So things have been crazy the last week or so. I have been working so very much. Like, 8 shifts in 6 days sort of working. I know that lots of other people work this much all the time because of necessity or having Important Jobs, but I am lucky enough to have cheap(ish) rent and inexpensive taste and also do something that I don’t believe to be life altering in any way. Mind altering, maybe, but life altering? Not so much. Anyway, I am generally satisfied working 3 shifts a week and having enough savings to buy a house in Kentucky. But this week all of a sudden all the things happened at once and I found myself working in the morning and until the morning, and sometimes missing one job because I had already committed to another one. It was silly. Really, really silly. Needless to say that as of yesterday mid-shift I was completely and entirely burnt out. Like, wow. I would find myself just blankly staring at nothing. Also, I kept going outside to get a breath of outside air and there is a ramp outside my bar and I would stand there and watch people but I was like, actively watching them. As in I would see them a block away and then just watch them as they approached the bar and then follow them as they walked past. I got some awkward smiles. No one saw me staring and thought
“yea! Let’s have drinks at that bar! That creepy lady out front looks especially inviting!”
I did get a whole group of people from some sort of drumming group, drums and all. Not sure if they were a drumming circle or a drumming line, but they were definitely drummers who organized themselves into some shape or another. I’m getting bogged down in the details here. The real story is that the last few days have been weird and that weird has spilled out into my dreams. I have been having very strange dreams. Angry ones, even. So as I mentioned in my last post, for the past few years I have been feuding with my neighbor. The feud began when he threw a three day long party of some kind with no warning to any of us living around him which resulted in me having to go to work and be nice to people on very limited sleep. He threw another one of these parties this weekend, leaving me extremely displeased, to say the least. As a result of my displeasure, and the fact that I was woken up at 2:30am the Saturday morning before my 8th shift in 6 days, I had a really crazy dream. But let me actually just add here that I am not exactly certain where real ends and dream begins. It is distinctly possible that I actually, in real life, got out of bed, opened my window and screen, and stuck my head out the window and stared down at the guests of the party with the meanest of mean looks I could muster. I imagine looking back that my neck somehow became longer than normal and I was able to get way closer to the guests of the party than my 3rd floor window would actually allow. I am pretty sure I looked something like this:
Okay so that might actually have been part of the dream. The part that I am about 95% certain was dream was when I leaned out the window and screamed
“SHUT THE FUCK UP!!”
and then poured a huge bucket of water out the window and all over the guests. I know this was part of the dream for the following four reasons: (1) I am a total long game type of girl and I very rarely do things that feel good in the moment in exchange for slow burn revenge. Sort of like the slow burn that a bottle full of cat urine would unleash on the plants in front of my neighbors house; (2) I don’t have a bucket in my room at the ready in case someone (or someones) need a serious dousing; (3) I don’t know that my aim in the middle of the night would be particularly good, especially on no sleep, and so I would probably just end up watering the tomato plants that live under my window; and, perhaps most importantly (4) there was a Big White Tent which would have protected the guests from any projectiles, liquid or otherwise. Even though I didn’t actually throw water on my next door neighbors party, I did wake up feeling slightly accomplished. I suppose sometimes evil deeds in sleep are almost as satisfying as evil deeds in real life and with the added bonus of no repercussions. (Note: I don’t actually ever commit evil deeds.) I did see my neighbor on the street yesterday at some point and I sort of giggled to myself because only one of us knew that I had completely ruined his party in my sleep and that one of us was me. Sucker!
The other thing that happened this week was that my favorite coffee shop closed. I have been going there since I moved to the neighborhood almost a decade ago. It was a great little spot. The coffee was good and fresh, the service was oftentimes somewhat crabby and, most importantly, none of the “cool kids” from the neighborhood ever went there. I like my coffee scene-free, hold the pretension. I know that I am interested in sustainable agriculture and that I have worked in some form of food service for like 13 years, but the reality is that coffee tastes like coffee to me and I don’t need a whole lecture about where the beans come from or get a side-eye from someone cuz I drink mine with milk. I like milk in my coffee. Sue me. Also, I think cold brew is silly. And wasteful. Do you know how much coffee it takes to brew that shit? Sustainable my ass.
I got distracted. So here’s the story. I went into the coffee shop to get my morning cup on my way to training at this new spot that I am going to be working at and the owner who I have known forever said
“This is the last day.”
I literally thought she was going to follow that with a loud
“APRIL FOOLS!”
But then I realized that it is August and there is no such thing as August fools. Not that I know of, anyway. I couldn’t stay and chat because I was running a little late but I was really sad about it so I called my friend Ben and he was also sad about it. He went down and bought beans. Now he Has Beans (I didn’t just capitalize that for no reason. It’s funny, for those of us In The Know [which I capitalized for no reason]). So all that happened in real life and now I am left scrounging around for a scene-free coffee place. I tried the bagel shop but I don’t know, the service is a little lackluster. I could go to the bakery, but then I have to cross the avenue to the side that I don’t really have to be on most of the time to get to any of the places I am ordinarily rushing to in the morning. I could just make my own coffee which I often do but….sometimes I want my coffee out! I’ll figure it out somehow. So the dream! This is actually a nice one. I had a dream last night that all us neighborhood folk who went to this shop reopened the shop and ran it ourselves! And it was so nice! And then the owner came in and her heart was warmed because she realized how beloved she was in the neighborhood amongst those of us who are a little bit crabby and not dressed particularly stylishly. Anyway, it was nice and then I woke up and realized it was all a dream but I did feel a little bit fuzzy inside knowing that my dreams aren’t all about revenge and eating peanut butter.
So, that’s it. I am hoping this coming week will be less weird but if it isn’t that I continue to have dreams that bend my understanding of reality and/or leave me feeling good about myself and my community. The end.
franklyrebekah 