Untimely Meditations

The theme for today is cold rain, sore throats, and insomnia. I began to think I was superman cause I could bare the (not so cold I guess) temperatures and take it all in stride, but I have suffered a slight defeat. This is like the Battle of the Bulge though...and cold weather is an evil that must not be allowed victory. I may be bent, but I will not be broken! Anyway, today I decided to walk around the commercial center of Denmark in a cold rain. So when I got home I instantly felt exhausted and laid down, "for a few minutes," only to wake three hours later with a sore throat. Now I have resorted to cruising the internet at 4 am to pass the time. This is one of the many drawbacks of sharing a single room with a roommate. I cannot get up and turn on the lights to read or something when I can't sleep, which is often, so I have to resort to prowling around in the dark and huddling in the corner with my computer.

Change of pace! That was devolving. I call something like that "insomniac ramblings," and they are a little like when you fill up a paper cup with water and learn the cup has a hole in it. What begins with a trickle will quickly breach the cup completely and pour forth with a vengeance. Lets face it, nobody can "pour forth" like I can...

Take three! Ok maybe I cannot do this tonight...

Today I saw perhaps the most bizarre thing I have seen yet. I was strolling down Stroget (the main shopping drag in Norreport, Copenhagen...if I could use the Danish characters, and you could pronounce them correctly, then you would see how clever my use of the word "strolling" was)..."strolling" in a light but steady rain searching out the Juridiske Fakultet to drop off some papers. Approaching rapidly from behind, I heard the most obnoxious ringing bell I have ever heard in my short lifetime. I spun quickly to make sure it was not one of these dinky, recycled energy-powered European automobiles bearing down on me. What I saw stopped me dead in my tracks.

As the scene came into focus, I stood there, in the freezing rain, mine eyes to behold......an ice cream truck! There I was, shivering and dripping wet, and these kids (not many) were purchasing their favorite frozen treats from the ice cream man. The oddest thing about this whole sureal turn of events is that my first thought was not, as any rational human being would assume, how absurd it was to be buying ice cream in this weather; rather, it was whether or not the ice cream man had "Bomb-Pops" as I quickly checked the change rattling in my pocket. Some of you will remember the panic as a child as you tried to secure the power to purchase ice cream from this rolling vendor before the opportunity had passed...could I make sense of this Danish currency in time!?! I am almost 25 years old and have not purchased anything from the ice cream man in over a decade, but even today the ice cream man is capable of sending my ability to reason spiraling out of control...No, I didn't get the "Bomb-Pop!"