Friday, October 05, 2007

The Search...

~ Today I went looking for the surreal. Of all the things that I write about, I like writing about surreal things most. Since nothing that would qualify as extraordinarily surreal has happened to me lately I decided to go find it instead of waiting passively by the way for it to find me. Where can you find the surreal? In stores of course. So that's where I went.
I set out after work with nothing less than determination. First I got lunch. It was delicious. But not surreal. As I am wont to do, I turned up a street that I do not know that seemed to be going in the general direction of my destination (aka Big Lots). As the streets of Lafayette are fairly well ordered, and since I have a quite sufficient sense of direction I do not get lost doing this. I do find things though. Today I found a house on a street corner with an iron fence. It didn't have much yard to speak of, but that bit of earth that it did stand on was covered and all but obscured with greenery. A verdant bower created by trees and ivy and bushes and flowers. I couldn't tell you what the house looked like, as most of it was hidden from view.
I finally got to Big Lots after meandering that very round about way and began shopping for serendipity. They didn't seem to have any in stock. I did get deodorant though. I needed some of that anyway. I paid for my purchases and another car almost backed into mine while I was pulling out. Not surreal. Annoying, but not surreal.
If you can't find the surreal anywhere else always fall back on the Goodwill. It's like your normalcy bomb shelter. If you can't find something surreal there, then you're just not looking.
I got a trench coat for five dollars. ~



If I ever have my own comedy troupe I might call them the Deadly Nightshades.

(FunFact: Deadly nightshade's scientific name Atropa belladonna comes from the name of the Greek Fate, Atropos, who's job it is to cut the thread of life, and the Italian words for "beautiful lady" because in olden times women would use it as a cosmetic substance by putting drops of its highly toxic extract into their eyes to dilate their pupils, thus implying arousal and making eye contact all that much more intriguing.)

4 comments:

Ryan said...

I think setting out to "find" surreal makes it difficult, if not impossible, to find it. I think the surreality of the world only seems that way when you're not expecting it?

luckeyfrog said...

I think you can't really find surreality.

It finds you. :)

Unknown said...

I agree with Ryan and Jenny. Furthermore, I like the name Deadly Nightshade in general, as some of my stories may attest. ;)

Renee L. said...

I disagree entirely. I find surreal things all the time. You have to be looking for them.
Or perhaps I just attract the surreal much much more than any of you do. A viable possiblity.