Routines

I've worked out a really good nighttime routine, right up until an hour after I go to bed.  After that, it is mayhem.  Up early once again, I am tired and sluggish, and I have no ideas for writing today.  Well, one. . . but it may not be appropriate.  This could be brief.  

"Blessedly so. . . ."

Yea, yea, yea.  

I heard on NPR yesterday that there is a celebration of The Epiphany on Jan. 6 by the Greek Orthodox Church in a town famous for sponges and sponge diving on the Gulf coast of my own home state.  Right away, I thought about going.  But I Googled it.  It doesn't look like the event I had envisioned.  It's a good long way from my house, about a two and a half hour drive.  I'd need to leave the house in the dark or go over the night before and get a room somewhere.  What else do I have to do, though?  Well. . . there is "the routine," of course.  I fear the trip would be a disappointment, and I probably won't bother going.  

But that is how you become a bore, isn't it?  I had an invitation from my semi-writer/artist friend to go to an Elks Club burger thing.  I laughed about it, but he probably went just for the experience.  He might have found material.  I probably watched t.v.  See what I'm saying?  

One needn't travel across the country to find "stuff."  But it is important to do something outside your "norm."  

I should probably go.  

I was doing fine with the little league wresting and the roller derby.  What happened?  I just received a response to an inquiry I made months ago to a larger, more professional roller derby league across the state a couple days ago.  They said they would love to have me come photograph their events.  Yea. . . I need to get back on the horse and start working at that stuff again.  I have become insanely introverted, though, and closed off.  I need to adopt a persona when I go out, one that elicits conversation and stories from others.  

Example.  Yesterday I went to the Cafe Strange for a jasmine green tea.  The Tall Girl with all the tats was working.  I never know how she will act, but I have given up fearing.  She was sitting on her side of the counter eating with a "give a fuck" look.  A couple stood before me, she thick and heavy, he meekly slim.  They were dressed like fans of David Byrne and each wore a double mask against disease.  It is why I like the cafe.  The Tall Girl kept eating while they stood off to the side a bit.  I wasn't sure if they were in line or if they had already ordered, so I just stood back a friendly way and waited.  The Tall Girl looked at me with cynically weary eyes and stared.  I grinned.  

"Hi," she mouthed.  

"Hi." 

As it turned out, the couple hadn't ordered.  When they did, she told them that it would take about half an hour to prepare.  

"That's fine," they said, "we'll be outside."  

I was surprised when The Tall Girl pulled a beer out of the cooler and handed it to the waifish fellow.  He just didn't look the type.  

When they moseyed away, The Tall Girl asked, "What can I get you?"

"A medium jasmine green tea," I said.  

"How was your New Year?" she asked.  

What?!  

"Quiet." 

"Mine, too." 

WTF?  

"I went out the night before," she said, "and got pretty drunk, so I had to stay home the next night.  I have to be careful regulating my meds."

!!!!!!!!

I knew it!  I knew she was. . . in need of meds.  Her mood changes so radically from moment to moment.  

She looked sublimely, weirdly great.  I could photograph her for days, tats and all.  And this is where I should have quit being a shy nerd, but I didn't take the conversation any further for fear of being bothersome.  I think too much about how I appear to others now to be a good reporter.  If I am going get anything, I need to drop the ego and take chances.  

And, of course, it would be easier to do out of town.  I should go to the Epiphany and give it the old college try.

I need to find some funky things going on around town no matter how dumb they seem.  I need something more than the inside of my head, my mother, and the gymroids for "material."  

Or I could just choose comfort and stay at home.