They're on to me
Everyday at work I get asked, "How are you?" and everyday I answer something like "fine" "all right" "good" or "fiiine (with a sigh)." Well lately, people have been correcting me.

"You don't look fine." "You don't sound all right." "I know how that 'good' goes." So great, now I'm the only one in the world that can't get away with the pat answer and the scoot scoot scoot, right on out of there? Today I was ready.

So I was asked, "How are you?"

And I answered, "Let me tell you, how I am. I went to a fake park last night. It has this rolling Astroturf grass. And I was sitting between cigarette butts thinking, I wish this park was flat. I wish this was real grass. I wish there was a bench or some privacy. Then I realized. I was relaxing in a busy area. I had a view of the star and the moon. There were clusters of people around me laughing and enjoying themselves. I could people watch. I could lie back and breathe deeply. This was a nice little park framed by street lights. It wasn't the park by my dorm room with the great climbing tree. It wasn't the sports field up the street. It was somewhere completely different and in a way unlike the past, it had its own charms."

All right. So I only answered that way once. Otherwise I'm fine.