Tuesday magic

My new job is great. It feels like playing a video game. Illustration work is my favorite. Work dopamine combined with a slight, unintentional buzz induced by a sketchy supplement from the sale bin put me in the zone. So much so that I sat way too long. My body still remembers vacation from last week. My body is still in vacation mode. My wife asks if she should expect me to go past 5 p.m. every day. Nothing in the office moves. Only I enter or leave. Creepy.

I rush out. My legs are asleep. I’m completely scattered. My right shoulder is stiff from screen time. I stroller-jog a clumsy mile before spotting a familiar homeless woman, crying and convulsing on the sidewalk.

My wife mentioned her over lunch as she is also rocking a buzz cut. She appreciated the pragmatism.

The woman barks at us as I approach awkwardly, cluelessly trying to be friendly. The tension in her rib cage and neck catches my eye. I’m also a skinny and angry primate with dramatic inclinations.

I jog around her. Pity hits as my playlist shuffles to Death cab for cuties. I wave back at a few neighbors walking their dogs. The streets are empty otherwise. Family dinner hour. It feels too early. I can’t resist hating on everything: dogs, dinner, barbecue, cars parked everywhere…

This dull brew of feelings, when looked at closely, has a magic I’m just starting to perceive. For once I don’t cringe at calling it that. It’s the flow of my existence: random, weird, mostly spontaneous. Stuff appears, and I don’t get to choose much of it, or how I feel about it.

This post was a Truman-show like experiment on myself to make sense of the mild drama of a Tuesday.

← Index / Published on 2025-08-21