“As I walked into the charity store…”

Proper P[] birthday-party attire is P[]-birthday party attire.

“…It was the shirt you were wearing…”

It’s one of those only-once-a-year occurrences that there’s really no reason I couldn’t do more often, like playing frisbee, or realizing I really need to back up everything on my computer very very soon quickly before it explodes ack hold together argh this might work blech

Thrown for a loop.

Possible explanations for a dog-walker going up and down the same short stretch of street over and over during a relatively brief span of time:
1) Repeatedly forgetting items necessary for dog walking.
2) Heroically attempting to have a found lost puppy sniff out its apartment.
3) Methodically testing the point at which bystanders will methodically test a pedestrian’s balance.

“I've been for a walk on a winter's day…”

School is supposed to be a place of learning; instead, the primary focus becomes about structured work. Ideas are quantified as credits and page lengths, to occur on a rigid schedule of hours, days, and semesters. Knowledge is secondary to demonstrable accomplishment.

“…Stopped into a church I passed along the way…”

A teacher is who is there for you; for it is your experience.

“…The preacher likes the cold / He knows I'm going to stay…”

Puff on, bubble-blowing missionaries: your attending flock awaits.

“…All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey…”

To have a lifelong aspiration of writing the next Great American Novel’s title.

If a rejection letter feels too formal, a company always has the alternative of instead hiring a friend’s sister, for a more personalized notification that they’re not interested in hiring you for the position at this time.

HMS Plankton

“…And we'll all float on okay…”

I just flew into town and boy did I not steal this joke from someone who stole this joke from an ostrich.

“I count to three and grin / You smile and let me in…”

benchmark

“…We're talented and bright / We're lonely and uptight / We've found some lovely ways to disappoint…”

+ watershed

“…But the airport's always almost empty this time of the year / So let's go play on a baggage carousel…”

= watermark

“…Set our watches forward like we're just arriving here / From a past we left in a place we knew too well…”

Strunk & White: BFsF.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World glimpses the clung past, be it the already-decade-removed setting, the repeatedly-not-over-exes plot, or the quest-for-maturity theme. The jokes are frequent, but nevertheless not the less funny for it, stopping just short of overdone, with humor that is both common and yet almost unerringly clever. There is no way to not feel old while watching it, in both senses: the dread of realization and the bliss of nostalgia.

Sine labore.
(Nihil.)

It’s not summer without a lasagna.

Anticlimactic battle between good and evil.

“Stop that.”
”Okay. Sorry.”

Like the elegance of a wordless proof, there is a beauty in simple truth, a reminder of what is trying to being said, lost amid verifiability, significance, context, motivation; lost amid so much listening that isn’t being done. Information has become tethered to communication, with perception abandoned.

“…I feel as if I'm looking at the world from the bottom of a well…”

“41) How would you describe your ideal job?
(A) Ability to decide for myself what to do and how to do it
(B) Being told what to do, but not how to do it
(C) Being told what to do and getting suggestions on how to do it
(D) Being clearly told what to do and how to do it
(E) I am not sure”

You’re better than this, 41. You’re an actual question, with actual answers. Look around you; look at the company you keep. You don’t belong here.

look whatever you know this rant you've heard it before just call me tomorrow I don't want to type it out again nothing's changed

“I was tired…”

Deep breaths.
If networking really meant going to yoga class with J[], I would be okay with it.

“…If you’re not into yoga / If you have half a brain…”

Irreplaceable.

Forget either/or; this shouldn't have to be none-of-the-above.

This is what you get for having a sister.
That’s okay; it’s not like I’ve not always done this with you all the time, and I’m not even your sister, even though we always say it.

Gift receipt, please? What kind of birthday present is disillusionment. Try instead the best gelato so far found on this continent with secret imported Nutella in a fresh waffle topped with flavored whipped cream, with a side of designed-for-Belgian-royalty dark chocolate.

I feel everyone could use a little more goofdom and a little less fear of recycling bins.

One could find uncanny
How I, Danny,
Having proved double lives can be
Had, do not have any.

“As a child, I knew / That the stars could only get brighter…”

Age used to be a binary: one was either a kid or an adult.

“…And we would get closer…”

And then age became a diversity of demographic strata and substrata: boomers, babies, children of the 80s, octogenarians, teens, tweens, 20-somethings, 30-somethings, young adults, old timers, retirees, newlyweds, freshmen, sophomores, senior citizens, GenX, GenY, GenMe…

“…Now that I'm older, the stars shed light upon my face / but when I found myself…”

Age used to mean something, before self-definition.

“…But it will not present my presence / And it makes my past and future painfully clear…”

You don’t always need to have a next. Sometimes you can have a now.

“…Because I feel blind…”

At Newberry Book Fair, picked up a compilation of linguistics articles, an anthology of short stories, and a parody of Scandinavian travel hints; but not Lolita.

Cat : Soccer :: Dog : [TBD]