26. Some lame things that have already happened to me today and it's only ten am.
The Ancestors were speaking to me this morning, and they were saying, "Stay yo ass in bed, child."
Mornings have always been a personal struggle. For most of my life I was not a morning person. All through high school I struggled to get out of bed each morning, sleepily groping for the snooze button on my ringing alarm clock a dozen times before finally summoning enough will-power to peel myself from my mattress and feel my blindly in the morning light into the kitchen, where I'd drink coffee straight from the spout. I was the kid stumbling into homeroom several minutes after the final bell had rung, grasping a to-go coffee and rubbing sleep out of his eyes. In college, naturally, I arranged my schedule so that none of my classes were before noon--telling myself, of course, that a later start to my day meant a few hours' buffer in the mornings that would be perfect for finishing up any homework I'd inevitably neglected to tackle in a timely manner, but knowing damn well it was because even though I was a Serious Student and Committed To My Education, I didn't want it interfering with my habit of staying up late watching Mean Girls (ON FUCKING DVD) or reading fourfour.typepad.com and chatting about it online with my friend Charlé from the comfort of our separate dorm rooms. After college I waited tables for a while, and that was perfect because the earliest I ever had to go in was usually eleven o'clock. Then I fucked up and got a job in a public library about forty minutes from my apartment, which meant I had to get up at about six am to get there by 8:30, which rarely happened. I got "talked to" weekly about my "truancy," and that early call time definitely factored into my decision to leave the library after a few years.
Now that I'm older, I don't mind getting up early (meaning early for me, which is like nine or nine-thirty), but I still don't like to go anywhere. I'm back to waiting tables now, which is a job I'm technically super proficient at but which doesn't suit my personality (or my interests) at all EXCEPT in the since that my shift never starts until 4 pm. That's one of the approximately four things there are to like about my job, ranking just below "cash in hand" and "shifts that last an average of five hours" but just above "atmosphere among staff of sexual fluidity." (By "atmosphere of sexual fluidity" I of course mean that there are two ostensibly straight male servers with whom it is fun to trade sexually suggestive barbs as they fondle my rump in the server station.)
Anyway, I've worked out a schedule over the past couple of years. Each night I pass out drunk go to bed anywhere between midnight and two am, usually falling asleep to the sound of a VHS tape whirring and squeaking in the player, practically drowning out the on-screen action because these things are fucking antiques, bruh. Who needs a Better Image sleep machine when you've got a TV/VCR combo from 1993 groaning rhythmically at the foot of your bed? I keep the alarm clock on my iPhone set to three times: 8, 8:30, and 9 am. I'm still a big fan of riding that snooze button like its a surfboard and I'm Kate Bosworth in Blue Crush (underrated, btw), but I'm still kind of an idiot where my phone is concerned so I'm always hitting the "stop" button instead of the "snooze" button, and setting it to go off at three different times helps with that. By 9:30 I'm usually up and tripping over my cat Bobby Brown while I pull on whatever clothes are crumbled on the floor closest to me and either stumble toward the kitchen to make coffee or stumble out of my apartment, grabbing the biggest, most-light-blocking pair of sunglasses I own, and heading down to Chicory Café to get my coffee to-go. "Grande coffee to go, please, dark roast," is about all the conversation I can manage first thing in the morning; then I return to my apartment where I like to browse the Internet while watching the Today show until 11 o'clock or so, when I usually try to get to work on something.
Anyway THE POINT IS today did not go quite like that. Or it did, but with disruptions--which is sometimes worse than if things just go wrong altogether. I'm not someone who is in interested in the semblance of normalcy; I want normalcy. I want my schedule the way I like it and I don't want to deviate from it in the slightest.
some lame things that have already happened to me today
Well, my cunning system with the alarm clock didn't matter one fucking iota today because they've been paving the street I live on, which means that each morning bright and early they're out there with their jackhammers and their street cleaners making all sorts of ungodly noise, and I'm a poor person who doesn't have central air and the window unit is in the living room which means I have to keep my bedroom window open WHICH MEANS there's absolute no buffer between me and the cacophonous noises down on the street. Noises that are keeping your from your allotted amount of beauty sleep that you can't control because no way you're going down there in your short shorts and kimono and head wrap and morning breath and yelling at a bunch of construction workers who would probably laughingly drown you in cement if you did, are really the worst, and one of the worst ways to wake-up. (The worst way to wake up is probably to a rapid pounding on your door and an unfriendly voice shouting "POLICE! OPEN UP!" which happened to me last week, in connection with the street resurfacing and my Scion XA that was still parked on it.)
