a day in Laura's life

alarm goes off, I think to myself, No, no, I want to sleep. No, no

cats start meowing for me to open the door or feed them. This has been going on every hour just about, while I was sleeping

I open the door and let the cat out, saying, come on, don't bother me

I tell myself, get out of bed, don't be lazy. My whole body, entire being is fighting me. Get out of bed, get up, get up.

I sit up and think, hard part's over.

I go to the stove in the kitchen, put on some water to boil for coffee, because I'm addicted and can't wake up sans it.

I stumble to the bed and say, I'll sleep til the water is boiling.

five minutes later I hear it boiling, and get up again.

I go to the fridge, open it for milk (skim, cause I'm dieting now), and, GOD damn it, there is no milk. Argh! Life can't be this cruel.

I get some cat food out of the cupboard, open it and give it to the cats in the room next to my bedroom. I close my bedroom door cause I don't want the cats in my room messing up my new sheets. I fumble through my clothes looking for something to wear. I put on sweats, sneakers, socks, and a change of clothes in my back pack. I go into the bathroom, open the cabinet to find sunscreen, and put some on my face. I run first before everything, and plan to change later. I've slept maybe four hours.

I make the journey up dekalb, or wait for the bus. My head is throbbing and I desperately need coffee.

But first I have to get coffee. The stuff where I am is terrible, cheap stuff, so I head a few blocks up Myrtle to Conneticut Muffin, where they make the best stuff and have the best muffins in the city. I try to control my hunger as much as possible, and order latte, large, with skim milk. I go out of my way to go to this place but I'm damned if I'm not going to have good coffee in the morning. I sit down to drink it, look at my book or magazine, whatever is nearby. I finish, finally feel energetic, and head for the gym.

I get there, and want to go back to bed, I dread exercise. But I force myself to do it even though my ipod is broken and I need music, so I watch the videos on the tv there. This is how I discovered all these bands.

Finally that's over, and I'm starving. The shower room is too cold at this gym, so I get out of my sweat-soaked clothes and change into dry ones. I take my stuff to the gym on 8th avenue to shower there because they have a sauna. One of the trainers approaches me, telling me she saw me practicing my monologue in the bicycle room (and I was). That in itself is freaky.

I am barely able to move I'm so hungry, but I shower, dry in the sauna because I'm cold getting out of the water. I need a hot room to shower in. I dress, comb my hair after conditioning it, put on jewelry, realize I look like a wreck and have no makeup on, so I try to groom myself a little.

I go out to this Thai place in the neighborhood, and order the same dish I always order: panang tofu and Thai salad. This place makes it the best. I've been to several other Thai places that don't measure up to this.

Then I have a ton of emails to answer, class to go to, work, plays to find, movies to watch, books to read, and before I know it the day is over. Then friends call and want advice on this or that. I go home, feed the cats again, pick up laundry and groceries. I watch a movie, go back to work some more in manhattan, take a cab home, clean up a little, feed the cats again, have a drink and head for bed. Sleep, wake up, ect ect....


I dream a lot about cathedrals, yellow walls, priests speaking from their pews, or sometimes violent stuff, like I'm held hostage or in jail, or about water, water slides, trains running up and down, like a roller coaster, above the rivers.