Oh, I cut his hair myself one night --
a pair of dull scissors in the yellow light.
And he told me that I'd done alright,
and kissed me 'til the mornin' light. 

- Regina Spektor, Samson 

-+-

"Well, someone once told me..."

Truth.  

...then I took my own advice.  Now if only I'd take my own advice.

-+-

It reminded me of taxonomy.

I sometimes flirt with the far-fetched dream to have a personal genome sequencing lab in my garage.  Just buy all of the equipment and feng shui myself an aseptic work area, and bam, I'm good to go.  Not for any grandeur revelations to acquire riches.   Not for any fantastical breakthroughs to yield Nobel recognition.  Not for any plight for reputation and prestige.

It would be discovery for the sheer love of it.  It would just be the culmination of realizing how much life -- how much beauty -- is teeming on every corner of the earth.  I would collect samples on all my adventures.  I would start small; I would begin with aspirations to identify cell types present in my bathroom, or in the soil in my backyard.

Ultimately, my world travels would not only be described by photographs and passport stamps.  They would be described by the different microorganisms that I come across in water samples in Singapore and New Zealand, from air samples in Britain and Spain.  Of course, it may be slightly hindered by the fact that a cheap Ion Torrent sequencer costs a cool $50,000, but good thing that daydreams are free, right?

This, on the other hand, was far more tangible.  It was discovery for the sheer appreciation of each other.  It was the realization that every cleft and crevice of our parallel universes contain history, and then meeting that challenge accordingly.  It was the delicate dissection of language and gestures.  It was more than transparency -- it was trust.  It was this pure, mutual trust that both of us bestowed upon each other.  That nudity, in all of its verbal forms, was beautiful.  

Every question that unfolded was synonymous with a well in a gel electrophoresis chamber.  Each answer was on point, constantly driving at our ultimate goal to just know everything about each other, to just realize every discovery possible about each other.  Charged by electrodes, we lost ourselves in discussion and in song.  The final image, the final beautiful piece of data, was a meaningful friendship that is bound only for greater heights and possibilities.

Hours eluded me.  I lost all concept of time.  

It seemed like the fastest drive that I've ever had down the 99, yet I felt like I lived and learned a lifetime.

Also: "Damn, girl you're so... symmetrical." Oh, mercy!