Mario Micallef ‘22

Eggplant Editor

Hello (I am sitting on the ground, no, I’m laying on the hardwood floor. I don’t know why I lied right there. Maybe it was internal shame. Yes, in fact, it was. But I have to speak now. The ants coming off my windowsill have brought speech to my lips. I should be writing 4 essays, uploading 8 discussion posts, researching academic resources, studying for 7 tests, eating, packing, cleaning, but I am on the ground, on my floor. I am on a Zoom call; I am zooming. I was two paragraphs into something I should be reading, and then I looked at the Pine Sol bottle sitting on the radiator and so I looked up where Pine Sol was invented and where it is produced now, not because I wanted the fact on hand for the next time I am interrogated on the ins and outs of Pine Sol but because somehow my brain shut off mid-sentence and needed some out, and it’s not like I had any say in the matter, so I went along. Now I am thirsty. I’ll drink this water and think, “I’ll get back to the reading but first I should get something to eat; I should treat myself because I got that one thing done earlier, or yesterday, but I should treat myself with something good because I deserve it.” My father texts me asking, “How are classes coming along? How’s the weather out there?”. I think about how long that reading is and quickly lose my appetite for the moment and lay down on the floor again and go on my phone and go on Linkedin and scroll through people posting motivational messages (I’ve cut out Instagram and only use Facebook for apartment and marketplace searches) and then I go to Craigslist and see if there are any Jazzmaster or Jaguar guitars in my price range of $350-400. I click away because why should I get an electric guitar if I can barely play an acoustic? So I practice chords for 30 minutes and look up guitar tutorial videos I’ve already seen, and then I see ‘Derrick Rose 19 pts 7 asts 2 stls vs Raptors’ and it’s only a minute and fifty seven seconds so I click on it and watch it. But now I am hungry for real. So I grab keys, wallet, earbuds, mask, and slip into already tied shoes and buy two slices of pizza for $7.58 even though I have an unopened jar of pasta sauce and spaghetti noodles. I listen to music I’ve listen to before on the walk back, but then I play something I haven’t heard before and think I ought to get a good walk in and then I will go and read and finish at least one of those essays because I surely need to get at least one done before the end of the night. I emerge and drink 10 gulps of water and lay down on the ground and well, I am here now.) how are you?