Straight No Chaser

Viernes

listerine spill on aisle three. this room will smell minty fresh until the end of time, because as we are currently discovering, the swiffer wet is not up to the challenge. i was going to mop anyway, but damn.

on fridays we have market. trucks and vans start rolling in as i'm walking to work; their owners unload between the bookstore and the cafeteria, turning our sliver-thin quad into a gauntlet of money traps. africans and west indians, mostly, selling money and posters and incense, styling hair and waxing eyebrows when it's warm. i used to buy stuff, freshman year, when my dad still sent money all the time. i have more sterling silver than i can wear on this one body, but i always want more. matina, the woman who sold me the ring that spun and spun and eventually broke, i can see her from the front dorm window, spreading that black velvet mat with similar rings tucked into each slot. anybody want to get me a present? even my fingers are naked, because after i broke the philadelphia necklace, i misplaced the zen bangle and dropped the jade and silver stack rings down the elevator shaft, and now there's only the birthday ring left, a white/yellow gold two-tone with a sapphire and little diamonds. i want a cheap ring for the other hand, like in those ads. your right hand says maryland. your left hand says georgia. your right hand says parentally spoiled. your left hand says independently broke.

she's posting the tests online at seven. she hates us, now, because we humiliated her with our midterm scores. we hate her, because her class is difficult and boring, and because she manages to make even things that start out interesting seem ultimately useless. my personal hate exceeds everyone else's, i think, because i have less than three hours to turn this room immaculate and shower, and the tests are due right in the middle of that period. on a friday. if seven o'clock reveals that i have to write another essay this afternoon, i'm going to quit school.

we are going to see "saw two"!!!! and, sweet god damn, CHARLIE is coming out on november ninth! krystle, sweet ambrosiac goddess that she is, texted me to let me know, as soon as she saw the commercial!!! it is so nice to be understood. i am going to ravage the dvd extras. it will be one kiddie movie that does not get immediately interrupted by timely kisses. cinematically, this has been a good day. hormonally, it has been frustrating. in every other way, it has been lackluster. and i have nothing to wear to the movies tonight, so either i'll be naked underneath my north face jacket, or i'll be completely underdressed in this pink tank top, the only clean thing in my room. and i'll freeze to death, a smiling shannon popsicle, one who never got to see her movies or kiss her soulmate one last time, but who smiles anyway, suspended in endless gleeful anticipation.

i just decided grim should marry strange. that would fix, let me think, everything. yes, everything.