Just watched Poltergeist 3…I swear that might be one of the scariest movies ever created.
Went into NYC to apply for a job I discovered under a “college grad” search. I figure I have two things going for me in life…the first is that I do have a college degree, the second is that I look old. What I mean by that…is that when I walk into an office for an interview, I still feel a bit like a kid, just in a grown-up body. Sort of like Tom Hanks in BIG. I feel like I should be signing up for classes, and eating food with a meal plan, but I’m actually getting asked what kind of salary I’m expecting, and I spit out a number that is in many ways meaningless to me. My whole understanding of money is going to change drastically in this coming year, as I begin to take in and spend money (hopefully), like never in my life. Financial independance shall be sweet…
I spent the afternoon in Barnes & Nobles reading through the beginning of Nick Hornby’s new book, “A Long Way Down,” about four people who decided to jump off a building famous for suicide, all on the same night. Sort of like the Breakfast Club, only instead of being united by detention, the characters bond over their desire to end their lives. Each character shares turns narrating.
The opening is pretty hilarious, with one character named Martin, a morning tv host who had been arrested for having sex with a minor, sharing his thinking about taking his life. He compares the decision to choosing whether or not a bank employee should stay put or take a transfer to Australia. You weight the pros (beautiful beach, pay raise, new life) vs. the cons (stay near parents), and come to a decision. In that manner, he weighed the pros and cons of suicide and came to the decision that suicide was his Australia, adding, “no offense to Australia.”
I also picked up a London travel book. It made me reflect on how funny time can be. How a period of your life can feel so intense and special, and yet time has a way to wear it away till it feels like its another lifetime you’re remembering. What I enjoy most about London, as I recall, is the feeling of infinite exploring possibilities. I still look at the London map and think of all the places in that city I’d like to walk around. While there’s much at home I haven’t explored, it currently doesn’t possess that same mystery, that feeling of “what’s around that corner.” It’s that feeling that you’re doing something that nobody else from your home is doing…like you’re the first American to discover a certain corner, or pub.
I went back to Penn Station, just missing the last off-peak trains. That means $9.50 for a peak train home!!! How ridiculous. I heard the announcement for the next Babylon train, and waited impatiently behind a woman at the automated ticket machine. I got my ticket, rushed onto the train, and as the doors closed, realized I’d run onto the wrong train. Babylon being the right end destination, but my hometown was not on the stop, rather, Seaford, a good 30min. past my place, was the first stop.
As luck had it…the conductor was kind, and actually had the train stop at my town, and he opened one of the doors for me specially. I found that moment to be fitting for my life. I screw-up something simple, and from that comes either a dreadful story of how it took me 3hrs. to take a routine 30min. trip home, or a story of how a conductor made an emergency stop to help me out.
