5:21 am

(Read 3:48 a.m. before you read this)

After I finished blogging, I knew I wasn't going to sleep, so I picked myself up and walked down the stairs. I left through the front door, and as I navigated past the people standing there, some said "Good morning." I wanted to turn to him and ask, "What is it about me that makes you think I want you to talk to me. Just let me konw, so I can change it before I pass back through here."

I could feel the matching me and snickering as I went to my car. Like I was the wierd one. They should just go back to sniffing coke through a rolled up bit of a Staples ad off that desk my roommates couldn't get rid of at their garage sale.

From the backseat of my car, I dug out my tape recorder and a blank tape which were sticky with the smell of coconut from a bottle of suntan lotion that spilled back there sometime in June. What I was doing with suntan lotion, I don't konw. I'm paler now than when I lived in Iowa.

I walked down the street, dictating my train of thought into the machine until I started to feel too much like a sociopath. I turned it off and stuck it in my pocket.

At 4:30 in the morning there are only two places in my neighborhood open: 7-11 and Vons. I picked Vons due to it's realitive closeness and the extra aisles to get lost in. I wandered around for about twenty minutes. My only company was an Asian guy and what looked like his mother and the overnight staff stocking the shelves. I ended up buying a value pack of odor eater inserts for my shoes, a vanilla scented candle and a carton of orange juice which I drank as I continued my walk around the neighborhood.

Am I the only person in the world who follows cross walks and street lights at 4:45 in the morning? I didn't have anyone to compare to.

I window shopped at the Children's Hospital thrift store. I could see racks of clothing and thought about my Halloween costume, but the signed didn't list any hours of Sunday, so I guess that's a no go.

I walked passed hipster clothing stores and the Vista and then dumped my empty orange juice carton in someone's trashcan before returning to the residental streets and headed home.

About three blocks down, I saw a Hispanic guy on a bicycle and all I could think was if he tried to rob me, I'd just grab his throat and squeeze the life out of him. He asked me for directions. I helped him the best I could.

No one was left outside when I got back to the house. The door was open. People are still scattered around the lliving room, but judging by the reduction in noise, I'm thinking probably half of them left of fell asleep. I'm going to figure out an excuse to wander down there, make my presence known to Dawn. Then I'll come back, light my vanilla candle and cut the odor eaters down to the right size to fit in the shoes I bought second hand this afternoon.

Maybe after that I'll get some sleep.