financial (in)considerations

right. so apparently i won't be eating for a week. rent is officially due today, and i don't get paid till the 8^th. Following a higher call, i found myself making the freezing cold walk over to BORDERS at lunch. I had had a vision of sitting in the cafe in a comfy chair, with bookstore music playing and the heater on full blast, while i sipped something warm and was transported to the carribean via marquez's enveloping prose. Outside, the poor bastards would pass by trying to retain the last of their body heat as the wind slowly ripped it away from them- occasionally i would look up and take another smug sip.

Ha. I spent far too long in the poetry section, and by the time i actually found the magazines, i knew this was not to be a "sit-and-sip" lunch at all. Having just spent $5 on a fashion magazine, i wasn't really looking to put down more of my hard-earned cash for glossy photos of clothes i could never afford. But i sidled up to the Fashion rack like it was an old friend and saw all the usual suspects, chatting amongst themselves about what to wear this fall and how to have unforgettable sex. I was about to move on, when out of the corner of my eye, a chartruse cover loomed behind the translucent gray letters t a n k. And in an instant my hopes for a meal sometime before next wednesday were dashed.

the thing is, i'm positive it will be worth every penny of the $30. I know, i know, if i were actually in london, it would only be $15. and i know, food is important. but food passes. and tank will live forever. (plus i flipped through the unwrapped copy in the store.)

go(ing nowhere on) greyhound

right. so i bought a ticket home from DC for a ride that was to begin at 10:45 on Sunday and end on 5:30 at the greyhound station in downtown chicago. En route were three layovers, only one of which i was informed of beforehand. The schedule had factored in the first two, while searching for cloves and enjoying gabriel garcia marquez occupied the respective waits.

The final layover was unplanned, uneventful, and unfortunate. We (my fellow bus-mates and i) waited somewhere outside of cleveland for 3 hours with a taciturn bus driver and no ETD. Apparently the bus engine had begun to overheat, and we were waiting for another bus to come find & rescue us. There was no heat on the bus, and we pulled off the highway at approximately 3:30 am, so periodically people would wake up, realize that we were no longer moving, and look around trying to assess the situation. Because the bus driver refused to make any announcements about the delay, those anxious passengers with connecting buses, trains, flights, or jobs who had pestered the driver for information took the responsibility for filling everyone else in about the situation. Finally, as the sun was beginning to rise and everyone's tolerance level was getting dangerously low (the woman seated behind me was like "i think i'm just gonna ask the next trucker if he's goin my way" and i was tempted by the idea) another bus pulled up and we all piled in. Needless to say, i was two and a half hours late to work- but i suppose in the grand scheme it was a small price to pay for the weekend.

more to come