jacktellslies

I, being brilliant, managed to injure my back a bit doing yoga. I hadn't moved in months; I deserved it.

Things aren't so bad. I'm only a bit pinched, and I can walk. I pillaged the ocean depths with most of my usual ferocity yesterday, but I find myself wishing two things: that I could spend the next week as the slave of opiates, censored only by my own occasional lapses into better judgement, rather than by the fact that only two pills remain until my doctor has time to see me on Thursday. Also, I've been looking for a good cane since my August accident, but this city has failed to supply one that felt worthy of me. One might be useful just now. Still, vanity over comfort any day, yes?

The universe sends me mixed messages. I will be in Pittsburgh soon, and I will graduate in two months. Customers said nice things about me. I was tipped by a gentleman for whom I shucked oysters. I'd never been tipped for anything before. And I shucked oysters again for a beautiful woman. Her eyes and hair are dark. I think she has been with a different man every time I have seen her. I imagine that she is a courtesan, or at least skilled at convincing others to buy her oysters and strange fruits and good cheeses. She tipped me only with her beauty, but when I think of her, she presses her gentleman friend to give me something, and looks at him with disdain and turns away until he gives me more. I found a baby crab in one of the shells I pried open. It was tiny and soft and still moving. I kept the oyster and let the crab stay. I hope to find it alive when I get back tomorrow. You should know that JJ and I recently acknowledged one another as formidable opponents, and have come to respect, or more playfully disrespect, one another as a result. She was testing every cart in the store today, rolling them to the door , ensuring that the lock on the wheel did what it is meant to do when she pushed it past the threshold. I called her Sisyphus and threatened to throw things at her all day while she toiled. I threw banana bread at her mouth, and then I gave her a small and black thing I didn't quite recognize but that was in the place where a heart should have been in a soup cup, and a parasite I named for her, and I threw my glove, rubber, at her. She picked it up, accepting the challenge. There is a scene in Richard II in which everyone throws down their gauntlet at everyone else. One character must even borrow someone's glove so that he can return a third challenge to him. We only had one glove to spare, but that is secretly what happened. And I have good friends. I am in a bit of trouble, and Parker is helping me out of it, yet again. Sometimes I forget how good she is. But, there is that trouble. I am working more than I should. I am exhausted and my back is screaming, and I am so, so very poor. I will graduate soon, and things will get better, if they will not be solved. And I have a job, and I know when I will be paid next, even if I know that it will not be enough. I am not sure what sort of day today was, but it was long, and I want my bed more than I want anyone for whom I've ever opened an oyster. May this never be true again.