The company prided itself on built-in obsolescence and a return policy so labyrinthian no customer could hope for resolution. 

Their lives were mundane but spiked with moments of madness. 

He never could quite pinpoint exactly when he went from staying up to see the sunrise to waking up to do the same. 

 Looking back, Albert wondered if he had actually been someone else since he couldn't fathom that the person who had made such terrible choices could have been him.  

The gulf between them widened with every new meme she posted.

Fraud had become our highest ideal. 

 The best advice I can give: start each morning watching the sunrise and thank God (or the Universe) for the privilege. 

 Sometimes a simple song or a short poem is all we really need. 

 "We don't know what ninety-five percent of the universe is made of," the lovelorn physicist said, "so what makes you think you know your own heart?" 

 The overflowing wastepaper basket and dirty dishes moldering in the sink were symptoms of something bigger. 

Terry had been alone so long his sotto voce asides when in public were uttered in a voice that could be heard quite clearly. 

The coffee went cold in his cup as he went further into the story. 

It was hard to subsist on dreams.

She kept secrets like a dragon atop its hoard of treasure. 

 It was nearly impossible to overstate the terrible state of the state as best illustrated by the roads (not the interstate). 

Her reoccurring nightmare in which she'd forgotten to attend an entire semester's worth of classes continued thirty years after graduation. 

 The howling wind carried a tale of darkness, bitter cold, and the pain of the destitute. 

The clock tower's incessant tolling reminded the villagers that time waited for no one. 

Tate loved explaining things he knew nothing about. 

Our world is both incomprehensibly huge and infinitesimally tiny, depending. 

Herb worried that once he retired there would nothing left to worry over. 

The past refused to stay there.

To rage or succumb were the only choices. 

Even after the fortune teller explicitly told Ted the exact day on which he would die, he still couldn't manage to get out of bed before 11. 

That spring she could not shake the feeling that her days were becoming shorter even if the sun hung in the sky longer and longer. 

Even after reaching the pinnacle of his profession Earl still felt like a fraud. 

On the fifth day of March, I wrote this (meaningless) sentence. 

The weather swung wildly as if unable to decide which season it was in. 

For Nina, getting letters never ceased to thrill. 

Shots of fear ran through Sam when he would suddenly recall his growing list of enemies. 

 The fragile seedlings struggled towards the sun and the seasonal cycle began again.