I was staying somewhere with my brother. I slept in a big bed upstairs, with no walls or privacy. Big and cheap, like Regina in the 90's. Before I was there, a small dog had slept in this bed, small and white and fluffy. It passed away before I came, but before it did, it had shit and peed all over the bed. My own dog, Lola in dogform, chose to pee in every spot the other dog had peed in. On the last one she peed, then took a huge dump. When I realized she was a dog, and not a cat as she is in real life, I began scolding her, almost poking her eye out, wiping the tears from her eyes, rubbing her eyes trying to put them back into shape.
As I did this, my brother came upstairs, and demanded we change rooms. I was embarrassed by the bed, and all of my things in the room had a spot, and I was very tired.
Someone said I was making too much noise. We yelled and fought, until I slunk down the stairs. He scolded me for the items my customers were buying me, and called it indulgent.
I dumped my things on a table downstairs, a big warehouse space owned by my Uncles. They ran a series of illict trades, including light switch vinyl cover printing. My mother and my aunts sat at a table and unboxed old Christmas crafts to assemble them into books. Anne forgot to double side her pages, and they mused over why she would do that, chiding her.
Still upset, I left the space to ride my bike, fighting tears back. I rode through Centennial Square in Mount Pearl, down past the drug store, through the parking lot. As I coasted I saw crowds of people, like groups, who were my age. They were moving towards a side door of the grocery store. They were singing an Arrogant Worms song, I hear the screams of the vegetables. I fought the urge to join in. It was harder to fight the tears back now. I was intrigued by these people, but felt alone. When I reached the gathering point, I went inside the building.
Inside was a huge auditorium, with a big movie sized screen. Over 200 people were inside. They had been singing, but the song was over. I climbed the steps between the rows. People were perched on the backs of seats. One person, a girl, was telling a story, sharing an experience. Everyone had turned to face her, listening intently. When she was done, another person began sharing a similar, but different experience. The group faced him as well.
I was nervous and confused, so I sat in the back corner, which was draped with drift wood. Someone, slightly in front of me, stood up. He had something to share. He told the group he wanted everyone to move to his right, and face him. He moved towards the centre of the isle, and everyone moved to the right of him. I, feeling awkward, moved from my spot to a chair to the right of him, but still behind. I felt he was putting us into a specific kind of grid to help his speech.
A man standing next to me fiddled with his tablet. He complained he couldn't get an advanced item on it working. I looked at the screen, the item he was looking at had a game controller icon. The layout matched the page on the projected screen in front of us, some kind of app guiding this experience. IT felt like we were in group control, no hierarchy, moving together. I smoked a cigarette and looked at the app on my phone. I gathered there was some kind of designated experience for thesis. With challenges and goals to achieve. I could not figure it out, the man with the tablet, looking at my screen told me he could not get it to work either. I put my cigarette to the side of my chair, it was almost out. I waved it around, not sure what to do with the still burning butt. The man watched me. He went to slap it from my hand, licking his fingers, but I objected. I wetted my own fingers, to put it out myself, and pinched the flame.
We bantered. The sharing experience portion ended, and the screen changed. We were given different GPS coordinates and a riddle on our phones to seek out in the real world. The answer to mine was a red crane by the harbour.
I took a bus downtown St John's. On the bus were other people like me, and regular citizens. Two of my people discussed how they found the brick pattern on a building soulfully satisfying.
At my destination, 8 of us trickled in and sat around the table of a man who seemed to be maybe a lawyer of some sort. He gave us business cards, we chatted, the 8 of us, as we waited for the next challenge. We read non-time specific ones. One had a preamble about your variety of creative work, listing examples - writing fiction, lyrics, music, etc etc, and challenged us to combine our favourite work by another creative with the best work of our own -- to my dismay, I received lyrics as my specification. We received a google hangouts call from Roderick and Lewis. I was still some what confused by what was going on and whether or not this was mandatory, what I had missed. I had been swept up in the activity and unified atmosphere without understanding why or how other people came to be here. Lewis spoke discretely to me, about my nervousness. I did not listen. My eyes began to water and a tear fell down my cheek. I wiped it away, but kept crying. I was laughing.
Someone showed me a transcript to explain. I was so happy in the unity. We jumped up and went out in our bikes into the rain. Our riddle was to find a read and white crane by the water. It was a construction crane. We reached it, and held our phones up to confirm the location. Others were arriving, then leaving to the previous spots. My phone glitched, frozen on an image of my blood shot eyes, tear strewn face.
