Coming in from the cold

For the first time in the history of this blog, I offer you an excerpt from the life of the mysterious kamaos.

I'll first briefly describe my state of mind at the time of writing this. I feel strangely awake, however this can only be explained by large doses of caffeine. Right now, I'm in a state of bliss, overtired happiness combined with a sense of creativity, the latter explained by the very reason of my recent caffeine intake: obviously my recent lack of sleep.

While I acknowledge this is a state that may allow certain tendencies toward creativity, I also am fortunate enough to realize my need for self-moderation right now.

At the time of writing, I have just arrived to my apartment from let's say, a long and for the most part, pleasent evening and night if I may say so myself.

However, this is not the place for writing about pleasent evenings without going into great trouble trying to tell a good story. So for the sake of my integrity and this blog, I shall try my best to leave out any trace of a pleasent evening in this entry.

First off, this is not America. This is not a place for freedom. No way. This is Norway, and that's the cold, hard truth. Literally. Contrary to popular belief, we don't have polar bears here. We have ice cream, the type that you eat. I don't know what the fuck else you'd call ice cream, but that doesn't matter.

What matters is it's cold. Not the kind of cold where you really need a scarf, well that too, but right now I'm talking emotional cold. Hell, even mental cold, and what ever the hell you want to call cold you can bet your ass we have it. Speaking of hell, there is a place here called that too. If you don't believe me, go to google image search and type in hell frozen over (and the web site for the place? hell.no, I know, funny as hell). Yes, that's here too. You guessed it, it's cold as hell there too.

So as it turned out, I ended up in some downtown icebreak showdown. Nature's own way to fuck with us here, make every street frozen over just to piss off all us idiots still living up here in the cold. Maybe I'm not one of the local pack there, at least I had enough sense to wear some decent shoes. So basically I was walking around town laughing at people falling over. One place we came across a hill packed with ice, and a whole bunch of people trying to walk uphill. As you can imagine this was basically impossible. Maybe impossible, but also funny as hell.

I know I curse a lot right now, and frankly I couldn't care less. All I know is I'm sitting inside, it's warm, I now have a nice warm cup of hot chocolate, AND I'm listening to the Twin Peaks soundtrack. Fuck yeah. And why the hell do you have a place with a name that's also a curse word? I don't get it, I really don't.

Anyway, back to where I was. I found myself in the middle of town, and there was no way I was going to take a taxi home. Some things you don't pay for, and a taxi home is certainly one of them, at least today. So at first, after getting a quick bite at the local store, I went straight for where I was meant to be hours before: an afterparty at my workplace. Now, this was meant to be a big thing today. So I was looking forward to getting there, while also freezing my ass off in my thin jacket and the one glove I had left from earlier (long, boring story).

So I finally get there, and what happens? Nobody there. Either they left early or the whole thing was called off. I'm not sure how I really felt at that point. I guess more than anything I felt the cold trying to swallow me whole as I walked there some time in the early morning.

The time had come to face the truth. I had to keep walking out there in the cold, so I might as well increase my pace. It didn't help one bit. As I was walking I kept an eye on the birds flying around me. In this modern day desert of ice, while in the midst of the civilization, not a soul could help me. Much less would any soul even want to help me. In this cold, ego-driven society, there is no room for warmth. And as I kept walking, this started to become more evident than ever before.

I had sent one single text message. However, at this time it was like a single cry in this desert of ice. Drowned by the very nature of this frost-bitten town. I had sent the message to a friend living nearby. As I expected, it had no effect on my situation except a very, very slight hope.

I approached a Hotel I had walked past earlier. No one could possibly understand how much I envied the person in front of me as he entered the building. I could barely fight the urge to try to get in there. But I kept going, aiming for my next goal. As a hidden oasis in this desert of ice, the main building of my faculty at the university was standing there, as if it had been waiting for me all night.

Walking faster, I was getting closer and closer. I found myself at the main entry, struggling to fish up my student card and enter the code. A sign was screaming out to me "open monday-friday, closed on weekends and holidays". Only one thing left.

I had received no answer for my aforementioned text message. I knew how to get in where he lives, but no way. They had locked the entrance to the apartment. At least I got the chance to get in from the cold. But there was still a long way home, and I might as well get there sooner than later.

Ironically I hadn't drunk enough water before leaving town, and once again I found myself in the midst of a frozen desert. Too cold for my own liking. The only thing I could do was to keep walking. A quick check at another university building proved unsuccessful. I was left to myself again.

Another 15 minutes walking in the cold, and I was back in my apartment.

The water was cold but it didn't matter. I was back. Back from the cold. And never before had it felt this good.