A twinkling frenetic mess.

I have some hearing loss in my left ear, which can sometimes be painful in very loud environments. I also find it difficult to follow conversations amid a crowd of people also having conversations, like in a church lobby, mall, sometimes even just a room with a few people and a TV set.

This can be frustrating, and so I may appear to become disengaged, when I'm instead consciously straining out some threads in favor of others, which most people do without thinking.

This is probably due to a few loud concerts I attended as a kid (Boston, Cheap Trick), and the headphones that were available then.

(The hearing loss is minor; it's not the ability to hear so much as to disentangle multiple patterns of sounds; it can lead to some frustration on my part, which is hard to conceal.)

[2012-11-11]

c0

I saw Santa Claus at Rivertown Mall in Grand Rapids on Nov 17; this was outside the cinema, in the food court. I didn't stop, just observed.

Between Santa's sessions they played very loud Christmas music (including the ever-soothing Trans Siberian Orchestra) accompanied by thousands of synchronized lights,. The sound system was so muffled and loud, and the mall so busy, it was all little more than a twinkling frenetic mess, everything every Christmas song and story and TV show despairs over every year.

We'll be going back to Centerpointe Mall again (formerly Eastbrook), where I've taken my children most years. Woodland Mall has been good too.

c0

I am sometimes seized with ennui so irresistible I cannot write another word.

[2012-11-18]

c0