entry nº 15 // 20180114

small pleasures of the day: 

purchasing a choco-old-fashion donut from 7-11 after seeing shoko off at the train station (waving to her from the street as she looks out from the window of the bridge going over the tracks to the platform, this a separate pleasure in and of itself), and feeling thankful that 7-11 happened to have the choco-old-fashion in stock at that particular moment, given that it’s no longer a safe bet anymore since i came back here at the end of last year to find that this particular 7-11 had eliminated the donut case at the front of the store, relegating the donuts instead to the bread + pastry section of the aisle across the way, there among the rest of the huddled masses of the bread world, each donut now individually wrapped and not necessarily always available. though, on the plus side, this saves me from having to specifically request the choco-old-fashion from the employee at the counter, perpetually uncertain of my pronunciation and always in danger of the ever-feared “kindly-but-confused-and-ultimately-uncomprehending look from the cashier” which means giving it another go-around, possibly louder this time yet potentially w/ worse pronunciation depending on how my tongue decides to cooperate, in which case just pointing at the one i want always works well. 

taking the slightly longer way back in order to stop by where the big, fuzzy, very sweet black lab lives, in this sort of closed-in backyard area on the corner across the little side street by the Mini Stop there, the fence of which (the backyard area) is made of vertical slats of weathered-looking wood pushed up tight to each other, w/ a tiny little laminated “don’t feed the dog, please!” sign stuck on there, and next to that a few holes cut out, each one about large enough for our big furry friend to stick his snout out a bit, or for me to stick my arm far enough in for some good scratching. woke him up this morning, me peering in w/ a little “hey. buddy!” to rouse him, him sleepy-headedly ambling over to get rubbed vigorously behind the ears, dipping his head and shoulders down into the floor w/ the goodness of it. and me doing the same thing, soul-wise, w/ the goodness of it, of having made acquaintances w/ this friendly buddy here, hidden snoozing away on some random-enough corner of some random-enough street in this neighborhood where i find myself living, a known quantity, each meeting a perfectly successful act of communication in a place where those feel at times few+far between.