09 March 2022

Suffering from a Case of Sobriety

I just sat down in the cafe where an older white woman sitting behind me said, "It's been a month of a week." I had to move because my back was to the window and I couldn't see the street and had to keep both exits in view because, obviously, if you're not watching the street in addition to the entryways, that's how they get you. So, I moved to have my back to a wall and still have eyes on the exits but I felt like going back to the lady and asking her if she, like I had last night, inadvertently pissed their pants, toddler style, while trying to navigate the labyrinth of my belt, or that I have eaten no food for 36 hours (and counting), or that I couldn't stop anxiety vomiting all day yesterday, or that I had just cried and cried in my vehicle while on the phone with a representative from the VA, a nice lady, who helped me begin to a file claim. I refrained from the dickwaving. But yeah, I hear her and I'm sure her week has been similarly challenging.


This is a book I'm currently loving. It's atrocious. Containing lines like, "Remember, this is top secret!" and "The porter was an oriental." and a raft of characters one of whom, whose greatest affliction was not the mysterious plague broken out on a military installation or the various shady and definitely nefarious conservative agents bent on upending the nation but was the problem of his sexual impotency, in a moment of self-reflection exclaims inside his head "Goddamn, I feel horny!" The book was published in 1986 by the now defunct "Leisure Books". Things like this used to greatly upset me, but the comedy on display here is SUBLIME. I'm halfway through and it is a gasser. Few things have pleased me as much as this in some time. Make your own conclusions about this set of data.

I am a fraud. I moved on from the work at Job Corps only to move from the move and I am reminded about all the times I told the students inane, unheard, and definitely unbelievable messages about career planning and making sound, adult decisions. In the interim, I've been forced to return to taking care of things I've let slip in the wake of trying to "fix" others (e.g., the VA call mentioned above, basic hygiene - I changed out of my pissed pants and put on the first pair of clean pants in a month). It's strange, as if the dormancy of adulting for myself has erupted to the surface and I'm accomplishing all manner of concerns not to be discussed on the internet, almost like a waking from sleep. Things are terrifying, clear, crystalline, pure horror, yet right.

We've had fools' spring here in the valley. Now it's back to snow and overcast. I'm still in the cafe, spending money I shouldn't and listening to music instead of looking for employment. I'm sure you all know the feelings - the guilt, the irresponsibility, the shame - of doing so but I'm pushing away at those emotions, in a gentle, non-hostile way. As for the Pabst above, I'd advise against. It tastes like a mix of Yoohoo and a mocha flavored Monster energy coffee drink and I knew, after the first sip, I'd finish the drink and regret it. The experience brought back memories of childhood, when my mother would pack shelf stable boxes of Yoohoo into my lunch. She'd have preferred my drinking milk, but was afraid of spoilage due to lack of refrigeration at school and so she went with the next best thing, one supposes. She would have, and sometimes did, give me money for lunch at school but my middle brother tuned me onto the scam of pocketing the money, a cool $6.25 per week, and going hungry during the day. She wanted me to eat and could have saved the money I was embezzling by applying for a free or reduced lunch but there was a strict taboo in the house against getting things "for free". Hence the brown bagged lunches and the Yoohoo. Again, make your own hypotheses about those data points and their inclusion here.

Well, shit, what are you doing?