duck-shaped pain

It's extremely overcast this morning, as it has been for the last day or so. I like it when it's overcast -- it gives the light coming in the window a different color and tone, one that's fairly relaxing, one that makes you want to sit around the house all day, drinking tea and reading. It was my attraction to days like this that made me think I could handle living in the Pacific Northwest. However, days like these are very rare here in the desert [1], which makes them sort of a treat, a respite from the incessant sunniness. But living with day after day after day after day of cloudiness and grey skies is another thing entirely.

My big Valentine's Day treat was dying my hair. Again. I went for a dark, deep brown this time, but I don't think that's what I got, at least not until I wash it a couple of times. It looks sort of black at first, which is explicitly not what I want at all. On closer inspection, it is brown but it also looks sort of purple, thanks to the red dye that was on my hair previously. Sometimes I wish I actually liked my hair in its natural state. It would be cheaper that way. But, then again, every time I try to grow it out, I remember, uck! I hate that color.

I also thought about going to go see a movie, but I didn't really want to go to one solo on a day devoted to extreme coupledom. Get enough strange looks as it is.

Talked to August guest diarist J. on Sunday for awhile. We played Hey, Guess Where I'm Calling From? for awhile with his new cell phone. Suffice it to say, listening to the sounds of New York City grocery stores and buses [2] was more compelling than other times I've experienced this with other people at previous times. Specifically: "Hey, I'm at the corner of F Road and 32 1/2 Road! Hold on a sec. Now I'm at F Road and 32 3/4 Road!" [3] I once had a conversation that went on like this for over an hour, all the way from 30 Road to around 24 Road (which is sort of a distance) with a now ex-aquaintance with a brand new cell phone. Like, hey, buddy, that information isn't interesting in person, driving down the street myself, why would I be interested in hearing you tell it to me over the phone?

Anyway, it was a good conversation. J. let fly one piece of information that now has me feeling fairly envious. He's getting a banjo, and decided that he needed someone to show him how to play it. Although I can see how having a banjo around the house would be a desirable thing, this isn't what has me stunned. It's that he's getting banjo lessons from Peter Stampfel. He just called him up and asked him, "Hey, do you give banjo lessons?" Which is pretty great.

It's time for the school bus to arrive. I can tell, because I can hear the shrill, trebly voices outside. The bus stop for this neighborhood is right in front of the house, which I always found incredibly convenient back when I was shrill and trebly myself. I've looked out there occasionally in the mornings, and the biggest change from when I went to elementary school is that all the kids get driven to the bus stop from their respective homes. Nobody walks to the bus stop, unless they live right next to it. I don't remember anyone getting driven to the bus stop when I was younger, unless they had a cake or some big project to carry. And it's not like this is a very big neighborhood, so walking to the bus stop from anywhere in it takes maybe 5 minutes, tops. And these aren't parents dropping their kids off at the stop on their way to work. The cars take them there, and then they stay there, idling, parents hovering, until the bus arrives. I'm not sure I understand why. It's just sort of strange.

I smell jasmine rice cooking. It's what's for breakfast. And lunch.

[1] High desert, technically. Or semi-desert, stinking desert, goddamn desert, whatever you want to call it. That last one swings into full usage around the middle of July.

[2] Not more atonal than grocery stores and buses in other places, as commonly thought.

[3] I suppose a passage outlining my town's bizarre street-naming conventions might be appropriate, but not today, sorry.

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