Perfect Blue Buildings
From "August and Everything After"

Just down the street from your hotel, baby
I stay at home with my disease
Ain't this position familiar, darling?
Well all monkeys do what they see
Help me stay awake, I'm falling...

Down on Virginia and La Loma
Where I got friends who care for me
You got an attitude of everything I've wanted
I got an attitude of need
Help me stay awake, I'm falling...

CHORUS:
Asleep in perfect blue buildings
Beside the green apple sea
Gonna get me a little oblivion, baby
Try to keep myself away from me

It's 4:30 A.M. on a Tuesday
It doesn't get much worse than this
In beds in little rooms in buildings
In the middle of these lives
Which are completely meaningless
So help me stay awake, I'm falling...

CHORUS

I got bones beneath my skin, mister
There's a skeleton in every man's house
Beneath the dust and love and sweat
That hang on everybody
There's a dead man trying to get out
So help me stay awake, I'm falling...

CHORUS

I can't keep myself away from me
In a perfect blue building
How am I gonna keep myself away?
How am I gonna keep myself away from me?
Keep myself away
How am I gonna keep myself away from me?
Keep myself away
How am I gonna keep myself away from me?
    This song to me is about settling in life.  Everyone has these ideas of what they want to be and what they want their life to be like.  But a lot of us settle for existences that are less than what we were put on this Earth to do.  Why?  Because it's easier.  It's that simple.
     The singer in this song feels himself slipping into an atmosphere of comfortability in his surroundings.  He also is aware that this isn't where he's supposed to be, but he can't do it alone.  He needs help, he needs someone to keep him awake so he doesn't fall asleep in this place he knows he'll never leave if he doesn't have to.
     I always have admired people that have come from nothing and pulled themselves up by the bootstraps because I know I could never do it.  Something that difficult could never be done by someone as half-assed as me.  It's not that I don't give it my all, it's that if I get into a place where it becomes too much of a hassle, forget it.  I'd rather relax.  I can turn it on when I want to, but if I feel there are other factors at work than just whether or not I work hard, I give it up.  I've done it with college, my personal life, and now my present career.  I don't think the company I work for will ever recognize my strengths, so I've stopped trying.  Give me my paycheck and I'll be on my merry way.  If myself from 5 years ago could see me now, he'd kick my ass.  I'm beaten.  In every aspect of the word.  Life kicked my ass when I couldn't student teach.  Love kicked my ass when I held on for four years to something that didn't exist.  And now I'm in this rut and the fight is gone.  The enthusiasm is non-existent.  I sympathize with the singer in this song.  But I'm already asleep.  And that makes me sad.
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