GIRLS UNFORTUNATE ENOUGH TO BE NAMED AFTER VIRTUES
Everybody in the office is awfully chummy today. One of our supervisors went and bought fancy coffee drinks for everybody and we're all being even more jokey than usual. Another supervisor was at a sex toy tupperware-ish party last night, and we all got to look at the horribly seedy-looking hand-copied catalogue. Yo, the democratic caucus is such a motherfucking party. Hippie haiku.

Everything is pretty chill at the moment. My car is still radiator-free so I've been up at six every day this week to catch a ride with my mom, but I'm leaving work early tomorrow, and I can use my sick day to see Ram. Rejoice.

CONTINUE PAINTING UNTIL YOU PASS OUT (A) DIE (B)
This is just to say that my web-based e-mail account has been cut off. I appologize to the three or four of you who sent mail there. Apparently animenation.com has decided to get all swanky and make members charge for the service, but they didn't advertise the fact that they were cutting off my service on the eighth. Nice. No way am I paying for e-mail service when I have better school service.

Ram is back. Thank goodness. I feel like I've been holding my breath for the last three.five weeks.

Dave: yes, I'm aware that you're on the list for the Flaming Lips show. You only said it three times in your last letter. Also, I should have known it was only a matter of time before you found Grapefruit. I was hoping to increase my "cred" as they say by introducing you to that book, oh well.

Adam: you are seven feet of funk and writing major GOODNESS. You slacker.

YOU HAD BETTER BELIEVE THAT I DROVE MY CAR INTO THE OCEAN
Work was interesting because we've had the office closed for five days due to the holiday and Kennywood day. (85 voice messages, who knows how much PennDot work, lots of pissed-off people.) Also, it helped that all but two of our supervisors cut work today. MORE VOICE MESSAGES FOR YOU, BITCHES. Still, it's so much better than going to Kennywood because there's a lot more sitting and zine reading involved.

The day was more or less gravy until my radiator broke on the way home. I guess it wasn't so bad because my parents were driving to the school for a board meeting and they helped me deal with it, but this is the second time in two weeks that something major has gone wrong with the car while it was under my care. I decided it was traumatic enough to warrant an evening of perfect sloth. Ice cream and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Ah.

I got an e-mail from somebody *claiming* to be Ram, saying that "he" was back from "India". But the time stamp was all weird, so I refuse to believe as of yet that it was actually Ram instead of some cruel impostor. However, things are looking up . . . .

Dave, thanks for all the things to write about. I'm pretty busy writing about skirts right now, but I'll try to fit some of those in. I'm working on a letter, so just cool your jets, Mr. I'm On the List for the Flaming Lips Show in August.

SMASH THAT HAND-CRANK TRANSMITTER
You cannot pay me enough to go to Kennywood again.
Ever.
I said this before, but I didn't think that a trip to Kennywood might be a mandatory work activity. And I'm sure that somebody will convince me to go again sometime. (Ram, for example, could easily convince me to do anything if he looked at me the right way.) But, if only for the sake of my mood right now, I'm going to make that vow again.
There are things that I like about the park: the Thunderbolt and all the crazy yahoos walking around. Yeah, that's about it. I saw plenty of yahoos (probably more than usual because it was Greene County Day, after all), I rode the Thunderbolt, and the rest of the time was a haze. More or less, I was hanging out with my supervisor's daughter, who wanted me to talk in a British accent all day. Ah. Hah. Right.
I'm going to spare you the rest of the bitching, because I've been bitching nonstop since I got home. And the bitching will cease momentarily. I think.

THE FIREHALLS AND WEDDINGS OF THE WESTERN MIDWEST
I cut some flats for the zine today; this officially means that I'm started off. Better proofreading and editing are at the top of my list of priorities. Also, you're going to make me send this in for distro consideration. If you don't help me, I'm just going to tell myself to make the next issue really, really great and send that out. No. This is the one that I really spread around.

Ram comes back this week, thank goodness. I can't wait to see him, although I don't know yet whether I'll go to visit him or if he'll visit here. I'm more than happy to get on the very next train to Washington, but I'll only be able to stay for a day before having to go back to work on Monday. But somehow I'll see him, and that's the best thing.