A Daily Fix

The Zen Birdfeeder. Here's another weblog that I love to visit. The images are spectacular.

It's an easier way to get my my nature fix than by lugging around The ROM Field Guide to Birds of Ontario.

The ease with which one can do many errands on the way to/from work are one of the reasons I enjoy working downtown Toronto. The sheer number of stores in the PATH concourse allows me to drop into stores of all kinds to pick up cosmetics, or birthday cards, or drop off film, my shoes for a shine, all before settling into the cube-farm for the day.

You can walk for miles and never have to step outside during inclement weather (read: winter).

Bookstores and music stores are my favourite ones to nip into before or after work. (Unlike clothing stores, customers browsing for books and CDs are largely ignored as there seems a je nais se lack of sales quotas for store employees).

On this particular day, I’m running a little late for work, but I'm a contractor and well, we have our own schedules to keep. This is one of the reasons we are widely disliked by permanent employees. (There are many other valid reasons.)

I pull to the right and disengage from the crown teeming through the tunnels and into a bookstore.

Inside, I wander aimlessly up and down the isles, waiting for a book to call out to me.

On this day, I soon find myself in front of a row of Phil McGraw’s grinning at me from the self-help shelf section of a book store. There are no less than 12 Dr. Phil’s mocking my inability to exist in a self-actualized state.

Before I know it, I’ve picked out a book and I’m heading to the office where I’ll sneak a few minutes to look at my new purchase before I grab a coffee and get down to pretending to work.

As I exit the store and step on the escalator (WALK left, STAND right), the irony of my purchase hits me. I’ve just spent $26.99, plus GST, on a book to see what I should be able to see when I look out my back window. The book's author lives in my hometown where I was able to do just that.

I clutch my bird book and enter the elevator at FCP pretending that I am a cheerful, interesting, person on her way to a cheerful, interesting job.

I pretend to be anyone, but who I am: an unsuccessful freelance writer captured and constrained to a cubicle. My only freedom is the freedom to occasionally spout catch-phrases at passing employees.

But now I pass time reading my new book.

Excerpt from A Mixed Bag of Bones, Volume 2.

Comments

[The Zen Birdfeeder]

Valerie = thanks for the plug! Glad you enjoy!

[valerie]

David, I'll check that out. I haven't read any of Dewdney's work before, so if you're recommending it. I'll definately have a read. Thanks for the tip!

[David Poirier]

Books & Time: I just spent my weekly allowance on Christopher Dewdney's new book; "Soul of the World. Unlocking the Secrets of Time" OMG I read it in one sitting, and was amazed on the fact that a book on time and it's impact on our lives could make time go so fast! Full of great quotes ("You mean now? - Yogi Bera, after being asked what time it was), and fascinating facts: The average north American will spend twenty-seven years sleeping and four months having sex. Anyway, read and recommended.
Cheers!
David