The Liquid Kosmos

The things you see on a bike

It was a great day to buy crap


Even if you don't have a bike, you should steal one on a day like this. I took a liesurely roll through West End and discovered a myriad of exciting sights I wouldn't have seen if I had just kept sleeping. One being a big garage sale in Centennial Park.

I find people's propensity for buying stuff amazing. "Hey honey, let's go down to the Hempfest and buy some stuff." OK!

Surely there were some scores under one of the hundreds of tents full of things that usually end up in a garage or the attic as soon as they get home, but why do we continue to buy just for the sake of it? I'm going to pin it on that "empty feeling."

Take me, for example. This morning I was hell-bent on buying a new Mac Power Book. I was online for about an hour comparing and contrasting, trying to decide which one would be just right for ME. The one that would make my life complete and allow me to do everything I wanted to do, but just couldn't pull it off from my desk-top.

Oh, I rationalized that I would be more productive at a coffee shop or in a park where I could get away from the apartment and let the juices flow down my neck. I could write ANYTIME I wanted. People would look at me and say, "hey, look at that guy, he looks serious...I bet he's writing a novel or something." Thankfully (for my bank account) I decided to take a bike ride before I made one of my traditionally rash decisions.

This is not to say I won't get the Mac, but I knew that I wasn't quite on "my game" and any short term fix was probably the wrong approach. Exercise does that for me. It lets me bring the focus inward and superficial pile-ons become less significant. As I rode through the commercial carnage that was Centennial Park, I wondered how many of the little old ladies skipped church or their morning walk, because if they did, they were surely moving around golf clubs in the trunk to find more room for their new "stuff."

Later I met a nice girl named Mary at Bongo Java. We shared a picnic table and I ate my hummus while she studied for one of her 3 final exams on Tuesday. Three exams? I can hardly finish the vegetables at a Meat and 3, let alone digest three excruciating finals.

We talked about a bunch of things, from Dogs, to New York, to onions, to WIFI. It was nice.

posted by The Oscillator @ 3:35 PM