Foundation in the Snow

Me and Bryan shook hands and then I left down the street to smoke some kind bud.

When in reference to the winter, most people's first response is to bitch. It's understandable; The winter makes it difficult to do things like walk down the street or drive to work. You have to pay more in utilities for heating. The days are shorter and you get cabin fever.
Sure, it's all true. But there are redeeming things about winter too.

Last night was Bryan's last night in Kalamazoo. Or at lest it was the official day to say farewell. He's always been a nice guy. Knows alot about coffee, too. So I went up to the Strutt to say goodbye and good luck and all that. Luckily he was still up there even tho it was pressing on 1am.

I was broke and couldn't afford any beers so I asked him to join me outside. I came prepaired with a half pint of Popov. I took a pull and handed the bottle to him. I tried to say something nice and wise. I think whatever I said just boiled down to 'worse case senario, this will at lest be a fun adventure for you'.
I don't know how wise or deep it all actually was, but the cold winter night made it seem profound.

Winters are good for making things outdoors seem theatrical.

The cold that blows in during the Fall is blunt. It's the kind of cold that's wet, sluggish and makes your teeth rattle.
But the dry, pure cold in winter is sharp and precise. It dosen't hit you, it cuts you all up and makes you numb.

I looked at Bryan, he looked at me. We shook hands. It was as close to something mushy as two guys would want to get. I looked him in the eye and wished him luck. He had a giant lip stick kiss mark on his cheek.
It was subtly funny, like something out of a Wes Anderson film.
That being said, there's nothing more that can be done. If it were a move, the camera would swoop up into the sky as the credits would roll.

But it was real life. I went to smoke some weed. Life moved on.

On the way home that night, like I usually do, I cut threw the lot by the apartment building on Academy. That building has a big ol' florescent light. Walking away from it, going up a hill I thought how it reminded me of Mars, the eerie orangish-yellow light casting long shadows on the bumps and divots of the virgin snow.
Then I pretended like it was the apocalypse, and I was walking down a barren landscape with my back to the exploding super nova.

Did I mention I was high?

Then something interrupted my rock-n-roll fantasy. It was all this stuff in the middle of the parking lot. But it wasn't trash like you'd normally see. It was a bunch of make-up and stuff.

I walked on but in the morning I passes back threw for reasons simulare to that of the night prior.

After only a little while of walking in the cold I kinda detach from myself. Everything that is exposed to the outside is senseless. It's just my thoughts floating down the street and December slightly kills me with numbing slices.

It reminds me of something that I can't put my finger on.
I think and remember the pile of make-up, it's still there. I examine it as I walk by again. This time I can see everything. There is lip gloss, an empty pill bottle letters, and a couple of used hypodermic needles.

I was intrigued because you usually dont see something like that in Kalamazoo. Well, at lest not in this area.

I felt like I was finally on the other side of the looking glass. I could only imagine the events that lead up to the junkie girls purse getting poured out on the lot. I could only imagine, but whatever it was I'm sure I've been in a simulate situation. Now I am the normal square looking at the aftermath of capitalist-cultural turmoil.

I pick up a hand written letter and take it with me. It was a letter from her man talking about having a family and better days ahead and all that. It must have been written from jail. Given the content, the type of guy the writer was would never write a letter that long, by hand, with that nice of penmanship unless he had to AND had some time to kill.

There was also some paper work from the hospital stating that the girl had anxiety problems and instructed her how to take her script of Xanax.

Keep On Rockin the Free World.