What am I doing?

Inner peace feels like cherries in spring and the leaves in August. It's like scratching an itch. Like finding a perfect puddle of water.

20080816

Maybe Black Mesa?

Conversation with a telemarketer:

"Hello?"
"Yes, hello. Can I please speak to Mrs. Sma?"
"She's not in right now..." (in fact my mom is sitting at the dining table)
"Can I please speak to Mr. Sma?"
"Uhm, he's occupied." (technically, Mr. Sma would be me, but whatever)
"Are you over 18 and a member of the household?"
(at this point I usually put on my 'kid' voice and say no really sweetly, but I'm sick of these people calling so...)
"Yes, actually I am."
"Oh wonderful! I'm calling from Action Doors and Windows, and we're giving out free, no-cost estimates during this month and this month only! We have a special offer on replacing all your door and window frames, and we have many specials on frosted glass and specialty panels. This is a one-time offer and limited time. Would you be interested in a free estimate?"
(here I'm thinking, bullshit one-time offer, you've called me every day for the past week)
"Oh, that's amazing! Yes, yes I would be interested. You see, I'm a door myself."
"Pardon?"
"I, uh, I'm a door salesman."
"That's excellent. So you must know a lot about doors. What company are you with?"
"Aperture Science, we operate out of Black Mesa. Maybe you've heard of us before?"
"Oh, no. I'm not familiar with that company. In any case, we can come by within the next week to give you a free, no charge estimate. Is there a specific time when you are free?"
"I'll have to check my schedule. Are you able to repair blue portals?"
"Pardon?"
"My door. It's the blue end of a portal field. The orange part works fine, but anything that goes through it fails to end up on the blue end. It works fine the other way around though, blue to orange. It's actually pretty weird and I've been meaning to get it looked at."
"Er. I'm actually only the company salesperson, I'm not familiar with the different types of doors. Perhaps one of the workers can answer your question when they visit."
"Oh gosh, hang on. My dog just went in through the orange end."
"Uhm."
"Hang on, hang on. Just a second, I have to check whether she came out the blue side."
(at this point my mom is looking at me quizzically. I blow into the phone)
"Sir?"
"Yeah, I'm back. Listen, she hasn't come out the other side yet, and I'm getting kind of worried. I'm thinking I should go in after her, but I might not come out either. Do you have any suggestions? Should I just open up another set of portals, and see what happens?"
"I - Maybe I should call back at a better time?"
"No, hang on. I'm going to go in, but I'll take the cordless phone with me."
"Alright."
"Okay, here I go."
(at this point I scrub my finger along the speaker, making a horrible static noise, then I yell really loud)

I hang up the phone and go back to eating dinner.

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