i'll let you know when i get there

Tenative reply, on a sunday/monday 1:36 am- I have said no to so many things lately. And no has been said to me. The void. The cold, no matter what anyone says. There are days when you do because you have to And others when no feels like the best kind of yes. Yesterday. I can't remember when I cried last and for some reason it feels like an important thing to know. Friday. It was Friday and brief. Two years is not so long a habit that it cannot be undone. Inevitablyet undone. To speak and break some silence.

stupid everything. i spend most of my days speaking 16 year old to 16 year olds. by 3:30 p.m. the only language i speak coherently is nap. by 3:30, i am a picasso of smeared eye make up, disheveled hair, and food stains. by 3:30 p.m. on any given day, i am not fit for public viewing. and yet, twice a week 3:30 finds me in all my disheveled glory sitting in the middle of academia surrounded by 20something year olds who speak fifty different languages and get invited to present their research papers at conferences and probably always use commas correctly. at one point i used to fancy myself to be quite clever. my favorite undergrad teacher even referred to me as "brilliant" to a friend once. perhaps at the undergraduate level i was brilliant in some sort of undergraduate way. but over a half of a decade later, it's becoming quite clear that my summacumlaude came with an expiration date. ah, hubris! (a word i have retained from those undergrad glory days...

and in her 29th year, she spent an average of 3 hours and 36 minutes a week playing Words with Friends and other internet games that required no direct human interaction. following as a close second, she averaged 2 hours and 52 minutes per week picking cat hair off her clothes.

And by, "i'll stay after school to help you as long as it takes," I clearly meant until 3:30 MAX. Clearly. Tired of trying Tired Tried

We/they/you/i've got it all wrong.