I'm floating in the most peculiar way. Satori must be something just the same.

This time and space travel stuff is pretty amazing. Especially when you get to pick the time and place in space, and the version of yourself you're going to be when you get there. There I was riding the bus to work, as I do every weekday. And just like every weekday, traffic was slow approaching Islington Avenue. Normally I'd sigh it out impatiently, hoping things would begin moving again soon so that I could make my connecting bus at Keele Street. But this day was different.

This was December 4, 2013, my birthday. And I had decided that it was the perfect day to begin the Bowie Project, starting with the iconic Space Oddity. 

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I had loaded the album onto my iPhone the night before. As I tapped the album cover in my playlist to drop the proverbial needle, I became aware of the fact that perhaps the bus wasn't going to provide the best conditions in which to transport myself to another time and place. I mean, on one hand, yes, that's what buses do. But buses are also filled with the kind of crazy that can distract you from even the most engaging daydream.

I blinked my eyes and found myself... someplace else, in a time where I didn't exist, at least not in real life, not in this timeline.

I was transported. As you may know, the album's title track is Side A, Track 1. Not that "sides" exist in the digital realm, but that doesn't matter now. I'd heard Space Oddity before, but I had never actually listened. The story of Major Tom unfolded to me in an emotional way, to the point where my heart nearly stopped during the lyric "Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong. Can you hear me, Major Tom?" 

I had barely recovered from the chills and heartbreak that song left me with when the next began. I expected to be somewhat disappointed. I mean, how do you follow a trip like that? It turns out, you follow it with rootsy realness (Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed). Which makes perfect sense, because when you leave Major Tom floating out in space, somewhat slightly dazed is exactly how you feel. And when that's over, you're finally back to earth and ready to deal with earthly things. And then you keep on doing that, until you come out at the end waving a lighter in the air and wondering if you'll ever feel the way you did on that day in the summer...

But I'm getting ahead of myself. There's something you should know about me. I'm a bit on the empathic side. That is to say, I kind of take on the emotions of others. So when David Bowie is sad (Letter to Hermione; Conversation Piece) I'm sad too. And when David Bowie laughs (Don't Sit Down), I can't help but giggle. Yes, I am that crazy girl on the bus clutching my heart and tearing up one minute and then giggling to herself the next. Stare all you want, only my body is there.

Suddenly, what was that? A dip followed by a bump in the road on Steeles Avenue? Or was it the highs and lows of emotions expressed by Bowie? By the time the wretched lady (God Knows I'm Good) whose theft of some food for her family from the local grocer left her so distraught at the thought of the eyes of God seeing and judging her (and haven't we all felt that way at one time or another?), I am absolutely swept away in the joy of the  Memory of the Free Festival. I don't know why everything is blue and pink while I'm waiting for the sun machine to come down... my guess is that it's never how you think it's going to be. I just know that whenever I go back I can almost recapture that feeling. But you know what I mean, you've been there too at some point in your life. What colour was it for you?

*****

10. 9. 8. 7. 6...

I'm vaguely aware of returning.

5. 4. 3. 2. 1.

I wake up in my bathtub. Today is December 8, 2013. I am Myself in the Now. I don't know how many times the album has looped during my soak, but the water feels pretty cold. I have a couple of options. Get out and allow myself to plump back out of this raisiny form, or run more hot water. 

As the album plays out again, I find I'm singing the lyrics to songs I only faintly knew seemingly moments ago, on the Steeles Avenue Express. I can now identify my favourites, those whose stories grip me and won't let go. 

• Space Oddity (well, duh)
• Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed
• Cygnet Committee
• God Knows I'm Good
• Memory of a Free Festival

I think I might be ready for the next trip. But instead of going linearly forward, I'm going to jump around in space and time again. Stay tuned to find out where in the Bowieverse I find myself next!