{"id":1107,"date":"2015-01-18T22:41:25","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T02:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/?p=1107"},"modified":"2015-01-19T11:41:37","modified_gmt":"2015-01-19T15:41:37","slug":"winter-nights-and-russian-novels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/?p=1107","title":{"rendered":"Winter Nights and Russian Novels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nothing says Winter like a January evening with sleet and snow. I’m reading Crime and Punishment<\/em> during my commute these days. And on this particular wintry night, I think sometimes, my life is like a Russian Novel.<\/p>\n

It’s five o’clock. I get up to leave but look in on my supervisor to wish him a good weekend. He is passed out drunk at his desk\u00a0 and snoring loudly. An empty vodka bottle lays on the floor, a shot glass near his upturned hand on the desk.\u00a0\u00a0I could have left hours ago,\u00a0he’s been passed out that long.\u00a0I blow a\u00a0candle out near\u00a0a mess of papers\u00a0before he sets the place on fire.\u00a0 He’s a petty official who has recently been transferred here from Siberia but he’s been having a hard time.\u00a0 His young wife has run off with a Cossack leaving him with three little children. It seems only a matter of time before he is sent to some position back in Siberia.<\/p>\n

It’s 730 steps from my desk to the subway platform where I like to stand. I’ve counted it. Taking\u00a0a windowless stairway down nine stories,\u00a0I push\u00a0through the fire-door to outside.\u00a0\u00a0The streetlights glow with the\u00a0snow coming down.\u00a0\u00a0Commuters rush by every which way, bundled from the cold,\u00a0focused on nothing other than\u00a0to get home.\u00a0 I navigate my way through drunks and bums. \u00a0The\u00a0stairs are wet and slippery as I go down\u00a0to the platform.\u00a0The train ride home is\u00a0packed and mostly quiet. At the distant end of the car I can hear some serfs strumming a balalaika and siging folk music.<\/p>\n

After a long walk along snow covered streets, I finally reach home. The only question is whether I should shovel the inch of snow on the driveway. Or have the peasant women sweep it clean for a few kopeks.<\/p>\n

copyright 2015 Magnus Incognito<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nothing says Winter like a January evening with sleet and snow. I’m reading Crime and Punishment during my commute these days. And on this particular wintry night, I think sometimes, my life is like a Russian Novel. It’s five o’clock. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1107"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1131,"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107\/revisions\/1131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}