1/10: At the fish store, everything is expensive but the fish.
1/11: A woman in skull pants carrys a baby all done up in pink.
1/12: There's nothing fast about fasting.
1/13: A man on the bus with a sweet-looking guide dog talks on a cell phone. The dog's collar says it is a therapy dog. "Yeah," the man says to his phone. "You going to tap that?"
1/14: This morning, everyone walks through the heavy fog with their heads bowed, silent until the seagulls cry out, as if in alarm.
1/15: Someone in Bellingham is selling advice for $5 on craigslist.
1/16: My commute: from Oriental Avenue to Indian Street.
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1/10 -A little girl cries and whines because she can't get a candy bar in the checkout line.
ReplyDelete1/11- A young woman drops all of her change out of her wallet when she tries to grab her bus pass in a hurry.
1/12 - Two middle-aged men discuss the economic situation while drinking coffee and wearing suits.
1/13-Three boys sit in class talking about provoking the professor by wearing their hats, when they know the professor forbids them.
1/14-A woman leans over her chair so she can crack her back.
1/15 - A bus driver asks a rider if they are okay after stumbling onto the bus. They reply, "Yeah, I just took too many meds today."
1/16- A sign is placed between a person's windshield wipers advertising something.
Saturday:
ReplyDeleteI notice that Cricket the Guinea Pig now recognizes my voice and no longer bites me with incredible force, but licks me sweetly on the hand.
Sunday:
My boyfriend and I were getting out of his car and began our walk back to my condo when suddenly between our two hands was a mysterious willow branch. We had never touched the tree or grabbed it, but somehow a branch came between our hand holding. I always felt willow trees were pretty special.
Monday:
A cop was sitting down for lunch at Boomers with what looked like his wife. But during her whole speech to him about her day he barely uttered a word, always scanning Samish with his eyes, unable to multi task I guess.
Tuesday:
The regular decrease in the size of my brownies resting in their pan on the stove. Someone has been munching on my food.
Wednesday:
The many wash cloths my mother knitted for me. Far too cute. One even had several hearts knitted into it. She rules.
Thursday:
The lack of my deposit check showing up in my mailbox. It's been over a week for my landlord to send it back, grr.
Friday:
The brand new Ipod Nano my boyfriend slipped into my backpack for my birthday. Then his confession that he found it the other day while skiing, and then his confession that he was going to wrap it up and act as if he paid $150 for it.
A strawberry plant, potted with store bought soil and kept in a Bellingham apartment can become infected with slugs and tiny web-weaving caterpillars that kill the plant.
ReplyDeleteOn a daily basis, a pistol is completely useless. It just sits there with nothing to do.
It offers no help with any of the ordinary sorts of problems.
Starbucks:
Girl; with little pink cellphone. Reading art history. Underlining with a knife-sharpened pencil.
Observed a fire hydrant, not red, an ugly rusted green. Not the standard shape, just a pipe with a 100degree elbow, a capped hose fitting, and a little nameplate.
end
Overheard:
"Can you open the door" called a rider girl on a crowded bus.
"Can you open the door please" she called again when the rear door didn't open.
Still it did not.
"Hey open the door please" a man shouted louder.
clunk hiss
"Actually I'm alright now," spoke the original asker, "I just had to spit something out."
Did I hear right? Did she actually say that?
The good music teacher stands in a pool of light. There are ten shadows beneath my writing fingers. Behind me are whisperings. "...relapse... lets hope..."
A woman gets on the bus holding a 3 year old. The child pays the fare and receives the transfer. This is an excellent idea. Service Toddlers. If you don't have arms, strap a small one to your chest, or have a larger one on a tether. They can be trained at least as well as a monkey, are cheaper. It would be like having a talking monkey. An enterprising parent could train their children for this. "Lets pretend I don't have arms! Oh no, look at my empty sleeves! Now get out a pot. Now open the macaroni. Good job!"
A man walks into a bar.
ReplyDeleteHe bought a single cigarette, like it was enough.
The microphone was silver and black and honeycombed.
My girlfriend makes bread without gluten, which is to say not bread at all.
