Friday Shuffle - Sensory Overload Edition

Tidy lists give the impression that things are organized and orderly. Today was probably anything but orderly so let's get it all ship-shape with some dots.

• I had a massive headache all day. Woke up twice during the night, the headache dug in firmly by the time I'd awakened the second time, and so I ended up sleeping later than usual which got my whole day off on the wrong foot. But I'm the boss 'round these parts so I can make the office hours.
  

• When I went out around noontime to take out the garbage I nearly passed out in the elevator. There was some sort of horrible, gassy, bleachy, ammonia-like but with a hint of terrible perfume like funky patchouli oil mixed in stench lurking in there. And heavy too. It was a stink that would have brought Jean-Baptiste Grenouille to his knees. I rode down only three floors but I was woozy by the time the elevator doors opened again. I felt like Julia Roberts in The Player. When I got outside I saw my stinky old lady neighbor - the one who normally smells like a mix of dust, mold, and stale urine - and immediately blamed her. I rode back upstairs to grab my purse and jacket since I needed to do a bit of shopping (note that I will choose asphyxiation over climbing the stairs to the third floor) and when I came back out to get in the execution chamber elevator I noticed that before the elevator door had opened the smell in the hallway was still fairly strong. Now I think it perhaps was my neighbor with the rabbits and whose apartment consequently smells like bunny pee. Like the bunny pee of eighteen bunnies. Perhaps he was cleaning up his funky bunny pee cages and used the wrong sort of cleaner. Like cyanide gas.
  
  Jeez, whatever happened to German apartment buildings just smelling like cooked cabbage and potatoes?
  
  
• I'd finished my shopping and as I was walking over to the streetcar stop I could hear from the direction of the market square someone yelling. I couldn't see who it was but as I crossed the street I saw it was a large African man yelling loudly as he walked towards the street. He was carrying a small black book which I took to be a Bible but his yelling and his accent made it impossible for me to understand more than just a couple words at a time. His yelling reminded me of a street corner preacher and all I could think was "Dude - I can appreciate you wanting to share the Good News of Jesus with everyone but the way to not reach Germans is to randomly yell at them in public. It's just not orderly.". By now I was standing at the streetcar stop as he wandered nearby and one woman standing by me said "What's he talking about? He's so loud I can't understand him!". I shrugged my shoulders and felt grateful that a streetcar was approaching so I could get away from him. My head was splitting with pain as it was. I jumped on, the lady next to me jumped on and wouldn't you know it? Manic Street Preacher jumped on too, still hollering. The door he entered was by a group of kids coming home from school and withing a second they were up out of their seats running forward in the streetcar to get away from him. Dude! I'm pretty sure the message of Christ isn't supposed to scare children! By this time my head was screaming and since I was getting off at the next stop anyway I yelled back to him "Hey! Fella! I've got a headache! SHUT UP!".
  
  And by golly, he did.
  
  
• This weekend in Magdeburg is the Mechtild festival to celebrate what they believe to be her 800th birthday. B had no idea who he was but he's not exactly up on his medieval mystics and nuns. Anyway it's being advertised as the "something different" city festival and tomorrow night there's supposed to be a big light show along the Elbe river. Maybe fireworks too - I heard some tonight but there's too many trees between my apartment and the river for me to have see them. If it's not raining tomorrow night I'll see if I can get to a good place to see it all. I think Mechtild would dig all the lights and lasers in her honor. She'd probably think she was having another one of her holy visions.
  
  
• I tried to get rid of my headache all afternoon by trying to rest and drink some soothing tea but it didn't work. Even a nap didn't work. I finally had to break down and take some ibuprofen and with twenty minutes I was fine again. Remind me again why I always try to avoid taking medicine and get rid of my pain the "natural" way and only end up making myself feel worse until I break down and take some drugs?

Time to shuffle.

1. Say Goodbye - Dave Matthews Band
2. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down - The Band
3. Upward Over The Mountain - Iron & Wine
4. One - Metallica
5. Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me - Rosemary Clooney
6. Don't Know Much - Linda Ronstadt featuring Aaron Neville
7. Strip - Adam Ant
8. Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers
9. Wherever You Will Go - The Calling
10. You Win Again - Mary Chapin Carpenter

Happy weekend, folks!