Smokestack Lightnin'

This morning had to be one of the most intensely enjoyable of mornings for me. I awoke early, that is, for a day off, around 9:00 AM to head over to the Passport office here in Mississauga. With a lone coffee as my breakfast to shake off my meagre four and half hours of sleep I was off to pay and get my first passport. Yes I'm getting my passport for the very first time at the ripe age of 22 (less than 3 weeks away from 23). Now Vivian and I can book our plane tickets early for a cheaper rate to fly down to Trinidad after exams in April. The plan is to spend two weeks staying with Vivian, my fiancée's family in the deep south of Trinidad getting to know them. While also experiencing and saturating myself in the unique culture of the island as much as I can without getting into trouble. By the picture impressed on my mind by a manager from work I thought I'd be waiting for half an hour at the Passport office. However I was in and out in a blur of 15 minutes without even time to read the paperback book, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman I'd brought with me. The only annoying thing about my experience: the first government worker that looked initially over my form, who gave me a quirky, garrulous sleight about my original birth certificate being a bit dog-earred. He was willing to offer this criticism, but would not explain regardless how I'd get a brand new replacement issued. Two weeks it'll be before my passport arrives then the sky's the limit.

Then I headed over to Square One nigh for a rare, spiritual pilgrimage to spend the $25 Square One gift certificate I had won for working New Year's Day at Chapters. Arriving at the early, ungodly hour of 10:00 AM I experienced an eremitic surprise as I discovered the mall, including several stores, were already open. There were quite a few secular lay members already in the open stores, or worshipping customers as I like to call them - based on my theory that malls are the new corporate places of worship or medieval churchs of the modern world. My first customer mass experience happened at HMV as I purposely avoided the backwater redneck village-store of Wal-Mart for fear of lynching corporate mobs, in search of a Howlin' Wolf CD or DVD. There also happened to be a sale on CDs, 2 for $30, so I selected two other CDS: The Beatles #1s and Michael Bublé. As a matter of fact, too, some DVDs were on sale and I noticed a perfectly brand new, special two-disc anniversary edition of Casablanca at a low price - discounted more than 50%. So I ended up buying three CDs and one DVD in sum. The mellifluous soulful interjections of ooh-ooh, and the gruff bluesy, accoustic syncopations of Howlin' Wolf's voice, harmonica and guitar - from Smokestack Lightnin' - growl magnificently out of my speakers. Nothin' so sweet.

With my purchase gladly in hand I trekked across the mall, and as I guiltily caught sight of a Coles bookstore, I offered a sincere, repentent hope and prayer like Claudius, as my words flew up, and my thoughts remained below. Quickly side-stepping into the store, I noticed the new Robert J. Sawyer mass market edition of Mindscan in stock. Then as I wandered shilly-shally I noticed a rare, lone copy of a road trip book of sites called, as I recall roughly, Travelling Along The 401 and the I-75 to Miami, which I had failed previously in my promise to find for my dad. I grabbed these two items for the cheap, discounted employee rate of 30% off the cover price. Finally I made it to the parking lot, and sat in my car briefly as I put in my new Beatles CD for the ride home. Now I sit here typing this as Feeling Good by Michael Bublé croons in the background, and two bantering conversations on the phone with Vivian have past, which have earned an invitation to dinner tonight @ 6. In the mean time I gotta read Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, and re-read William Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well for the first day, Thursday, back to class for the second semester.