Houston: Where Nonsense Happens

I was driving back home from Landry's today, angry, frustrated and disappointed at myself. Mike the general manager had sent me back home again for being late. Again. This time, by 45 minutes. Ugh.

For me, getting places is definitely half the battle. I kick ass at work, but getting there on time is a different story. I think I might have been on time or early 5 times in the entire month I've been waiting tables. If CP time was a real disease, I should be hidden away in some hospital's terminal ward. If it were a crime, I'd probably be serving 13 life sentences. Call me a con. Or a cancer patient.

I couldn't get Mike's parting words out of my mind. They scurried, gnawed, splintered away in every recess of my thoughts. Like a rat.

Strangely, it wasn't that the threat of losing my job was bothering me. I had just heard another chorus of the same song I've been hearing my whole life. It felt like when you hear one of those crappy tracks they put out on the radio nowadays, and after the umpteenth synthesized repeat, you think, "Okay, this song's definitely gone on long enough," and you change the station.

Why?

How?

When?

Screeeeech. I was yanked out of my thoughts. I looked around, realizing I had ridden 10 feet past the crosswalk line of a red light.

Reversing and shaken, I wondered how, in my distraction, I was somehow able to realize the light had changed without even paying attention. Or how I had driven several blocks down an empty Westheimer in the same lane, perfectly straight. Maybe I've been in autopilot for too long.

I sat and stewed at the intersection. A few seconds later, a ray of sunshine hit me right in the eyes. Squinting, I reached up and flipped down the sun covers, and looked outside.

It was a beautiful day. White, happy clouds. Nice blue sky. A gentle breeze licked my cheek through the open window. A Frisbee and a buddy would have been perfect then.

Rain hit my arm.

Wait, rain?

A few seconds later, and my windshield was completely drenched. Wtf?

Somehow, for all of one wacky minute, it was raining like Rita all over again. Then it stopped completely, gone as quickly as it had come. In the middle of a perfectly normal day. It didn't make any sense at all.

I laughed.

Only in Houston.