People need to leave a note, regardless of the damage.
Traffic seems above the laws of cause and effect.
The bus honks at the car in front of him. That car must feel like shit.
I’m watching my daughter roller skate with her friends. At eight she has become extremely independent.
ReplyDeleteThe daffodils in the house have grown about an inch since Friday (two days ago).
As I drive down the hill, I notice that the fog becomes much thinner.
I drive pass a man on a unicycle (the same man I see quite often). About a half-hour later I pass him again, approximately 5 miles from the first place I spotted him.
The garage is so messy that I don’t know how I’m ever going to get it tidied.
The kids in the classroom are pretty busy today. By the way the teacher glances over and grins at me I can see that they are stressing her out, but I think she does a great job of remaining calm.
My dogs would rather rip up paper than play with the new toy I bought them.
Someone put a plastic Buddha in the hole that is in the trunk of the old apple tree.
ReplyDeleteThe green cotton crocheted baby cape I made for my grandchild - who is growing inside my daughter's womb - turned out to be so much more beautiful than I ever imagined it would. Elf magic at work?
Holly and Greg are installing a hot tub and sauna on "The Land" - yippee!
Joe's cabin flooded and we gave him the extra sump pump we had hanging around and an extra pair of gum boots. We never figured out who left those boot here, but they fit Joe perfectly.
I often take my bath around 4:51pm. Helps me to let the work day go, and to feel fresh and alert during my evening.
While remembering the 4:51pm project tonight, I also remembered that we need to put the garbage out! A double victory!
I was at Whatcom Community College today at 4:51pm today helping to set up for the Martin Luther King Conference, as part of my work for WWU's Center for Education, Equity and Diversity. I paused in the parking lot, looking around and I noticed the youth and small size of the few trees that live there.
1/10: A mover drops a couch out of the back of his truck and when questioned by the family, denies there ever was a couch. It was lime green.
ReplyDelete1/11: The radiator cap of a Camry is missing and the car overheats on the freeway. The cap was taken off by hand.
1/12: Opa sits on the couch with an ice-cream cone and rubs his cat’s tail. He gets cat hair in his mouth and the back of his throat.
1/13: A florist gets two wedding orders mixed up, and delivers red roses instead of white lilies.
1/14: A student is working on an essay at school and an unknown boy to her sits by her and reads what she is writing. They don’t speak, and she ends up finishing her piece with him there.
1/15: An older woman is chasing a young teen boy around a movie theatre throwing popcorn handfuls at his back.
1/16: A sassy squirrel steals a feral kitten’s milk from an old woman’s back porch.
She’s blond, holding a beer can with a red licorice straw and blue gum squished under the tab.
ReplyDeleteHer bag of peas is frozen solid. She throws it on the linoleum floor and crushes it under her heel. The roommate doesn’t comment.
In class we watch a video clip of a man eating brains. After the video ends I turn to the girl next to me. “I didn’t watch” she says. “I’m not gonna watch that shit.” But it’s not shit, I think. That was last week.
Three men in collared shirts huddle over a table. “I’ll keep an eye out for him,” says one glancing over his shoulder.
The top floor is best because 1) if a tsunami hits you’re safer there than on the street, as long as it’s structurally sound 2) No stomping-yelling-bass reverberating upstairs neighbors and 3) You can see all of the paper airplanes that got stuck in the highest window sills.
I sit down in the lecture hall. Why does it smell like urine? It shouldn’t smell like urine. I turn my head, subtly I think, and sniff the boys on either side of me.
I feel a weird sadness when the men with brooms tell me they’re sweeping sand between the bricks so they won’t clink anymore. They say my enjoyment of the sound isn’t as important as safety. I think they regret it a little too though.
Advocatus D. = Jeremy Mattocks
ReplyDelete4:51 #4
Subconscious made conscious: folding fresh laundry feels like making contact with a warm body.
