Goodbye rainy Tuesday
Tuesday was an unusual day.
I’ve been a bit tired lately, and I have always considered myself solar-powered.
The cold is already taking a toll.
When I woke up in the summer, the sun was already peeking out bright and early. Since October began, I’ve been waking up in utter darkness. I am trying to adjust and accept winter before it gets here, but it seems to be getting here quicker than ever. We have a week before we turn the clocks back.
I’ve been back in Pittsburgh for five years and the coldness still surprises me. In a way, it’s my own fault; it’s sort of being surprised by your own face in the mirror every morning. Of course, that probably just happened to Renee Zellweger Tuesday.
The point is, I don’t do cold and rainy well. I am bad at dreary; the wet, pervasive cold of autumnal Pittsburgh.
Side note: Yes, I would like to smack some of those cheerful “It’s sweater weather” people. I confess part of the problem is my skin tone. I don’t look good in fall clothing.
I had an orange pullover once. I looked like a pumpkin in it. My face also sort of had an orange glow when I wore it. I was a nuclear jack-o’-lantern. When I wear brown, I sort of blend into it.
Put me in brown corduroy and a brown sweater and I could probably hide in the forest. I look like a sequoia. I am Groot.
But I digress, like I do. Tuesday morning, I woke up to incessant beeping. It wasn’t my alarm clock. It was a line of cars behind me as I sat at a green light.
I barely remember getting up, showering and getting dressed. It was like I was in a five-second coma. The questions, “Where am I? What am I doing here?” were followed by the statement, “I need caffeine.”
A few minutes later, while still driving, I reached down and felt my empty pocket. I panicked. I couldn’t find my keys.
I will reiterate; it happened while I was driving. Anyone want to guess where the keys were? Somewhere there’s a Prius owner reading this and saying, “I don’t get it.” The answer should be obvious to anyone who drives a car as old as mine.
After I parked the car, I hunkered down in my hoodie and walked to the coffee shop in a stinging drizzle. Then, I heard an angry woman yell out, “Who is that?” As I opened the door to Au Bon Pain, the very same woman pulled the hoodie from my head, turned me around and stared at me. I didn’t know her, and she didn’t know me.
I must own the same hoodie as her ex-husband or something. She was angry and then immediately confused. It was a bizarre encounter.
I want to say I dreamed it, but I was, at this point, finally awake.
I hadn’t even had my caffeine yet, but the weirdness of my day finally woke me up.
Goodbye rainy Tuesday. Still, I’m going to miss you.