posted on September 12, 2003 @ 4:54 pm
"chelsea!" from outside my door i could hear jennifer yelling. i glanced at my alarm clock; it was a few minutes past 10:00 a.m. the morning cartoons were playing on PBS (i'd left my television on so maybe i'd have a chance at waking up for a 12:50 movie with layla), and the combination made me come alive immediately. i heard my doorknob turning, the crack the wood makes when the door open, and saw jennifer's reflection in the full-length mirror across from the door. lying on my back, without moving, i turned my eyes to her reflection. "guess who died today?!" she turned the corner to face me. "john ritter!"
in our home, john ritter is most famous for his voice acting of clifford the big red dog. what can i say?
after discussing how tragic this was she left, and i attempted to resume sleep. between 30 and 60 seconds later, repeat process: turn, pop!, jennifer's reflection. "guess who else died?! :rounds the corner: johnny cash!" i immediately thought of the bar stool they have in emo's, suspended from the ceiling above the inside bar, which his bum graced years ago.
after such ado, i only dozed for about half an hour more, then trudged downstairs for toast. i aimlessly flipped through the chronicle i picked up last night, read some more stuff about proposition 12 (excited about voting tomorrow; have never voted), and listened to jennifer when she came downstairs while brushing her teeth to tell me i should go to her astronomy class with her. except it was all in vowels since, you know, she was foaming at the mouth and had a toothbrush obstructing her tongue. i'd decided to get my oil changed since i'm returning to longview tomorrow, so seeing her old, clucking astronomy teacher with a long ponytail will have to wait until next week.
i got a coupon i'd clipped from the phone book for a $14.95 oil change and drove down to precision tune something or another. he returned after taking my car into the garage to say that there's lots of stuff wrong with it. i told him i was pressed for time (i had to meet layla at dobie in less than an hour) and short on cash, so could it wait? he suggested not too long, but yes, it could. i read the first 25 pages of tuck everlasting before he came out to say he was finished.
he'd printed up on the receipt what i needed done:
needs transmission fluid flushed if not done in last 30k miles, front passenger ABS sensor broken and hanging down, hub bearings making noise � need to be replaced and struts are loose in front � need replacing � appears as though rear struts have already replaced.
oi. he also said i needed power steering fluid, that what i had was low and burnt. he said it'd be $40, so i asked, "could you go ahead and put some in there?"
"no problem, i'll give you some."
my total was only $18, though, so now i'm unsure whether i have power steering fluid or not. at least he explained what's up with the hanging things behind my front tires and why the right tire clanks when i go over bumps. he said he could shake that one and hear it clank. =/
upon leaving, i retrieve cat, and we meet layla inside the theatre. we watched thirteen, a movie i hadn't heard of. layla had heard positive things about it, and virginia said it was pretty good, so i deemed it worth my $5.75. as i purchased my ticket, i noticed they were playing johnny cash. it was one of those films that makes me feel really uncomfortable, like girl, interrupted. through the whole thing layla and i were repeating, "no, don't, oh i'm so worried for her." seems she's getting as old as jennifer and i. ;)
there were two parts where it actually showed the girl cut herself. the first time she used cuticle scissors, and i couldn't watch. i put my feet on the seat before me, crunched up, and covered my face, feeling the heat of my tears as i listened to layla saying, "ew, oh, no, no." when i peeked at the top of the screen, i only saw her face. the next scene quickly began. the next time she used a razor, but this time i watched. once again i felt my tears collecting, and sensed how hot they were; these were from a real pain, not from watching a movie. i was 13, also, when i first started cutting myself. it was like watching me doing it to myself. she even used the same washcloth each time, like i had my burgundy washcloth throughout high school.
by the end her mother discovers she's been cutting herself. after struggling with her mother, they both sort of collapse onto the kitchen floor together. her mother raises her sleeve and looks at her cuts, then slowly kisses all of them, covering the surface area of her entire under-forearm. all of a sudden i clearly recalled the time that layla kissed one of my cuts when we were living in the dorm, then a few weeks ago when mom kissed my big scar, and i thought the dams were going to break. thankfully i kept them all in; the screen just sort of blurred for a while.
the lead actress, evan rachel wood was really pretty; she looked like a little chloe sevigny. here's her and the little slut who introduces her to bad stuff.
anyway, that's enough of that. i'm going back to working.