The girl said to me, well her certainly liked you.
Yes, I said. Because I'm so emotive. I can't help myself.
Here I am, crying with joy.
As I did this, my brother came upstairs, and demanded we change rooms. I was embarrassed by the bed, and all of my things in the room had a spot, and I was very tired.
Someone said I was making too much noise. We yelled and fought, until I slunk down the stairs. He scolded me for the items my customers were buying me, and called it indulgent.
I dumped my things on a table downstairs, a big warehouse space owned by my Uncles. They ran a series of illict trades, including light switch vinyl cover printing. My mother and my aunts sat at a table and unboxed old Christmas crafts to assemble them into books. Anne forgot to double side her pages, and they mused over why she would do that, chiding her.
Still upset, I left the space to ride my bike, fighting tears back. I rode through Centennial Square in Mount Pearl, down past the drug store, through the parking lot. As I coasted I saw crowds of people, like groups, who were my age. They were moving towards a side door of the grocery store. They were singing an Arrogant Worms song, I hear the screams of the vegetables. I fought the urge to join in. It was harder to fight the tears back now. I was intrigued by these people, but felt alone. When I reached the gathering point, I went inside the building.
Inside was a huge auditorium, with a big movie sized screen. Over 200 people were inside. They had been singing, but the song was over. I climbed the steps between the rows. People were perched on the backs of seats. One person, a girl, was telling a story, sharing an experience. Everyone had turned to face her, listening intently. When she was done, another person began sharing a similar, but different experience. The group faced him as well.
I was nervous and confused, so I sat in the back corner, which was draped with drift wood. Someone, slightly in front of me, stood up. He had something to share. He told the group he wanted everyone to move to his right, and face him. He moved towards the centre of the isle, and everyone moved to the right of him. I, feeling awkward, moved from my spot to a chair to the right of him, but still behind. I felt he was putting us into a specific kind of grid to help his speech.
A man standing next to me fiddled with his tablet. He complained he couldn't get an advanced item on it working. I looked at the screen, the item he was looking at had a game controller icon. The layout matched the page on the projected screen in front of us, some kind of app guiding this experience. IT felt like we were in group control, no hierarchy, moving together. I smoked a cigarette and looked at the app on my phone. I gathered there was some kind of designated experience for thesis. With challenges and goals to achieve. I could not figure it out, the man with the tablet, looking at my screen told me he could not get it to work either. I put my cigarette to the side of my chair, it was almost out. I waved it around, not sure what to do with the still burning butt. The man watched me. He went to slap it from my hand, licking his fingers, but I objected. I wetted my own fingers, to put it out myself, and pinched the flame.
We bantered. The sharing experience portion ended, and the screen changed. We were given different GPS coordinates and a riddle on our phones to seek out in the real world. The answer to mine was a red crane by the harbour.
I took a bus downtown St John's. On the bus were other people like me, and regular citizens. Two of my people discussed how they found the brick pattern on a building soulfully satisfying.
At my destination, 8 of us trickled in and sat around the table of a man who seemed to be maybe a lawyer of some sort. He gave us business cards, we chatted, the 8 of us, as we waited for the next challenge. We read non-time specific ones. One had a preamble about your variety of creative work, listing examples - writing fiction, lyrics, music, etc etc, and challenged us to combine our favourite work by another creative with the best work of our own -- to my dismay, I received lyrics as my specification. We received a google hangouts call from Roderick and Lewis. I was still some what confused by what was going on and whether or not this was mandatory, what I had missed. I had been swept up in the activity and unified atmosphere without understanding why or how other people came to be here. Lewis spoke discretely to me, about my nervousness. I did not listen. My eyes began to water and a tear fell down my cheek. I wiped it away, but kept crying. I was laughing.
Someone showed me a transcript to explain. I was so happy in the unity. We jumped up and went out in our bikes into the rain. Our riddle was to find a read and white crane by the water. It was a construction crane. We reached it, and held our phones up to confirm the location. Others were arriving, then leaving to the previous spots. My phone glitched, frozen on an image of my blood shot eyes, tear strewn face.
The girl said to me, well her certainly liked you.
Yes, I said. Because I'm so emotive. I can't help myself.
Here I am, crying with joy.
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