September 3, 2018

I heard the door open behind me while I was using the restroom. A few seconds had gone by and I could still feel the presence of someone standing in the doorway. “What are you doing?” I turned my head to ask. They said they were trying to figure out how the lock worked.

As I was washing my hands, someone else came in and asked me if I knew where to refill the soap dispenser. I did not - but our attention was quickly drawn to the window as someone pointed out that there was a snowstorm outside. I recalled staying up all night and didn’t remember it snowing heavily enough to warrant the height of the snow outside. But then I remembered that I also rarely looked out the window.

Large snowballs were flying in all directions at extremely high speeds such that they disintegrated whenever they happened to collide. “Hand-made ones don’t do that” someone commented.

Someone said that they wanted to show me something, so I followed them behind the building and they pointed out a large insect in the snow. It looked like an oversized powderpost beetle, but they called it a “steelhead”. On our way back into the building, I pointed out a cashew tree, along with the fruit and nut. “No wonder they’re so expensive” they said - in reference to the fact that we never see the fruit being sold.

As I walked by another tree, I saw a stuffed cat staring at us with blinking eyes. I looked up to see a puppeteer operating the cat sitting on the windowsill. I gave him a quick wave before moving on.

I heard the words “Last Christmas, there was a crab” in a stereotypical French accent to the tune of Last Christmas.