I am lying in bed dictating this into a tablet I do not normally use for dictation. But it shouldn’t matter, because the software that has allegedly been learning my voice the last two and a half years is all in the cloud. As I discovered some months ago every word I speak into any dictation box is recorded up into the cloud, and listening back to it is a little disconcerting. I sound like a fucking zombie.
There is a loud and pot fueled party going on downstairs. I am fortunate that I cannot hear or smell it at all from here. The only reason I know it is happening at all is because I just went out for a midnight stroll, a midnight siesta. The lobby of the building smells of marijuana, and it sounds like a very earnest gathering in there.
I left a message from a payphone outside of the reign nightclub. That is not the closest payphone to where I live but it is the closest one that I know usually works and which has a semi enclosure around it. I then went and did something I don’t remember ever doing. I went to a bar and did not purchase alcohol. I just had a seltzer. I just don’t feel like booze these days and it is making me jumpy. I did want to be around people if only for a few minutes. So I talked to some people who live on my street. They were pretty loaded, but not obnoxious or stupid. I saw a woman I have seen at that bar for years. I see her on the street around here a lot. She always has a different boyfriend.
I talked to someone else who just got back from Australia and New Zealand. She made a strange comment about Australians and how different they look from Kiwis. Australian she said we’re kind of squirrely. Kiwis are like six feet two and huge. I have heard that about Australians but never heard the comparison to New Zealanders. Come to think of it the only Kiwis I’ve ever known were thin as a rail. She said that she drove from Melbourne to Sydney, which sounds like a hell of a long drive. Then she added later that she was with her boyfriend, after I asked if she was still dating that guy. I’ve known this woman as an acquaintance for many years. I thought it was strange that she described driving across Australia as if she was by herself. My mother used to talk about our travels like that. She talked about going to Niagara Falls as if I was not there, but I was there and so was my sister. But my mother’s account of things did not mention that. A lot of memories my mother shared about things we did together did not include me being there.
