The cognitive dissonance started manifesting itself when we went out to dinner with Mike. It really hit when the other familiar faces from Pittsburgh were there. “But…but…I thought I escaped…!”
I bore down and shut my eyes good and tight. When I opened them, the world had transmogrified into a surrealistic version of itself. At first I thought my eyeglasses needed cleaning, but the murky, hazy lenses that now filtered my reality persisted in my spectacles’ absence and remained with me throughout the rest of the day.
At the first opportunity I went straight home and slept, physically tired and mentally worn out, before this feeling had a chance to become self-destructive. Only a lone phone call detained me from my date with dawn and chalking up yet another day of life-as-usual.