The Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Five
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007Day Five: “Winter Wonderland” by Phantom Planets
After a few nights of restless sleep, I knew I should go to bed early last night, but I had reached an enthralling part of Philip Roth’s The Human Stain. So I stayed up until I’d finished the tawdry episode. The last lines I read before turning out the lights proved to be telling: “He thought the same useless thoughts - useless to a man of no great talent like himself, if not to Sophocles: how accidentally a fate is made…or how accidental it all may seem when it is inescapable.”
It was apparently inescapable that I would not get some sleep. I awoke early this morning to my phone ringing. One of my friends had dialed me by mistake! Unfortunately, once I wake up, I’m up. But luckily I immediately remembered that Mike had let me borrow his IR filter yesterday, and I hadn’t had a chance to play with it! The day was saved.
I brushed my teeth and set off immediately to see if I could get any good light before the sun rose too high. I criss-crossed the streets of my too charming neighborhood with an “oldies” mix playing on my trusty iPod. Let me tell you, there is no better way to spend a morning than to stroll down a sun-dappled street with the scent of magnolia trees in the air and Etta James in the background.
I ended up at the park I always go to, and it was amazingly empty - not even the usual shirtless homeless guy was there (after yesterday’s fiasco, I really wasn’t looking forward to explaining what I was doing, particularly since I didn’t know what I was doing with the IR filter). I tried the filter on all my lenses and took some laughably bad self-portraits. Of course, I did have one I liked. Thank God that’s all I need!