Why does it take so long to do laundry? There are other things that take a long time but I can at least enjoy something about them. Like taking the bus to get somewhere. It can be kind of bland when you do the same route each day, but there is the hope of the journey being interesting in some way. Tonight on the way home a guy was babbling away on the streetcar. He sounded less than intelligent but at least this time it wasn't me he had latched onto. (I seem to attract crazy people who want to talk to someone). Anyway, one thing he said made me laugh though quietly so he wouldn't notice me and come on over.

First he said about what a great job the streetcar driver was doing. How it was hard work and very complicated. Which is debatable, it's not brain surgery after all. Anyway, then he looks outside and says something like, "Look at all those guys over there, just lying around like they're dead." I thought he was looking at a couple of teenaged boys who were slurping down slushies while they played around with their skateboards, waiting to cross at the lights. But, I was wrong. Cause crazy guy elaborates a minute later. "Oh, they are actually dead." I think you had to be there but "they" were graves in the cemetery which I pass each day on the streetcar a block from where I get off. It was pretty funny in the moment. I did wonder if he was trying to be clever but he had been so anti-clever for so long before that I just can't believe he suddenly grew a really sharp sarcastic wit.

On goes the laundry tonight. I had four loads cause I got ambitious and decided to wash all the sheets first. Even the new ones I had not unpacked yet. But, I decided not to wait for them to dry and used my old red ones (my favourites even though a pillow case got lost when I was still stuck with taking everything to the laundry matt). So I have a fresh bed when ever all that laundry is finally done so I can curl up into my fresh bed with it's soft and comfortable cotton jersey sheets. Mmm.

I like getting those packs of sugar, salt, pepper, ketchup and vinegar from restaurants. Often I bring a few home from those fast food places that have them out for everyone to help themselves. I don't take coffee creamers (past really bad experience with one of those quietly breaking, being forgotten and then really stinking up my purse). But, I take the others and I'm careful. Sometimes I still forget them for awhile, weeks even. But all those condiment things are really made to last now. I bet they will give that famous Twinkie and the cockroaches a run for their money eventually. Of course, that just makes you wonder why we eat them. (No, not the cockroaches, unless you like them in that way).

Anyway getting those little packs of condiments saves me buying the big containers for things I almost never use. I did break down and buy pepper though cause I have been going to town on tuna wraps and they just NEED pepper. But, I don't use salt or sugar. Once, long ago, I was addicted to salt but that was when I could count my age on two hands. Nowadays I keep a bottle of ketchup in the fridge and a jug of vinegar in the cupboard cause they are good for somethings, not just edible things. Vinegar is an eco safe/ green cleaner and much cheaper than the other fancily packaged stuff. Ketchup... well ketchup is good to torment your brother with. Also handy for really sick April Fools jokes once a year. Not that I'd do something like that.

It's not that I'm cheap entirely. I like that bit of the vagabond lifestyle. The idea that I'm living like someone who doesn't have a lot of things tying them down and could pack up and move with just a moment's notice. I think the best example of that was Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan. That's about all I remember from that movie, the lifestyle of the Madonna character.

Anyway, that's about it for my thoughts for the day. I'm turning my brain down to low early tonight. Painters are supposed to be starting early on the upstairs and I plan to avoid being here for the aroma. I hope it is mostly dry and not so smelly when I get back. I'm allergic to fresh paint. I'm sure I wouldn't care for having it wedged under my skin dry either but the fresh stuff really does mess me up. I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. But, I hope it will be ok. They say it should dry quick cause it's latex. I've heard that story before.

I will be away Thursday sometime. My Mom needs me to fix her computer. I wish she would try to learn how to run it herself. She does try for short periods of time but forgets everything by the next day. I don't mind helping her but I feel guilty cause I'm not there to help her right now as if it's all partly my fault. Crazy but that's how it is.

Outside I can hear the wind rushing past the house. Dorothy and her little dog too should be flying past any time now. I guess that is one bonus of living in a basement apartment. As long as I can hang onto something down here the foundation isn't likely blow away when the rest of the house goes.

Inside I'm a mess of germs. Just stick some of my cells on a petri dish and find all kinds of interesting new diseases. No doubt it's the Canadian Maple Sap flu that is making my eyes burn holes in my head. It's the Torontonian Grunge that has infected my head and is causing my brain to rebel and want to split off from the rest of me, much like Quebec. Soon I will begin speaking French even though I thought I had forgotten almost all of it once I escaped high school. The rest of my body isn't really here any more it's just an illusion.

I have an appointment at 10:00 tomorrow morning. I have to make my body obey and actually arrive there. I think I'm even going to have to use my brain. This isn't going to be pretty. On top of that, I wish I had cash to order a pizza and scare some poor delivery guy with how attractive I look right now. I have avoided talking to myself today, trying to keep my voice functional for tomorrow. I really am not looking forward to hauling my zombie carcass around to be there. I wish I had a self propelled thing of some kind, something that uses a system of pulleys and bungee cords. Just splat my zombie self against the side of a nearby building. I will peel off and not even notice if a few parts are left behind. Likely I never really needed them anyway. I'm really tired of my nose, eyes and lungs right now.

Happy Day out there, remember to wash your hands, avoid zombies - we are out there.

Yet again I have escaped death! How you may wonder… did I dive with sharks or something adventurous like that. Why no, I crossed the street, with the lights at a well marked pedestrian crosswalk on a clear day. I was even wearing a red coat, almost a bonus stop sign for anyone tempted to drive over me.

I did not get hurt, much. The car went through a red light after the other cars had all stopped. After the pedestrian stick figure light was on, I noticed a car coming from the other side. I assumed it would stop as the other cars had. It didn’t stop, it didn’t even slow down much after it bumped into me and pushed me down into the yucky snow and road salt. My first thought was how much I’d like a handy rock to whip through his/ her back window. Just to help them notice me. Then I looked to get the licence plate but it was too far by the time my brain remembered to use common sense.

Afterwards, after I went back in, changed and missed my bus. After the weekend, I looked up a bit about pedestrians hit by cars. I was really lucky. It seems rare that a pedestrian walks away from being hit. I still consider it being hit, even though I did not end up under the car or flying through the air watching my blood spray the snow. I’m angry. Did you know how many people are killed by a car each day in your town? More than you think, most don’t even make the news any more. I don’t think that’s a good thing. I don’t consider it careless driving either. Whoever was driving that car didn’t care, true. But to call that careless is putting a happy face on something that could have been a nightmare for me and/ or my family.