Storm

"You know I wonder about you sometimes."

"Yeah. Most people do."

I like days like this. I like the snow, like the feeling of being cut off from the world for a reason, like how everything looks a little different.

I've spent so much time by myself lately that one more Saturday night locked in my little apartment doesn't make much difference. I still got a little work in today, and tomorrow is going to be ridiculous, but for the moment I'm sitting alone in my warm little apartment wondering when my next good day will be.

I had nothing in my apartment so as the snow began to fall I headed out to the Shop-Rite around the block.

I've driven through a lot of storms, and one thing I've learned is that if you're afraid of the storm you're a danger to yourself and everyone else on the road. Likewise if you're not wary of the storm, you're just as dangerous. Today I found people at both extremes. I ended up behind a woman in a station wagon so nervous and afraid that she could barely control herself. She never moved faster than 5 mph and swerved at the merest sight of another vehicle. Anytime she hit a slick spot she jammed on her breaks, which is anything but the right thing to do. She almost caused three accidents in the two minutes I was behind her. She was so damn careful it was dangerous. A moment later I found myself behind a jackass in a new BMW. This being a previously mild winter he never had the chance to find out that BMW's don't do too well in weather. He found out today the hard way violently skidding and spinning all over the road. To his credit when he realized how foolish he was being he reigned it in a little. But still...

I reached the store safely, but the place was so packed with panicked shoppers that I couldn't even get a parking spot. By the time I found an empty spot I was nowhere near Shop-Rite, but I was right out front of a Walgreens. So I headed in.

This place was empty. The snow was starting to come down heavy and anyone with sense was already on their way home. I was just starting my preparations. I got the last gallon of milk, a beat up box of cereal, and the last two containers of microwaveable soup. Couple bags of Chex Mix, a few Digiorno's pizzas, and the last few bottles of Iced Tea. I was fairly well set, but took a minute to wander around the store anyway.

I wandered through the back of the store, not really needing medicine or anything of the such but curious nonetheless. This is where I found my first fellow shopper, an elderly black man with thick glasses and a dirty baseball cap furiously dumping boxes of condoms into his basket. Blue box, green box, purple box, orange box. The guy hit every model in the Trojan catalog, I stared for a moment in awe. Then a girl came around the corner, a pretty twenty-something who noticed me before she noticed the old black man. She smiled politely as I moved out of her way and then paused as she saw what the old man was doing. I don't know what the word would be to describe the look on her face, but a second later she giggled, smiled at me again, shrugged her shoulders and walked off. If I had been anyone else, anyone at all, there would have been a witty comment involved, a line of some sorts. But as it was I simply smiled back, and shrugged my shoulders as well.

I came around the corner of the next aisle and there was a middle aged woman furiously arguing with a young kid from pharmaceuticals. I couldn't tell what she was yelling about, but a moment later a manager came out and joined the fray. I wondered what in Walgreens could possibly be so important as to stir up such emotions between three people who didn't know each other, particularly on this snowy Saturday afternoon.

I was beginning to wonder what these other people were doing here. While the masses panicked over at Shop-Rite, I had taken Option B to stock up on a few supplies for the storm, but if it weren't for that I wouldn't be out in a storm like this. I certainly wouldn't be out just to argue with a pharmacy clerk, or even to stock up on rubbers. But maybe the argument was over something important, and maybe the old man was stocking up on rubbers because he planned on being snowed in for a very long time. The next shopper I ran into was slightly more puzzling.

I shouldn't say ran into, I should say tripped over, because as I carried my purchases up towards the register I practically tripped over a young girl sitting in the middle of an aisle. She was one of those girls that could have been fifteen or she could have been twenty-five,you can't really tell, and either way she was cute in a childish sort of way. She reminded me of someone I used to know. But what really threw me was that she was sitting in the middle of the aisle with greeting cards spread out in front of her. She was reading these cards, and picking new ones out of the rack, spreading them out across the floor and reading them over one by one. When I stumbled past her I apologized, and she took a second to nod her head in acknowledgement, never really bothering to look up. She was lost in her endeavor. I wonder if she even knew about the storm outside.

I made it home without incident, and spent the rest of the day alone in my apartment watching the weather out the window. I watched a few movies, read a little, wrote a little and as the night came I felt the urge to watch a movie that the landscape was beginning to remind me of. After The Day After Tomorrow this storm doesn't look like shit...and I was in a pretty good mood.

A little drink, a little rest, and I think I'm ready to go for tomorrow.

'Night All.