Smattering

Last night, I had a dream that I finally got the tattoo I've been wanting for years. It was in a Meijer. The artist had to look up the design before he designed it. It didn't hurt at all.

I'm ready. Fool, I'm ready.

***

Last night at the gym, I noticed a group of six sweaty men and one sweaty woman huddled around a TV set. They were entranced. I looked on the screen, and CNN was playing the live video of a plane about to make an emergency landing at LAX. We stared at the TV screen for fifteen minutes, reading the closed captioning and watching the drama unfold. Finally, I could tell that the plane was lowering because I started to see the tops of houses. The tension was indescribable. We all stared up at the television. Some of us stopped, while others continued to stride away to nothing on our elipticals and stationary bikes. As the plane landed, things looked smooth, until sparks starting flairing out of the front wheels. I let out a whelp, and eyes briefly turned to me. But the spark remained just a spark, even as I imagined it might blow the plane up. It didn't. Eventually, it became clear that the plane was alright. The landing was a safe one. And damned if there wasn't a group of twenty people around that silent television in the sweaty gym, offering a raucous round of applause at the safe landing. Talk about a sincere and human moment.

***

While the highs of meeting Ernest Gaines yesterday were great - I got a lot of congratulations at school today, plus even a gift from a parent - this week has still been a downer. I'm going to call in sick tomorrow. It will be a day of meetings and I don't think I could do it. And the house still needs to be finished. I'm so exhausted and stressed out that I just need this week to end. It should be a good weekend. I'm feeling a bit guilty about the sick day but it's the first one I've taken on the fake, so I'm just going to do it. Unless I chicken out.