Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Head down. Thumbs up.

I tend to get random song lyrics stuck in my head (shocking, I know). On Friday, "American Boy" by Estelle (feat. Kanye West) was on a loop in my head. No real reason. It is not as if it had anything to do with anything I was doing. I mean, I was at work -- not convincing some guy to take me on a tour of America. I mean, I've been to Brooklyn. I've seen what's good.

Sometimes song lyrics get stuck in my head for no apparent reason. Other times, the situation reminds me of a song, hence that song gets stuck. Keep reading, I may eventually make a point.

I rarely venture out of my downtown office building during the work day. On occasion I may stroll down the road with a co-worker for lunch, but most days I stay in the office. I've got a cush thing. I depart from my house garage in the morning, park in the office garage, walk a few yards to the elevator and I'm in the building -- no jacket required (obscure Phil Collins reference duly noted).

However, today I ventured out at high noon. Never a good idea if, like me, you tend to get very hot if the mercury rises above 75 degrees. But, I needed to run an errand about 5 blocks down the road. I seriously debated driving, but knew that would be overkill. I set off down the sidewalk, only to find it flooded with water from a nearby sprinkler. I gingerly stepped over it, much like Elmer Fudd does when he's sneaking up on Bugs Bunny -- minus the gun and funny hat.

I cross the street to avoid the war protestor (singular). I attempt to avoid eye contact with the Neiman Marcus window display taunting me with fantastic shoes I could never afford to buy. Half a block down the sidewalk is closed for "Men at Work" (oddly enough, the lyrics to "Down Under" did not get stuck in my head until I'm typing this.) I end up walking near the street curb, wondering if the guy on the manlift above is enjoying the view. He seems to be.

Now, every email forward I have received -- regarding how to avoid becoming a serial rapist's next victim -- instructs the reader to walk with a purpose, head up and make eye contact. I usually have a purpose for walking (to get somewhere) and I keep my head high since good posture makes you appear thinner. However, when walking in downtown Dallas, I must keep my head down as to avoid getting my thin heels stuck into a sidewalk crack. I look at the ground to avoid cobblestones, decorative brick and sidewalk grates and wonder why the hell the city planners used so many different forms of concrete work.

Somewhere between the construction worker and the decorative brick, song lyrics gets stuck in my head: "...Hope you have a lot of nice things to wear. But then a lot of nice things turn bad out there. Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world." This of course is "Wild World" by Cat Stevens, currently known as Yusuf Islam (I'm sure my blog just went on the government watch list for typing that name. Great. I could use the publicity.)

To summarize, I do have a lot of great things to wear. Week 3 of no shopping and I have yet to repeat an outfit. I've repeated belts a few times, but never an outfit. See, I told you I would have a point.

1 comment:

  1. If you'd gotten the Mr. Big version of "Wild World" stuck in your head, then you wouldn't have to worry about getting on the watch list.

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