Laying Low

I won't be coming out today. And I'm not sorry.

I was trying to explain to my friend, in Spanish, just how pleased I will be to be laying low this weekend.

To me "Laying Low" means:

• Willingly keeping a low profile
• Avoiding unnecessary attention
• Avoiding any stimulation at all
• Remaining non-committal
• Joyfully refusing invitations
• Accepting boredom as a pleasant alternative to inconvenience
• Planning only convenience store trips and dog walks
• Sleeping at 11 PM or thereabouts
• Not answering phone calls
• Peering out into the hallway of my building

The expectation that someone will be there is usually met by the understanding that it is always the same people out there. A cleaning lady, the old man upstairs who takes 45 minutes to climb the stairs, or any of the other odd lot of neighbors.