a good day for no particular reason

a couple minutes before three, i walked into 530 7th street, SE - read a sign saying, "if you are here for an interview, go upstairs and enter the first room on the right, at the top of the stairs." i followed the sign's instructions and sat down in the last empty chair, and said hi to rebecca who was sitting across the room. some twenty-two year old greenpeace girl then told the five of us prospective employees, about greenpeace and about what the work involved. she said that the work was very similar to pirg's. i got very scared at this point, thinking that it would involve going door to door collecting money. which i did a few years ago for a day and it was the most horrible job i have ever had.

i think it's real funny how many people have done pirg. bonnie and katie did it in seattle, and maggie did it a couple months ago when she first got to dc. i have never meet anyone that liked working for pirg. everyone has pirg horror stories. and so, when this girl told us it was going to be like pirg, i started eyeing the door, thinking about how much i did not want to do this job. i had thought that the job might be pirg like, but i also thought that it might just be standing in public places collecting signatures.

she then interviewed each of us out in the hallway. when it was my time to step into the hall, i asked her what the work was, and she said that - thank god - the work was standing in public places like at metro stops and talking to people. whew! i can tolerate that, that actually sounds pretty fun. i then talked to her about yes! organic market since she shops there everyday, and we talked about the management there, and i told her how nice they are. she then asked me how long i was going to be here, since she saw that i went to school at new college. i lied big time to this really nice hippy girl, and felt no remorse. i told her that i was taking a semester off, and that i would be in the area for at least a couple of months.

this worried her and she asked me how long exactly. i told her that i was going to eventually move to ny, but the person i was going to live with is still in florida working out a bunch of stuff. so a couple of months, or a few.

she wanted me to make a commitment to greenpeace and asked if i could commit to working until april 1. i felt sort of bad, but i told her that it was most likely, but not positive, ninety percent. she said okay, but just tell me if something changes. i feel like she is going to kill me in two weeks when i will tell her that something has changed. i am trying to convince rebecca to tell them when i quit. i mean, it's not like they don't have a high turnover rate with people only working for a week, and deciding that they hate it. so i don't feel too bad.

on nine fifteen on monday morning, rebecca and i are to show up for our first day of greenpeace. after my hall interview with super nice hippy girl, we left the building and walked down 7th street towards the eastern market metro. rebecca said that she was going to yes, to buy some food. and for some reason, i chickened out and did not want to go. we stood on the sidewalk for a few minutes deciding if i would go or not. i wanted to say hi to the owner, but i didn't want to have to talk to any other employees for ten years in a forced so what have you been up to conversation. so i said bye to rebecca and descended the escalator into the station.

once the metro left l'enfant station, it came back above ground to cross the potomac river and enter the great state of virginia. and the rest of the ride home is all above ground, which is a lot more fun, because it gives your eyes a lot more candy to devour than the boring black tunnels. the sun was nearing the horizon, and the sky looked fucking beautiful. i can't decide which are my favorite type of sunsets. really bright colored summer sunsets. golden red fall sunsets. or really muted winter sunsets.

the sun was a white ball behind dense dense cloud coverage. the sky was super super light pastels, just a little off from white. the sun was still above the treetops. barren trees without any leaves, stretched out nude, branches moving with the sway of the chill breeze. rusted railroad tracks to my right running parrallel to the yellow line. a fence between the metro and the rail tracks, with rows of barbed wire at the fencetop. the sky looked even more beautiful as i passed the masonic memorial. the hill's grass was nowhere near green, it was the pale yellow color of dry hay. fields of hay blissfully unaware of white trails from planes slashing the sky. a little white ball of a sun demurely hiding behind the clouds. gray does not mean depressing. the gray sky was prozac, was ecstasy, was anything but depressing.

i got off the metro at huntington, and walked to my car still enamored with the sky. thinking that i am looking at a star. that i am the little prince. i am a cosmic boy, somehow holding my ground on this furiously spinning planet encircling this beautiful star, this setting sun, while massive grayish clouds seemingly sit stationary above me.

and i drove home, giddily biting my bottom lip, and glancing sideways at the sky every so often - truely happy for the first time in a long motherfucking time.