I told her from the start, “San Diego is my goal.” I wish I’d been able to tell her something straight out of Kerouac like “I’ve got a girl out there waiting for me.” Except it wouldn’t be a girl, it would be a boy. And no one wants a boy to wait for them. A girl would want a man to wait and no real man would sit back and waste time. But anyways, I didn’t know more than three people out there. A friend of my sister, a professional gambler and maybe a closet case. The older brother of a friend, a restauranteur whose standards are little to high for someone like me. And the older brother of another friend, a man I knew much better than the others, the almost 30 year old child. This last one, he was the one I would keep as my life line out there. The one I would depend on just a little bit in the beginning. until I was steady and ready and set up comfortably enough out there. Until I had my own friends and knew the right people to do the things I want to do.
Parliament of Hungary in Budapest (by cadermark)
OMMFG D,GNDJDLKVDLKVLKVKSDNGDNGEURGBIU IT’S LIKE HOME! LIKE LONG LOST HOME. D,GNJDNVJKSDNFKNFDSVKNSDFV
I thought the club would be smaller and dirtier. In upstate, or maybe just this part of upstate, there’s not much to do except drink and look for tail. We were all about the drinking, but neither of us wanted to go home with any guys. But the club was big and fairly empty aside from a table near the stage and a few lonely boys posted up at the bar. The bartender was blonde and fit and knew my roommate from a few months ago. We talked about the girls and the manager and dancing. The stage was empty. We got our beers and headed over to the side to talk about the plans for the day and to play some pool. When we looked over there was a girl on stage in a short tight red dress. Nothing out of the ordinary. We played pool. Two attractive girls alone in a strip club always draws attention. We had acquired a small audience. A short, annoyingly persistent Indian man and a guy who may have worked there. A fat, sagging, black haired stripper sat alone at the bar. Had the Indian man stayed there, she would’ve flirtatiously laid her hand on his arm, laughed seductively at his too thick to understand accent, led him right past us to private back room. Instead she stared at us. The two young women unintentionally stealing money from her pocket. It got weird quick, so we left after our game. We went to a little diner not too far away and ate drunkenly fifty feet from a table of state troopers. We bought some food. She dropped me off at home and went to a boys house. I stumbled up the stairs deliriously tired and fell asleep fully clothed. I woke up with the taste of Genny light in my mouth and a strong desire to avoid that place.
thump thump thump thuuuump thumpuh
the inconsistent pulse of someone’s head hitting fiberglass.
skreee eeyawww skreeeeyaww yawskreee
thump thuuuummpah
the unpleasantly off-time shrieks of multiple car alarms.
crack crack crackcrackcrack
skreeeyaw skreeee eeyaww
thumpah thump thump
the muffled spark and bang of a handgun.
gworrrrrrrrorrrrrrrrrorrrrrrr
crack crack crackk
skreeeeyaww
thump thuumpah
the fading grinding of something being dragged.
heyyyy boiii hollaahh come ova heeyaw
gworrrorrrorrr
crack crack
yawskree
thump
the desperate calls of broke lonely girls to men in fast cars
slap tap slap tap slap tap
heeey boiii
gworrr
crack crackk
skreeee
thuumpuh
the uneven poorly paced jog of someone wearing ill-fitting shoes
slamph slamph slamph
tap slap
hollah
rrrgworrr
crackcrackcrack
eeyaaw
thump
the rushed escape of slamming car doors.
slamphtapslapcomeovaheeyawgworrorrcrackkcrackskreeeyawwthuumpah
That violent midnight ghetto music
[video]
I left as the c-shift workers trickled in. Carrying my half full xerox box. They held doors for me. Said goodnight. Smiled. I don’t know any of them. Our schedules never coincided before that night. It was late. Lawrence was cold. Above my head the trees met the starless sky. I looked up for one last time at the building I’d spent years in. Ninetofive. MondaythruFriday. I couldn’t help the heaviness that settled on me. The uncertainty of leaving. The loss of security that quitting had created.
I’m at that part of New York where everything smells like cow shit and the only radio stations that come in are country or sports radio and every single one of them are talking about the Pats loss last night so I drive listening to static.
Upstate there are towns called things like Selkirk, Mohawk and Ilion. You can look on one side of the highway and see run down farms and the other, run down mills. Some places are nice and developed but they’re so ugly and generic. It’s these run down places that are America. These are the places we need to fix and preserve. These unique, hand built, originally designed places that once employed whole towns of americans. That symbolized dreams and hopes and goals come to fruition. These are the first places we abandon. And the hard work, calloused hands, long hours… Isn’t that what made us all the way we are? The desire not to toil away like our parents The attitude of working smarter, not harder. Isn’t that why we’re all a little fucked up?
Maybe these run down places are what bred the greed in us. What made us want to move up in the world. Change our financial status. Maybe they’re what caused the laziness.
The apartment smells of coffee and cigarettes and when she stumbles out of her room in the morning asking why I didn’t wake her I don’t know how to respond other than I didn’t know the time. Which is a lie. I had been staring at the clock for nearly an hour watching it creep closer to the time when we’d both be late. She leaves fast and I stay behind for another hour doing absolutely nothing but thinking of cleaning or what to make for dinner and drinking stale cold coffee I made last night.
(via i-could-go-for-a-nap)