First real serving chift at Rubins = Ka Ching. $96.96 before tipping out - $80.85 when all was said and done. For Five Hours!

Wolverine
Homecoming Queen
Took the train
To Pickerel Lake

It's not your fault
It's not your fault
It's not your fault
It's not your fault

It's sold and bought
It's sold and bought
It's sold and bought
It's sold and bought

Take it in stride
Take it in stride
Take it in stride
Take it in stride

Take it in stride
Take it in stride
Take it in stride
Take it in stride

It's not your fault
It's not your fault
It's not your fault
It's not your fault

It's not your fault
It's not your fault
It's not your fault
It's not your fault

First day at Rubin's. Observations:

- The staff seems to like the place. They say that the money is good, averaging $100/night on weeknights. However, there are no breaks, ever -- I'm pretty sure that's against the law -- and shifts can be up to twelve hours long.
- Food is free for staff - one entree, pretty much anything, per shift, and sides, beverages, etc. as much as you want (within reason.) But, the management is stingy with giving away food to visitors, so don't expect anything free if you come to see me.
- The deli guy, an older guy named, possibly, Jemel, took me behind the counter on an inside tour of the meats. He held up an entire tongue of a cow at me and said: this is the tongue. Tongue costs $4 extra in a combo sandwich.
- We add up our tabs by hand.
- Spanish is spoken more than English. I don't mind but am too timid to talk back.
- There is no dairy whatsoever in the restaurant. If a baby comes in with a bottle, we have to tell the family to put the bottle outside. No joke.
- Staff eats furtively in the kitchen.
- A bossy high schooler kept showing his insecurity by being hyper-aware of my presence. If I so much as glanced at him, he would be like 'what?!'

After I got off (it was only a four-hour shift) I walked home, hoping that I would have the opportunity to do something fun / interesting later, such as drink some beers and either lounge, go to the movies, or roam. Any of those seemed good. Actually, I mainly wanted the beer. But tonight was not my night. Instead, I ate a huge amount of popcorn and watched some fairly lame commentary/extra features of Arrested Development. And now, out of spite, my body's all like : No! You can't go to sleep! You haven't fulfilled your mission of cracking open a cold one!

The Grand Attempt To Be Better is succeeding, however. In my time-wasting and longing for a Corona, I am not doing something else.* I feel a little like a Jewish mother inside, but I am just perseverating to myself, which is better, I suppose, than being as annoying as I've been lately.









*(harassing.)

I got hired! I start at Rubin's Deli tomorrow.

So, I've been really bad about updating. It happens when you're no longer a) alone and b) in a foreign country. I know, I still haven't put the Barcelona photos up. Oh! Wait!...

But first, a shoutout to the tattoo FAQ I wish I had known about months ago.

In Philly, us in front of one famous thing: Independence Hall.

It's my birthday, duh, and my boo is being so extra sweet.

It's almost my birthday.

I painted for a long time today.  It is such a head-clearing thing.  I made butterfly chocolate cupcakes with lemon cream frosting.  I made a mess.  Met J. to see Strangers with Candy.  It was OK.

Please don't worry lover... I should have given you a reason to stay, a reason to stay...

Oh, cyclical melancholia, leave me alone!

Reincarnation and You - Billy Collins

To come back at all would be outlandish enough
let alone to return as something else,
yet most are quick with a preference

for animals, usually, birds
fluttering at the top of the list
pursued by jaguars and cheetahs,

sometimes a peacock,
but never an ant, never a snail,
despite the quiet modesty of their lives.

Once around is enough for me
though whenever you ask
I come up with something, a waterfall

or the ferns quivering in its spray.
An enormous piano, I will say one day,
ane the next a puddle in a sunny

tropical village after a week of rain.
Or I will pick a lime for the fun of it
and hang there all day in the Florida sun

trying to make death appear as easy
as you make it sound
when you stand by the pearl grey windows

and explain your life as the lapdog of a duchess.
But never mind all that,
never mind the elephant-headed god

and the transmigration of souls.
Forget the rings of time
and the abandonmment of desire.

Come closer. Look me in the eye
Tell me what kind
of animal you want to be today

and I will whisper in your ear
what I really want to be, come to think of it,
now that all the sun has drained

out of this room and neither one of us
has thought to put on a lamp --
a zoo in a lost city,

one that can be entered or left
only by crossing a range of mountains
covered with deep snow, all year round.

I go home tomorrow. (yes oh yes oh yes)