"and every summer is a hot token

to the cold, cold take of lust.

and every autumn singes

with the business of sadness."
BRACKETT, WI. BON IVER


I love work because every time I go, I meet a new person. Last night it was the sole waiter, and we attempted small talk in the twenty-second overlapping dish-scraping at the counter we had, placed sporadically throughout the night. Our first went something to the effect of So youre the new bus girl? Moderately new. Ah so do you like it here? Yes actually, I kind of love it! Love it? Thats something new to hear. Do you like waitress..wait..waiter-ing? Nah, I mean it works as a --- and then we were off and rushing to new tables.

The second went like this. So Mindi tells me you run! This is the point where I became profoundly puzzled because at first I thought that he meant run while I am setting tables. And I worried for a moment whether I really did run around the dining room subconsciously, and mentally scolded myself for being so terribly embarassing. But then I figured he must mean run, as in run track. But I do not run track. And I do not know why Mindi (my boss) would go around distributing this information to the waiters. No. Well I like to run.. *confused look* I play soccer! *he laughs*-- off to some other table.

There was a third meeting, boring. And I always appreciate politeness. I like people.

Today, my friend and her mom were washing their dog in a mini-pool. His matted, sopping fur dripped so solemnly and his head hung in utter defeat, lashed by severe scoldings of "Oh doggie, we had to give you a bath-y. You stink, honey! You smell like a dog!" This triggered in my mind my mother's facial lotions, which she spends on lavishly, in hopes that their labels of "age defying!", "wipe the years right off your face", "remove ten years from your appearance!" hold some thread of truth. If you are a dog, why not smell like one? If you are a worn human being, who has lived and are graced with the tender lining to show it, why hide it? I can understand defying things that are false, cruel, or oppresive. I cannot quite wrap my head around erasing, obscuring, and concealing what one truly is.