Tuesday, 16 July 2002 | Contact

I took one of the last remaining seats at the front of the room just before the first speaker took the stand. Two minutes into it, I was forced to take out one of my contacts and store it in my mouth for the duration of the public hearing, which would last two hours. Besides making me reluctant to swallow, that meant the faces, the bench, the lights in the ceiling would shift between blurry and crisp, depending on how I tilted my head.

I had gone in support of green energy for North Carolina and was surprised when everyone else had as well, even the people from industries I thought would oppose it. I kept my good eye fixed on the transcriber as he stared straight ahead and chewed his gum. I couldn't see his hands; he was so still, it almost looked like he was doing nothing at all.

It was good for me to go, to see a few concerned people, to listen to their solutions. It's often I'm frustrated from assuming that no one cares.

***

Last night a 24-year-old girl died in a car wreck, along with her 27-year-old brother. Apparently they were hit by a tractor trailer while slowing for roadwork on the interstate that connects North Carolina to California, the interstate that connects me to my office in Durham. She lived in Raleigh, though I don't think I knew her (Raleigh's not that small), but she worked in a restaurant where I once worked, and she was seeing a guy I briefly dated several years ago (Raleigh's not that big). I'm not sure why, but I want my friends who knew her to tell me what she was like. And I want to see a picture of her, so I know whether I'd met her. Strange, trying to become acquainted with someone who's no longer alive.