the sadness in my face.

I was walking along and it was a sunny day, and I was waiting for my lenses to transition because I didn’t want anyone to see my sadness, and it was taking too long. Just not great stuff. “Hurry up and change”, I thought to myself. Saw my reflection in a window. They had. They had changed. Could still see my sadness. In a way it was humorous though.

Yesterday, the confirmation of some things started coming in, and I begun to feel a little better about life. Only a little bit though. Can’t allow myself too much happiness. Wasn’t quite that way in the morning.

I woke up, got ready, threw on some clothes. There’s a shirt I have that I love and it’s made of good material. A few weeks ago I unfortunately got a really large food stain on it. Cleaned it up, threw the shirt in the wash. You know, usual stuff. Well unfortunately it still has this lengthy strip on it from where the food stained it, and I didn’t realise until it was too late. So I was at work with this shirt and its large stain, and my hair was dirty on account of really heavy sweating in my sleep, and I had this beard of sorrow and I just look trashy. There’s some skin peeling on my nose from a scab… just generally looking unpleasant.

Anyway, I I got through the day, and as I was leaving at the end of it I saw someone in the lobby. Decide to find out what they needed help with, so I asked. Got down the details, told them I’d take care of it on Monday. Was pretty loose and casual about it too because at that point I didn’t give a shit anymore.

Saw they had a band shirt of a band I knew, complimented them on the shirt. We started talking about stuff. Turns out they were a writer. We started talking about writing and it was just nice. It was pleasant. You know, I’m there and I look rough, and potentially hostile, and I’m talking to this person about writing, and it was just nice to have this conversation with a total stranger about something we’re both interested in. It was pleasant and easy, and words just came out. And I felt at ease. It was just a friendly conversation and it was about a shared passion.

We said our goodbyes and I walked to the car, and I felt energised. I felt relieved. I had this moment of happiness and excitement, and it came the whole way home with me, too.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 09:05:27

To be honest, I thought some of the humour of the first bit would’ve come through more. It didn’t, but at least I got across what I wanted to with the second.

Written at home.