A million seconds is 13 days.
A billion seconds is 31 years.
A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.
dum spiro, spero (while I breathe, I hope)
Everywhere I go looks aged from the dust still falling from my powdered hair. I had a shower this morning before I went to bed, but my pillow still looked like a movie prop when I woke, post apocalyptic, like something that hasn’t been touched in a decade. I will use all the hot water tonight after work, I think, sluicing the talc out, laughing to myself as I sit in the tub, brushing conditioner through and trying to melt the braids, curls, and Marie Antoinette styled back-combed pouffe.
The Parade of Lost Souls was tremendous fun. A lot of the usual was missing this year, even more so than last year, (it’s a long list), but the event is such a fierce creature that slip-shod planning has yet to destroy it. Instead, I think of it as dented, and as such, fixable.
People were found, collected, stripped from us by the crowd, collated with strangers dressed as a thousand fantastic things. Paintings, muppets, robots, dead TV shows, dead royalty, unexpected objects, and other assorted imaginary creatures. After losing Alastair, Devon, Lung, James, Kyle, Merlyn, etcetera, etcetera.. Nicole and I became part of the parade, dancing at the very front with the annual White Band Sweepers, a man dressed as an iPhone, and a silent-film version of Crispen Glover complete with rat. (And very dapper he was). Everyone was smiling, joyful, singing, dancing. Hundreds upon hundreds.
Delighted, feeling blessed, loving the rogue pyrotechnics, the howling enthusiasm, Nicole and I bravely watched the surging crowds and fire dancing finale from the dark slippery roof of the Grandview Park Community building in spite of my climbing-inapropriate costume, (my corset, my trailing wedding dress, my suicidal six inch heels). The police eventually discovered our intrepid group and coaxed us down, but we felt proud of our little dangerous adventure and continued exploring the madness undaunted. Well, until we came upon the pastel furry fight pile – that was a little much. That’s when we turned back and went to SinCity instead.