From the day
Perspective: The Anxious Local · Tactile
The store's plastic air feels stifling as I clutch a grainy DVD mailer from that new Netflix service, wondering if paying for movies by mail is just another way to lose money I don't have. I check the price of bread, a staggering seventy-nine cents, then nervously smooth my scratchy nylon tracksuit while watching a silent Toyota Prius glide past the window like a ghost. Those new Tamagotchi toys look phat in their colorful casings, but the cold, metallic chime of the 802.11 Wi-Fi signals in the air makes my skin prickle with a strange, modern dread. Between the rising cost of gas and these whispers of "mute ones" in the headlines, everything feels as fragile as the thin polyester of my sleeves.