Solitude and Such

Only a few days after posting here about my love of sitting, I got this in my cookie at my favorite Chinese buffet...

It got a chuckle out of me, of course because I consider myself quite rich from sitting.  Oh, not rich in material wealth, but in the cerebral kind of satisfaction that I enjoy more than most other kinds. Seeking and sitting aren't mutually exclusive as my dessert would seem to suggest.  I've sought lots from the comfort of this very space, and I've found and discovered much.

I grew up in a home where one of the regular credos often proclaimed was, "I'd rather be an hour early than a minute late."  It was my mom's dad, my first hero, who typically spoke those words as if from on a soapbox or in a pulpit.  One of my uncles was once a few minutes late in taking gramps to church where he was the organist, and, as I'm told, that uncle was on the outs with him for months after that.  I get to school each morning nearly an hour before the kids come in for homeroom activities. My little Neon is often the first or second car in the lot, as it was this morning when I snapped this shot. 

I enjoy the still silence of our building early in the morning before it comes alive with the joyful sounds of kids' voices.  Not that I don't appreciate the animated life to which the kids bring our school when they arrive, but in the early, peaceful solitude I find a certain and unique satisfaction alone in its kind.  I could stay here at the house each morning instead of getting to school early.  I would be equally alone here and it would be just as quiet.  But there's something special about our school building that compels me to spend that time alone there each morning.  There's a kind of magic there, and I love it.

I was at a hockey game this evening, at the local arena, and imagine my thrill when I pulled out the iPod and discovered that there's free Wifi there!  It almost made me care if the Penguins would win.  They did, and so did I in tinkering on the internet instead of watching the Zambonis dance between periods.

Good night, all.  Tomorrow's thrill...  A haircut!  Woo Hoo!