A Slow Simmer

24Jun08

Today I had a close encounter with the life that could have been mine – if only I didn’t like The Heels.

Even if you are in the business of PR/Spin, not normally recognised for profundity, you sometimes need some background material. Something for the weak vines of gossip to cling to, something for the tender tendrils of innuendo to lean against. Something solid. Some facts. This is why, today, in the name of research, I made my way over to the Royal Library: housing pretty much all that has been printed. Ever. In Sweden, at least.

I was on a quest to find some old articles, not available on that beautiful thing, the world wide web. This in itself, actually going to the library and asking for a tome, gave me a sense of backwards time-travel. Outside, the overcast and chilly day, with great gusts of wind and my skirt plotting all sorts of Monroesque getaway plans, my toes were freezing, the bus was lacking, and my hairdo – always a bloody mess – was more of a bloody mess than ever. All in all, the general feeling was one of upheaval and great adventure.

The fairytale feeling was further enhanced when I reached the big mellow eggshell building in the verdant park. Its big wooden door opened with a creak. I stepped inside, fully expecting goblins or beauties veiled in cobweb, but got the next best thing and, like struck by a spell, was swallowed by the silence and the slow-mo of academia. A real life forgotten kingdom.

No rush, no fuss, no frills, no yelling. Everything, in fact, that is the opposite of clamouring for attention the way us media hungry professionals do. It was bliss. Rather like eating a very well cooked meal of boiled summer carrots, boiled leeks, boiled cauliflower and boiled cod (perhaps with a hint of mustard sauce) after weeks and weeks of brash cross-over height-building fad-following cuisine.

…and I do miss it. Miss the buildings and the bad coffee and the rational thought and the honesty and somehow back boned stubbornness of answering to no one but the harshest of moral and integrity-fondling judges. Not for them the headlines and the yellow prints, the on-offer-nows or the fast paced swarming of the media pack.

But not for them either the sharp suits or the red soles or the thrill of out-cheaping the other cheaps.

And so I totter on. 

Outside, in the nothing that passes for Stlms most central square was a huge tv-style billboard. It informed me in large red print that Lohans mother gives go-ahead to Lohans lesbian relationship. I say go Lohan, but do I need to know?

And these shoes hurt.

Filed under: Office Space: Co-workers, Career, Killing Time   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: academia, heels, Kungliga Biblioteket, Lindsey Lohan, totter