i had an exciting day. i'd forgotten what they were like. i got up and did things and had
adventures and conversations both long and intricate and snack-sized and superficial.
i woke up too early. i think that someone had called at 9:30, but i forget who. so i played on the computer for a little while, then went back to bed. until noon,
when the doorbell rang. and lo! it was my new
handspring, fresh from the factory and in fine working order. it has the cutest
stylus - chrome and clear plastic, and both ends unscrew to reveal a
reset tool and a screwdriver, respectively (the old one was plain ol' black). i hotsync'ed everything back onto it and was happy. i went and took a bubble bath and read
science fiction comics.
sparky stopped by to show me his tattoo (which is really pretty damned impressive), and i eventually threw him out so i could work on my housing situation, which is once again grim. another friend, colleen, came by and we fought politely over the computer and the '
ipalm.' (i admit to being selfish - i just got it that morning and was overworried that it would break, like the last one.)
she came along to see an apartment, which turned out to be a good deal for $700: three rooms, two baths, and the all-important washer and dryer. we went to subway and stuffed ourselves full of big sandwiches with lots and lots of
half-hearted jalapenos. we went hiking, stopping downtown along the way to say hi to this kid who lived in our dorm, whose girlfriend literally appears to be 12. creepy pedophile.
the park, where we went hiking, was depressing. it looked like it was dying, the trees and tails eroding away down the hill to the beach/
mud flats. dead trees stuck out of the ground at odd angles, trunks trapped in the dark mud. colleen didn't see what was wrong with it. it didn't look natural, because if the trees couldn't survive there, other vegetation should have come along and wiped them out. and they weren't all
big strong trees, but some of them were easily a hundred years old. the beach was polluted, but kids were swimming, anyway. we smoked cigarettes on a fallen log and carried the butts back in our hands.
colleen lives in the glen (apartment complex), so that's where we went. the glen is depressing as well, for entirely different reasons. it's full of kids, but there's no
benevolent adult influence, like there is in the dorms, no supervision. and, with nothing to rebel against, they seem much more defeated. going there is like entering a
post-apocalyptic city controlled by street children.
we went 'skating' in the parking lot. skating in colleen's world is going back and forth. no tricks. which is fine with me, because i was always a pretty shitty skateboarder, and it doesn't take much to dissuade me from doing things that will inevitably lead to bodily harm. we ran out of cigarettes, and so went to the
campus store. the building has been taken over by football players, the
university of washington huskies.
evergreen has no football team. half an hour later, the clerk got back from the
computer center (he points at me and says, 'she knows where i was,') and sold us camels.
campus gets dull quickly. we went downtown, to this
trendy vegan coffeeshop place that must be cool, as it was mentioned in
time's
sleater-kinney-centric article about
ladyfest. people were rowdy on the streets, as we walked the other way to go to the cash machine. a guy going into the sports bar that used to be an all ages club hooted at us, and stared. so i told him he was a
moron. 'fuck you, you anorexic bitches!' he yelled after us. going the other direction, a group of middle aged men made loud comments. i restrained myself.
and as we crossed the street, boys who looked
fresh off the base in a shiny black car stopped us to ask for advice in planning their evening. they wanted to drink, and i was the only person
of age in our group, so i became responsible for guiding them to entertainment.
me: 'try
ben moore's.'
them: 'what about
thekla? we heard that was cool. we don't care, we just don't wanna go to no
gay bar.' (
this is the point where they are no longer nice boys.)
'yeah, go to thekla.. you'd
love it.'
him: 'what? why don't you love it?' he's suspicious.
..so i backpedal. 'oh, i love it too.'
all better. 'ok. so.. where are you ladies going?'
me: 'um, we're going this way.' and i walk away. everyone else catches up and starts
yelling at me, because 'they were kind of cute!' right.
we get to the coffeeshop and it dawns on me that, oh yeah, it's thursday and thus it's
queer night at thekla. oops. we enjoy ourselves, eating
hummus and
roast garlic. i drink
oly's, my girls drink root beer and chai. some guy puts his sunglasses on my face, then comes back loudly demanding i give them to him. the waitress comes to our table often to apologize for the service, takes our order again, then disappears for another hour.
i get stuck with the bill.
i get a ride home, and the rest of the
night (morning) is uneventful.