From the day
Perspective: The Anxious Local · Sound
The static on my alarm clock cuts right into Mariah Carey’s high notes, a total buzzkill before I’ve even seen the price of gas hit a dollar fifteen at the corner station. I’m clutching my coffee, ears ringing from the TV news blaring at the diner about "POLITICS: IN CONGRESS; Running for the House in '96: The Shoe's on the Other Foot," while everyone else is just obsessing over where to find those Tickle Me Elmo toys. The street is a cacophony of screeching brakes and the tinny chirp of someone’s new Palm Pilot, making my head spin with the cost of everything. I just want to drown out the chatter of the midterms and the rising bread prices with some silence, but the city won't stop its restless, expensive humming.