In which ease arrives.
The clown school term ended yesterday.
Not with a bang, but a nose honk.
(Editor’s note: only second-year students currently wear red noses.)
My presence there is mostly absence.
I followed the group texts a little, from afar.
I learned the gossip – and how that gossip spread.
A gossipy bunch, the clown schoolers.
I don’t regret missing the most recent course. It was my least appealing (or second-least appealing) of the term. I think I’d burned through my capacity to take in more. Over-exhausted the intake valve.
I’ll be glad to return at the end of January.
—
The past three weeks have held a lot of joy.
Poker: played and studied.
A friend’s birthday.
Time with my family.
Snuggling with my girlfriend and tiny chihuahua.
Today I fixed a door lock, installed new lightbulbs, and upgraded the curtains – all in my parents’ house.
What’s strange is how easy this felt.
(The activity being: doing household tasks.)
Why?
Pent-up doingness from a broken foot?
The return of baseline testosterone?
A heightened ability to find pleasure thanks to clown school?
Or the simple fact that after sustained intensity, everything else feels light?
I don’t know.
I like it.
—
Note: I edited yesterday’s post to add a video of the Egg slot machine discussed at length. That video is also linked here.
Julian Wise 