4:51 #5
Co-op. The girl to my right is typing vigorously. I think you can tell how much someone is enjoying typing by how aggressively they do it. Soft typing doesn’t mean they aren’t enjoying themselves, but it’s definitely not the typing itself they’re into. Maybe they’re “in the zone,” and it’s the writing they’re enjoying. But loud, hard typing means they are loving the process—the clacking sound, fingertips colliding with keys, even the posture. This girl in her snazzy-jazzy black leather boots is banging away at the keys, openly loving the process of crafting her email.
#6
The mall. My friend at the calendar kiosk and I are talking across the hall, and right between us a small child runs, gleefully, straight into his the arms of his mother. I think to myself, “that was pretty cliché,” but it was beautiful. When something terribly cliché like that happens right in front of you—something you scoff at in movies—it’s like for once, you don’t see it as a worn-out symbol of something emotional. You see the real deal, and it’s completely different.
#7
9:15. Rec Center pool. The theme to Titanic begins playing. Lifeguard looks sheepish—she knows what she did wrong. Song changes to something like Reliant K. Lifeguard looks apologetic.
#8
Downtown. Sidewalk. A middle-aged, silver-mustachioed chap in a dark jacket and glasses bursts out of a shop carrying an inconspicuous parcel. I smile and attempt eye-contact. He appears intent to avoid eye contact and speedily walks past me. Must have been in a hurry. I glance up at the shop name.
Oh. I see. An adult entertainment store.
#9
If you take the street instead of crossing through the field, you can avoid falling on your ass when the ground turns to mud. But it’s more fun to cross through the field.
#10
Rain drips from trees. Nothing else indicates that it rained recently. Now it just looks like the trees are rainclouds. There is something very surreal about all this
To control someone you must control their vices.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of what it is you're drinking, (juice, coffee, booze) double-fisting is always hazardous.
No matter how many times I scribble out a bad idea I always remember what it said.
Black canvas low top shoes with sugar skulls in blue and red, eyes shining, teeth clattering with each step.
When the weather is bad and I stay indoors I don't get many interesting observations but instead the guilty feeling of knowing I should clean more often.
A boyfriend forgets to pick his girlfriend up from the train station.
Figures slowly come in through the morning fog, shambling in the cold like ghosts in the ether.
While video game graphics have advanced tremendously, for a large number of games the dialogue has not.
1/10: I wonder if stupidity is hereditary.
ReplyDelete1/11: It’s a nice day for a white wedding, I suppose.
1/12: How the hell are the Cardinals in the NFC championship game? Who thought they’d make the playoffs? Who thought they’d beat the falcons? Who thought they’d beat Carolina?
1/13: I wonder why people are so nice to each other when they share a common misfortune. When I was walking around during the snowstorm everyone smiled and waved at me. Weird. If I saw them today they probably wouldn’t give me a second look.
1/14: No girls want to live with four guys. I don’t blame them. Would I want to live with four girls? Probably not, actually.
1/15: I’m graduating at a really, really, really shitty time.
1/16: Why the hell do I get a speeding ticket for going nine miles over the limit.
1/10 The most perfect curly haired toddler blew bubbles at her black lab.
ReplyDelete1/11 Nine windows in a row and the one in the middle is the only one with the blinds up. IS everyone else scared of what they might see?
1/12 Its too dark to be daytime
1/13 Where do they even sell snow globes anymore that they are not totally overpriced?
1/14 A preteen boy hasn't washed his hair in weeks and his pants are too tight. I bet he is listening to Fall Out Boy
1/15 Smoke billows out of what is a tall building for Bellingham and it reminds me of the evil guy in Fern Gulley.
1/16 Clock hands can be so slow... is it 4:51 yet?
1/10 Two good friends have fallen out because one has an all too frequently over boyfriend. I'm sure that must be the leading cause of roommate conflict.
ReplyDelete1/11 I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth and there are three people at the sinks: One, a tall, pasty, gawky boy who must be exceedingly bold because he's shirtless, the second, an uncomfortable looking girl brushing her teeth, the third, an obviously hammered girl- the boy's friend, perhaps? The drunk girl stumbles past muttering, "don't touch me," and then wanders back into the bathroom a few seconds later in her underwear and asks me if I've seen her cellphone.