Now, there were no signs when I got home last night saying anything about not parking on the street, as there had been the past few days, so when I realized what that infernal racket waking me up was, I flew into a panic, certain I'd rush downstairs only to find that my car had been towed. Yes, panic: I could feel it pooling in my gut like hot acid, because look ya'll, I AIN'T GOT NO MONEY TO BE GETTING SHIT OUT OF IMPOUND. Plus I'm not sure I'd even know how to go about doing that if I did have money. So obviously, I'm freaking the fuck out because even though I don't really like driving or care about cars, I got places to go and South Bend is neither pedestrian friendly nor does it have adequate public transportation. All of the many places I absolutely have to go that aren't within walking distance--therapeutic trips to Target to spend money I don't have on things I don't need, for instance, or to my weed dealer's house--flashed through my mind as sprang out of bed and threw on some clothes.
I'm sort of frantic and half-cognizant in the mornings anyway, barely functioning, but considering how dire the situation was, I was extra-clumsy, and I stubbed my toe (HARD) on a 12 lb hand weight I don't even know why I have because I'm definitely not into fitness. (Impulse purchases are myjam.net). THE UNIVERSE: 2, ME: 0.
After cursing the idiot who left that fucking weight right in the middle of my walking space (me) and grumbling to Bob about how fucking rude and inconsiderate it is of the city to commence this work at such an unreasonable hour, I hurried downstairs. Thankfully, my car was where I'd left it in the night before, and I got it in and drove the few blocks to Chicory for a cup of coffee. I was glad that there was no line of faux-happy "professional types" in their business casuals not bothering to look up from their emails to order their double no foam lattes with skim milk or whatever shit they drink, but whatever blessings I thought the universe was sending my way were quickly subsumed when I saw that the barista on duty was the one I'm certain hates me, probably because I never tip more than the change from the three dollars I give her for my $2.64 coffee. When she informed me that "We're out of dark roast right now. Do you want to wait or is medium okay?" I knew the world was out to get me. Medium was most definitely not okay but I told her it was because the only thing I hate less than coffee that isn't a nice, robust dark roast that gives the shakes after three sips is waiting around for anything. I begrudgingly accepted it, slightly suspicious that home girl was lying to me.
Back at my apartment, sipping the sub-par coffee while my friends Al Roker, Dylan Dryer, and Jenna Bush rattled on about some new app that helps you hook up with people who are dopplegangers of your favorite celebrity crush, I navigated to newyorker.com because I'm an intellectual, only to discover, after clicking on the latest by Jia Tolentino, that I'd met my number of complementary articles for the month. Say what? But I have a subcription! (Sort of.) WHAT IN GAY HELL, I muttered, checking to make sure I hadn't logged-out by recently purging my browser history after sifting through all the porn to find that piece I read in The Believer last week made me feel like a pervert. I hadn't. The option to purchase a subscription or link my current one only confirmed that the day I'd been fearfully awaiting had arrived: the library I used to work at had figured out that during my tenure there I'd been using the online benefits of their subscription to the magazine. Needless to say, they cancelled that shit. I attempted to get around the paywall by opening the page in an incognito browser, but I didn't have any luck. (Which is really weird because usually that works, right?) I sat sadly at my computer, wondering what Jia had to say about From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and why--WHY--life is so endlessly awful.
I should probably just cut my losses, play it safe, and go back to bed.
Here's a picture of Bobby Brown lookin' all dandy in an ascot: