Today’s soundtrack: for a fake Chinese rubber plant
Today at 8:02pm: no shock, no awe


The other day it was gorgeous out, 60-something degrees with that feeling of Spring in the air. I got off work at five, came downtown and called Seiji (a/k/a McCarthy) in the office. These days he works until like 11p, it’s pretty sad.


ME: Get me McCarthy.

SEIJI: What’s up.

ME: What time you getting off work?

SEIJI: Late.

ME: It’s gorgeous out, me and Mike and Shady gonna go get dinner at a sidewalk café, whyncha come out.

SEIJI: Is that what you little hippies like to do? Go frolic in the leaves and eat your little cous-cous? I’m trying to earn a paycheck here, you’re wasting my time. Go hug a tree you little hippie bastards, I got work to do. Is that why you’re calling me? Is that all you got for me? You’re wasting my time. [click]

Seiji hung up and I laughed. I sorted through some bills then figured I’d go to the barber while waiting for Shady to come home.

At the barbershop the lady is massaging my head in the sink when my phone goes off. I let it ring.

Afterwards I check the messages, it’s Seiji apologizing for being so “blunt,” something about having a rough day at work. I call him back at the office.

“You listen to me McCarthy, you little son-of-a-bitch,” I say. “The Seiji you were thirty minutes ago--see, that’s the Seiji I always knew you could be,” I say. “That’s the Seiji that will do well in this city. Then you call me and fuck the whole thing up with this mewling little bitch-ass apology. The fuck is the matter with you?”

He began babbling some explanation while I reached for the “End” button.