Some days, it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed.
Subtitle: Or does it?
So stuffed some coins in my pocket and caught an earlier bus to the other office, secure in my knowledge that “Mi Patron” had taken care of everything, and left the place in fine order.
Mercury, finally off his station and moving backwards now, was determined to mess up my day.
I stopped at Mi Madres and picked up two of the best breakfast tacos in the world. Since Austin the unofficial capital of breakfast tacos, being the best is no easy feat. Prices at that one place, though, they’ve gone up since they were closed for New Year’s. And an extra 50 cents is one less bus ride.
I offered up half my breakfast to Mi Patron, and then I got one of those “talking down” sessions again, how this isn’t filled out right, and what do I have against filling out a whole form on this situation, and do I think I could file this in the right place….
He had me doing some paperwork, and when I looked at his paperwork, and I was about to point out that he was doing exactly what he told me not to do, so I made half-hearted attempt at a joke, then decided not to push the point.
All I keep thinking about is “don’t surf for porn and answer the phone” as a job description. I don’t recall accounting, bookkeeping, project management or contract law as any part of the job. But never mind that now.
Interfere with my day? Man, it’s just Mercury. Not going to get me down. It’s all little things. Looking at the bigger picture (under a dark Capricorn Moon)? Ain’t bad. I had readings on either side of work. That’s good. Mercury or no Mercury, the new year is here, and it’s off to a start. Maybe not a great start, but not that bad. Although, I made more in hour than I did all day. Makes for a curious balance.
I’ve been struggling with a term I heard, oddly enough, at one of the Austin Journal Writers meetings, “The Violet Crown,” as a term purportedly from O. Henry (Sidney Porter) about Austin. For weeks and weeks, I would gaze at thwe sunset and never catch the “crown” much less, the purple haze. Or anything like it. Brilliant magenta, deep oranges and reds, but I never saw anything that even faintly resembled this “violet crown.”
New Year’s Eve, I saw it. Clear sky, the feather of cloud or two, bright orange, turning darker at dusk, and then right after the sun had set, there it was. All around. Not in the direction of the sunset itself, but all around the horizon, elsewhere. Looking over the river, looking north, everywhere. Amazing. Right there, without having to look too hard. Hiding, as it were, in plain sight.