1/12 I start work at 6:30 in the morning and approach my work building in the throes of fog. A creepy old man emerges from behind a trash bin. I ask him if this is the back entrance inside, and he keeps saying, "are you sure this is where you want to be?" Yes, I'm sure, where the hell else would I want to be at 6:30 in the morning?
1/13 A girl says she hates drama but that is all she talks about. It must be a love-hate thing. You do get a lot of attention out of it.
1/14 In the half-fallen darkness, a boy does eight close hurtles in a row.
1/15 The self-checkout machine at the store malfunctions after midnight- it will not charge anyone. The girl waves at the assistant who glances past, uncaring. She walks out with a free bag of grocceries.
1/16 a cop has someone pulled over outside the cafeteria. It's a dad and his daughter looks embarrassed
1/10: Attending party filled with AUAP students can be seen as improving diplomatic relations just as easily as "partying".
ReplyDelete1/11: A light descends from the top to the bottom of my living room window, heralding the finish of my reading for class. It is revealed to be a bicyclist's headlight, and I am strangely reminded of Johnny Cash's "Ghost Riders in the Sky".
1/12: Traveling with one bicycle peddle and one peg where a peddle used to rest is bad for orthopedic health. Also supremely inconvenient.
1/13: My lack of a name tag agitates one of my managers, the only one who cares at all. He insists on calling me "sir"...am wondering if it is to cover homicidal urge. Will continue to arrive without name tag.
1/14: Had blood drawn to test for degenerative joint disorders. Was more worries about pain of the needle than test results. I HATE NEEDLES. Note: blood belongs INSIDE the body.
1/15:Advertisement for plasma donation flaunts "up to 240$" as potential profit for donating plasma. It is not mentioned that 240$ is the cash reward for no less than EIGHT donations in a single month. Props to those who donate. I will never be one of you.
1/16: three day weekend constitutes slow work days, slow traffic, and very very fast exits from classrooms.
1/10: A father and daughter on the bus argue over a Nintendo DS. The daughter throws a tantrum after the fifth or six time her dad tells her, "You can play in a second! I gotta just play one more round!"
ReplyDelete1/11: Church people love Olive Garden.
1/12: Sometimes, a thing as simple as how someone approaches a mechanical problem can reveal a lot about their personality. That is what I'm thinking as my friend shears the pedal off my bike by repeatedly stomping on a wrench that wouldn't come loose.
1/13: She flails in half-coordination with the music, but then begins to fall to one side ever so slowly (as only drunks can do) and lands face first on the edge of the stage.
1/14: The clothing department in Fred Meyer has some lettering on one of the walls that says "FM Expressions." Who falls for this stuff?
1/15: Sometimes I think I should always carry a golf ball in my pocket so that when somebody yells "faggot!" out of his car window I can supply him with some justification for his arbitrary assholery.
1/16: The girl decided she didn't want her frozen pizzas, but was evidently embarrassed to tell this to the clerk, so she nonchalantly stashed them under the conveyor belt. When I pick them up and pointed out to her that she didn't need to waste them by letting them melt, she gives me a dirty look for a second and then denies putting them there.
1/10/09 – The woman slammed her purchase and handbag onto the counter. As the cashier glanced at the woman and then the nametag on the bag, she realized her enraged customer was the wife of her professor.
ReplyDelete1/11/09 – Through all forty minutes that she sat typing, her left hand remained at her teeth, the nails wet and close to the quick.
1/12/09 – Everyone says how much you’ll change after college, coining it as a bad time to get married or have children. Yet it is also the time we are expected to make life decisions.
1/13/09 – Weather has a huge control over our everyday lives. It can trap you, impair you, make your day, kill you, and infect you with cancer. Murderer, counselor, friend, shower, abuser all rolled into one. A bipolar God.
1/14/09 – Her jaw was swollen, the muscles by her ears pulsing and full like hamster cheeks.
1/15/09 – The two old men silenced the mall in their argument over a child.
1/16/09 – The little boy’s hand was stuck in the mail slot, suspending him on his tip toes as he attempted to wriggle free.