There is this lyric sung, or chanted, by David Byrne of the Talking Heads, that I keep hearing over and over again:

And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife. And you may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?

And that is me.

I am at a party. It is in a conference room of a local hotel. It is a work party - people from the 'old days' are there - and on the wall, photos of the old days flash by in a perpetual loop. I recognize, sort of, my BIPC work friends. A series of carefree 80s fashions, makeup, hair.

I bring a guest, someone I've been seeing this summer. Was that a mistake?

"Oh hey Hugshyhermit, I meant to call you after that job interviewing earlier this year," says a product manager, flush drunk, an orange polo setting off his sunburn. "You did very well on the test."

"Oh thanks. That was fine; I was fine with it. The only thing that was weird, was at each interview, the job description changed."

"Oh, it did? Hm, very interesting. Well you did fine on the test. Everyone did fine on the test. And afterwards, when they said who was chosen, I said, 'well... what about Hugshyhermit?' and they said they just liked the other candidate."

"That was fine, really. I mean..."

The product manager lunges toward my date, extending his hand, and then picks up where he had left off after hands are shaken.

"I don't think you would have liked the job anyway. The N project."

"Hah, as it turns out I'm working on the N project after all. From our unit's perspective."

"Well I feel terrible. We should do lunch some time."

"Sure thing. We're headed out now, though."

Outside in the parking lot, the air is clear and not at all muggy.
I say: I hope you didn't mind that. Not what I was expecting.
He says: No, it was fine. It was fun.
Yeah?
Yeah. Really.

And you may tell yourself
That is not my beautiful house.
And you may tell yourself
that is not my beautiful wife.
Letting the days go by, letting the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, after the money's gone
Same as it ever was/same as it ever was/same as it ever was...