After getting dumped, I was advised to take up a hobby by people who loved me and cared for me and thought they were better than me.
In order to get credit from my biggest sister and verify, with receipt, that I’d actually attempted her suggestion, I went to one organized sporting event where everyone left grayed with sweat and we all went to a shitty sports bar happy hour to drink back the calories burned from hang-dogging between free throw lines.
What I did instead of finding a hobby was...
The morning I arrived at the Best Western Plus Palm Desert, another plane had fallen out of the sky, and 114 bodies crashed into a horse farm in Kentucky. It was understandable that this had stirred the conference attendees, themselves predisposed to long thoughts about the end. I read that the brace position—legs hugged, head down—was designed by ‘flight chiropractors’ to deliver a quick and painless death, said a man in the lobby. Airlines...
This morning, the director said that by six p.m. I must produce a concrete cast of a vole burrow. They film at sunrise tomorrow and need the burrow today, as they have roped in a zoologist who will take the night to evaluate my work. The movie has to do with the endless human striving for satisfaction. Its protagonist is a young woman prone to buying things in attempts to better her life. Recently,...
