It was a Tuesday
A day like another other day
I left my hermit space
For a nation in decay

I know, I know! I deserve what I get when I leave the house. Stepping out into the world is exactly like asking for it.

I can’t help it. Stuff happens. I guess it’s all my fault for observing it. If I was oblivious then maybe it wouldn’t bother me.

But what has been seen cannot be unseen. Leaving the house is where the empirical process of data collection begins.

Sometimes, rarely, it works in my favor. Like two weeks ago when we went to the movies. I had to pee so I walked into the auditorium-sized men’s room. Along one wall was a line of 20 urinals. I picked my spot and made a beeline. Along the way I spotted the guy. You know, the one asshole who exists in every social situation. He was standing at a urinal, doing his business with one hand, and talking away on the iPhone in the other. Millennials call that multitasking. I call it being a dill hole.

That’s when The Miracle happened in the blink of an eye.

Clackity clack clack clack.

The iPhone got dropped. And there it went! Zoom zoom! Clackity clack all the way across that pee-covered bathroom floor. The guy stood there, still holding his other device, and lamely watched it go.

It just goes to show that – sometimes – good things can happen. It was pure serendipity and, for one brief moment in time, I forgot all about pain. I was in the moment.

Last night I left the house again but the empirical results were decidedly not as fun. Not by a long shot.
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