mmmm unexplained

>And that is why ritual fasting is so inherently cool: You fade completely into the >existential background, allowing things that are not you to come alive.

Oh wow, that sounds super ominous looking back.

Let me back up. There is kind of a problem with my house.

Sunday night I was awake grading papers, and fasting, and being randomly naked on my bed ('cause I am single and I am young and I live alone). Then there was a rustling sound outside the bedroom door, like breeze going through leaves.

Now that is a strange sound to come from a hallway but it did not sound threatening. So I graded 2 more papers.

The leaves rustled against my door.

I thought harder about the sound and became very alarmed. Now, a tree rustling outside is nice and can be a symbol of the sacred presence of god. But the sound of a tree *inside* the house calls for immediate action.

I put down my papers and opened the bedroom door.

There was not a tree in the bright corridor. What a releif, I sighed.

And that is when a row of short, humanlike looking shadows raced along the wall.

They looked like Twa. But there are no Rwandans in my neighborhod, unfortunately. Also, in sharp contrast to the bush peoples of Rwanda, the shadows did posess bodies.

I slamemd my door and leaned against it to catch my breath and get with reality. The experience was a hallucination caused by fatigue: Anyone who has graded students' porfolios for 6+ hours knows that it's normal for extreme grading can mess with your visual acuity.

I reached for my pjs.

And that is when the light in my bedroom went out.

I calmly took my pjs to the hallway to get dressed.

And that is when the light in the corridor went out. My bedroom light flickered back on.

Yes, I said, dressing quickly, that certainly was unexplained.

All the lights in the house went off and on and off and on. I heard the sound of the light switches. When you live alone that is a very bad sign.

I ran outside to my car and drove to the Royal Oak all night Coney, where I now live.

Neal said that people who are having hallucinations do not grade 2 more papers or reason about Rwandan politics.

Roxanne theorized that what happened was an occult phenomenonw called dark elves. They are stupid and crave attention. They were attraccted to me because I am fasting and naked, and everyone who beleives in anything knows what that does.

Sigh. But I was fasting to increase my attunement to an infinitely compassionate, nameless god, which could definitely also be a tree, but not a tribe of unexplained shadows that sound like trees.

So at the coney island I ate:
a bowl of chili topped with sour cream and cheddar
a peice of chocolate cake
a milkshake

Current resolutions:
I will fortify myself against the unexplained with pizza and beer.
There is a place for sensuality in the war against darkness.