disbelievable.

this happened in a convenience store parking lot today.

as i approach my car, i notice three police vehicles, one parked the wrong way on the street, and two blocking the driveways exiting the shopping center.

i walk back a step to look at what’s happening, and they start driving towards me.

i stand next to my car in a non-aggressive posture. hell, the last thing i want right now is to arouse suspicion or to look like i’m trying to leave.

a tiny asian man in a green/white checkered shirt and khakis is standing next to me. he starts to cross the parking lot towards a japanese restaurant.

a police car speeds AT him. therefore, AT me. i feel the sudden urge to run.

the man and i both stand still, and a police officer exits the vehicle and approaches the man. i get in my car and roll down the windows.

now i hear the following:

po: hold it right there, sir!
man: what do you want?
po: don’t move! don’t walk away from me!
man: i am trying to eat lunch.
po: where?
man: at the restaurant over there. what do you want from me?
po: just hold still!
man: i am a doctor. i am a doctor.
po: a doctor of what?
man: i am a physician.
po: well, the daycare center over there called in about a man watching the children. you match his description. he was wearing a white striped shirt.
man: i was not watching any children!
po: well – hold still, sir! – that’s what we are trying to determine.
man: i am just trying to eat lunch!
po: if they identify you, you will come with us. if they don’t, you can go eat lunch.
man: i wasn’t watching any children!
2nd po: [walks over] that’s a negative on that id.
po: all right, you’re free to go. have a nice day, sir.
[all police cars leave]

assuming he’s guilty: guilty of what? i’m no defender of pedophilia, but when did “watching children” in a playground become a crime? second, why didn’t the police IMMEDIATELY ask for identification? third, when this man asked what they wanted, why didn’t they IMMEDIATELY tell him?

assuming he’s innocent: the police called into question a medical doctor’s reputation. in the middle of a public place. because he LOOSELY matched a description. from a daycare worker. who said a man was watching children.

[what if one of his patients was there?]
-brian.b

weightless

i swim every day at my apartment complex. that time has become important.

i say “has become.” but what i really mean is, “has always been.” time spent swimming has always been important to me. only i forgot for a while.

when i get in the water, i experience every inch of my body. when i push off a wall and glide through the current, i remember my relationship to a bigger world. then i usually drift.

a long, long time.

[this is what it means to be here.]
-brian.b

haiku of this monday.

i lose, like, ten pounds
and all she can say is “hey,
where did your head go?”

11am is the new 8am

i have set my alarm for 10:30, 10:00, 9:30, and 8:00 over the last four days. but without fail i have gotten up only long enough to shut off the alarm, make my bed, then collapse on top of it. and – again, without fail – i have then proceeded to sleep until 11am.

i don’t understand myself. i went for about two months  on no more than six hours of sleep per night, then all of a sudden my body decided to shuffle things up.

body: hey, brian, we need to make some changes around here.
brian: oh yeah? what?
body: well, from now on, you’re going to keep your mornings open from about 6am to 11am. this is for routine maintenance and repair.
brian: but that’s all my morning.
body: yes, we know. just be thankful we’re not taking over the afternoons too.
brian: what about school and jobs and breakfast?
body: reschedule.
brian: reschedule breakfast?
body: …

we’ll see how long this lasts. now i’m off to have a bowl of cereal, apparently.

time traveler

i went back to the summer after my senior year of high school today. i spent my days indoors with my best friend nick playing nintendo 64, mostly mario party 2, super smash bros., and perfect dark. occasionally we’d toss in mario kart 64, but not often. switchfoot’s learning to breathe was almost always playing.

we both worked for anchor blue/miller’s outpost. i was the best salesman at my store. in one month, during one competition, i convinced 52 people to buy more stuff AT THE REGISTER because of a sale. the next closest person had convinced 20. because of my discount at the store, i finally had a wardrobe that didn’t cause people to mock me. whenever i think of that job, my mouth tastes like snickerdoodles… there was a mrs. fields across from us at the mall.

at around 8pm, on the nights when we didn’t work and when the temperature began to drop into the upper 90s, the two of us would go over to his house and swim in his pool. i would spend time sitting on the floor of the deep end, pretending that i was an egg. then i would hatch and become a super-powerful individual.

in the late night, i would go driving. nick would often come along too. we went to the high desert, the san bernardino mountains, and newport beach all the time. they were the only places around where we had any chance of actually seeing stars in the night sky. i’ve had some of my best conversations sitting on the trunk of my honda. i’ve also seen the world illuminated by headlights as much as sunlight. and i don’t regret that at all.

i escaped my high school years with one enduring friendship. i think i did well.

-brian.b

the problem with blogging

the problem with blogging right now is that i don’t have anything witty or opinionated to say, except that people are really people. and i mean that, from that deepest part of my heart. except that sometimes  people are asshole neighbors that call my friends’ landlords at 2am to complain about the trash cans that get left outside for longer than ten minutes after pickup. but those people, those asshole people, are really just necessary foils to the rest of the people population.

in the words of james, a prophet unto the people, “let us remember always that most people are people, and not asshole people, but that sometimes assholes are people and sometimes assholes only look like people on the outside.”

i might be SLIGHTLY buzzed right now, because of drinking six shots in the afternoon. i was people. not asshole people.

and i sincerely mean that.

-brian.b

dusting off the cobwebs

i know i haven’t updated in several months, and i’m sorry.

but now i’m updating again.

-brian.b