8 pocket cargo shorts

the only reason i carry a cell phone is so that i can hear from anna at least once a day at around 11 and get a preview of her trials and tribulations of the day:
"hey"
"hey"
"so, hows your day?"
"awful"
"awful?"
"the worst ever"
"damn... mines ok."
"im happy for you."
"i dont think you are"
"no no, i really am. it just that i have this meeting to go to yet again. an extra kid got added to my class, this place is a disaster."
"your job sucks"
"thanks"
"it could be good."
"i dont know how."
"bad system..."
"i have to go."
and then i will hear more about it later on. and really, there is no other reason why i carry a cell phone. i rarely answer it and i never have the ringer on so even when i would have wanted to answer it, i cant. yet still i get that deep rooted worry when i dont have it. that same worry that gives all people the capability to dream about having a horrible time being naked in public even though its always worse in the dream than it would be in real life. the same worry that makes it so that people all over the world have at least once in their life turned back from a good distance to check if their stove was still on...

my mp3 player serves the purpose of reducing the likelihood that i will hear someone talking shit on the subway. i got stuck hearing a born again christian the other day during a particularly lengthy express route in a subway car that didnt allow you to go from one to the other. "i was a dedicated crackhead - if you saw me 10 years ago, i would probably be robbing you. but then i figured, if i could be such a dedicated crackhead, then why couldnt i just dedicate my life to jesus?" it was infallable logic and he was still going strong by the time we got to the next stop and i ran out and onto the next car. the problem was: i think theres always at least 1 vociferous supporter of anybody who says anything about jesus: "thats right!" "praise jesu!". its quite sickning. as far as i could tell, the only people who ran out of one car and into another were me and a hasidic guy. the other car didnt have any open seats. i had been sitting and had i had my mp3 player with me, i probably would have still been sitting and probably wouldnt even have noticed that there was a former crackhead turned jesus-head telling his life story to everyone on the train. i guess in his mind, as soon as he walked onto the train, we all telepathically asked the question, "what is the source of this mans magnificence?"

i ususally carry around with me a book either to read or to write in. of course my fashion dictates that any book i read has to be of appropriate size so that it can fit into the side pocket of my cargo shorts. is this a limitation or a guideline? my journal too is that size. there are even days when i am going to be out for a long time with lots of downtime where i carry a book in one pocket and folded up pieces of paper in the other in case i want to write something. so, based on the things that are in my pockets, you know what i will be doing at about 11 oclock, and you also know what type of music that i will be listening to on my mp3 player - that is - music that does not preculde me from reading or writing, and you also know that i wont be reading any new, hardcover books. style and function: i imagine that whenever the next thing comes out that i will have to carry around, a new type of cargo short will have to be invented - one with a 7th and 8th pocket, probably on the heretofore unadorned inner thigh. youll be able to tell who is and isnt weighed down by the weight of their distractions by who is and isnt sitting with their legs crossed. probably the official sitting pose of the revolution will be cross-legged.