the world is behind you

My stupid friend recently wrote about her little apartment in Oakland. She has a lakeside view of Lake Meritt and a gorgeous far off view of the city. She has an organic grocery store where she buys organic chocolate. And its cozy and quaint.

This is good. Except for one thing. Its ten miles from ground level. Which in itself is not too bad, except the windows start at your knees and end near the ceiling. So its perfect, if you're trying to kill yourself.

Now I don't want to sound negative or anything, but it seems that all the windows are like this. So if you're looking out, enjoying the cool breeze after a hot summer's day; or if you're staring off into the distance and looking at San Francisco under a pale moonlight; you will be occasionally interrupted by a falling person.

Now this falling person may or may not have been pushed. All I am saying is that it is very easy to trip over the window. And they may have accidently leaned too far. And someone may have been behind them. This someone may or may not have been a jealous spouse who just found out that the person has been sleeping with another man/woman/man and woman/man, woman, donkey and a midget (see, I am progressive in my thinking).

Also, one of the inherent drawbacks of being 10 miles up in the air, is that when something bad happens, is that you're ten miles away from the ground. Which is bad. And last I checked, the Bay Area was prone to earthquakes. Just a tiny bit. And for your information, Oakland also once burned to the ground. So, my friend, is living life a bit riskier than she knows. Personally, if I wanted to live like that, I'd go to the Raiders game and scream "GOOOO NINERS". And that would have been preferable.


Oh another thing, she says she hates the drab gray of urban rooftops. Strangely enough, I find that the drap urban rooftops are particularly fascinating. Why? Because we live in a world with a bajillion other people. There's roofs over our head to block out the sun. There's offices with cubicles. Everywhere we go we see faces of people we don't know.

Being alone on a rooftop changes it all. On the roof you're far from the prying eyes of the public. On the roof, you are alone with the sky, the moon and the stars. Lying on a rooftop, the world is behind you -- and in front of you, the infinite possibilities of the universe.