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[i]Waking up at 11:11 a.m.
Strawberry Pastry. Orange Juice.
All day shift at China Wok.
When I pull up to the restaurant the cops are here. Some kid
threw a rock at one of the windows at China Wok. Maybe somebody didn’t like the
Gen Tso’s they ordered yesterday?
A guy from a glass company comes in and hands Cecily the
bill for almost 600 bucks. It’s crazy how one person’s decision to pick up a
rock and break a window just cost someone else $600. It’s twisted.
Another cool summery day. It’s quite a contrast to the dirty
tips and stiffs I keep getting. Almost every order I’m left with barely a
dollar or nothing at all. This one black guy wouldn’t let me keep the dollar
and explained, “Y’all took too long.” Really? I doubt even if we didn’t take
long, under your standard, you would’ve tipped anyway. But a dollar isn’t
worth fighting for. I’ll let this dragon go un-slain. The Chaos Theory. One
moment of misfortune acts like a magnet for more misfortune. It’s really true.
Obviously none of these customers know one another, so it’s not like they’ve
all conspired to stiff me. But I think in some sort of cosmic way they have.
Delivering an order to a lady off Rosemont and Virginia
Beach Blvd. It takes her a while to greet me at the door. Meanwhile I observe
her wonderland of a yard: lawn ornaments everywhere, cement figurines, various
colored stones, seashells, a brick fountain tower, clocks, picture frames
without the pictures (just the frames mounted on the patio). She finally comes
out but from the right side gate.
“I like your yard,” I tell her.
Her: “Oh that’s my mother. She does all that.”
All of a sudden she becomes extremely grateful and exclaims,
“She’s gonna like that! I’m gonna tell her you said that.”
She only leaves me with a dollar tip but I can’t be as angry
like I was with the other customers.
But these shitty antics continue. I keep getting pummeled
with stiffs like a machine gun. Sometimes I feel like I’m a ghost to these
people, just a nobody that delivers their dinner. They don’t see an honest
hard-working human being standing at their front door. I think that broken
window was a bad omen for the day.
Meanwhile, throughout all this nightmare-ish workday, I’m
talking with Aysena on VK. I can vent to her and feel better knowing we both
miss each other
Ays: “im lost. every day im thinking about my future. now im
looking for job. like an engeneer . i dont know. i think i wouldnt like it. but
moscow is too expensive for easy work . eventually i need to find anything ..
because im at the edge of adult life. i need to find myself. i dont want to but
i have to.
it makes me sick
i want to shoot the cat”
Me: “welcome to the Real World. Life decisions. adult
thinking.
you should write a book
call it The Perks of Being a Russki”
I was confused by the cat statement; I wasn’t sure what she
meant. Apparently it was just a weird joke she made up on the fly. It’s funny
to me.
Ays: “a glow of desire kindles my soul and fires and
fullfills all my body ever time i think of you.
i want to say myself no more enchanted days in my memory
i remember when i got text message you sent ‘enchanted’ i
didnt know what it meant
i was confused”
Me: “enchanted. we are enchanted by each other.
i remember.”
Two Hard-Boiled Eggs. Five Guys French Fries. Honey Green
Tea. Ah. These fries...my only escape.
The night falls and so does the rain without warning –
pouring in bucketfuls. The tips gratefully get better. That’s how it always is.
The ignorant ones order at odd hours of the day while the blessed ones order at
dinnertime.
Plum. Coconut Water.
Finally off work.
Vegetable Lo Mein.
Watching Get the Gringo (2012).
Chocolate Chip Cookies with Milk.
Time to shave.
Sleep 4 a.m.
[i] All images
by me.
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