I cycle away from the marina. As the bike path draws close to the river again, I notice a flash of light near the ground, then another – fireflies? I push my sunglasses down and coast along, watching the sides of the path – woohoo, fireflies! I dump my bike, and catch a couple, to stash in my backpack net pocket. Hey, this is easy. I cycle on a bit further, then get tempted by the fireflies and grab a few more, to keep the other ones company.
Home – next phase of my mission is to get quarters for the washing machine, so I can do laundry. I have no cash, so I decide the logical way to proceed is to go to CVS, seeing as it’s 50 metres from my house; buy something, get cash out, and ask for some quarters as part of my change. I wander up and down the aisles – gah, I don’t really need anything. Grab some hairties, queue, they are busy. Do I want to donate $1 to some random charity? Yeah, fine. What, I have to write my name on a star? Whatever, I just want some quarters. I have no money in my American bank account, so I go to use my Australian debit card. Does not go through. Damnit, try again. Does not go through. Fine, I’ll use the credit card. Goes through fine, but hang on, I’m getting my receipt, and walking out the door, there was no cash out option. Argh! Fine. Walk down to the ATM, withdraw $100 cash using Australian debit card. Where to get change? Well I could just grab a kids meal from Chipotle I guess. Oh, but instead of the sign about kids meals, there’s a sign telling me that Solstice is on Tuesday June 21st, and if I buy a burrito on that day, I can come back any time that week and get a free burrito. Distracted. Fine, I’ll grab some soft tacos, I should have dinner anyway.
I hand my money over to the manager man who always reminds me of Billy Joel. He has the manner, however, of a clown at a children’s birthday party. Every time he hands me my change and says “There you go”, I feel like I’m being handed a balloon animal. As I walk back to my apartment I remember the fireflies in my backpack – aha! I hope they’re still ok.
Dash home, grab laundry, throw it on by 9.30. Go back up to my apartment, look for my fireflies. Three remain. One wanders off as I’m getting them out of the backpack, and disappears into my apartment. I leave the others to hang out on my windowsill. They don’t seem to be doing much. I hope they’re ok. By the morning they’ve all disappeared. At least I got my laundry done.
