day three

[raybear]

I am hermiting, it started yesterday, continuing today, maybe tomorrow. I mean, I am leaving the house I suppose, it is just mostly to interact with the strangers at the post office, library, a bar where I order a late lunch. Today I decided to bring flowers to Bopkyong because it is her birthday and halfway there I got concerned about the type of flowers that would not convey the wrong message, and found pink gerber daisies, and I know some people are not fans, but I am, and I thought she would be too, and those are a festive, friendly flower with little possibility of romantic misconstruance. That is not a word, at least it wasn’t until just now. I felt confident in my purchase, but then nervous upon presentation, and there was a certain awkwardness to it because she was so taken aback by the gesture, not in anyway that was insulting. Funny how in the moment I passed it off as I was in the neighborhood running errands anyway, but the reality is I put on shoes and got on my bike specifically to buy this small pot of flowers and deliver them, and then I rode home. That seemed too intimate to confess in the vestibule as I put my sunglasses back on and said my goodbyes.

While riding my bike in roscoe village, I passed a march of elementary school students, carrying handmade signs and chanting, walking in protest formation down the sidewalk. They appeared to be going to an anti-bullying rally, two blocks down at the playground, as their signs and songs and direction would indicate. It was amazing to see.

On the way home, the first chink in summer’s armor: stranded behind the garbage truck while on your bike.