Today saw a guest switchup: Riad left and Joe arrived. It’s definitely cool that people are coming over here that probably wouldn’t have if Mike and I hadn’t, but I feel like I need more sights: after a few days, Riad had seen all the really notable stuff here. In other news, the lovable landlord Mr. Michaels discovered the wall alterations. He’d previously just lumpily plastered over our punched dents in the wall, throwing on paint when he felt really ambitious. This time, however, I got a “Luke, I want to show you something upstairs” upon arriving home from work. Trying not to totally lie, I tried to dodge his questions about it, explaining that we may have bumped into the wall. In spite of how shitty he keeps this place, I couldn’t help but feel some remorse when I saw the many white dots of plaster where he’d made repairs: “if you want me to, I can paint that for you. Or if it happens again, I know how to sheetrock...” He seemed pissed, but no biggie: it’s not like he has a ton of people waiting to rent out this lap of luxury, and if I ever do somehow get kicked out I’ll just go travel.
Mortality reminder at work today when a coworker received a call and then broke down crying: a friend’s son had died in an accident. A normal day at work one minute then a random twist of fate and she’s in tears. It made me think about how hegemonic this whole summer is. Yeah, I’m learning a little about living in the real world, but I’m not really doing much more than having a good time taking stupid chances. I thought about it some more, and I can justify traveling with trite other ways it’s helping me and maybe even a few other people, but today provided a reminder that this needs to be a limited thing. I’m not gonna go live in a box or stop having risky adventures, but I might pause and think a little longer before jumping in front of an angry potential hamburger:)