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SEP

09

2009

the earliest i could get out of bed was 9:00 even though in my mind i was getting up at the crack of dawn and going to my painting appointment. my roommate was surprised to see me up before him.

after 3 more hours of prep work i went to the cafe to get some miso soup for lunch. then it was time to paint. almost 5 hours worth of non-stop painting. i took a deep whiff of that familiar latex paint aroma when i cracked open the drum of primer. first i rolled the walls, making sure i wasn't splattering on the floor even though i could feel micro droplets of wet paint raining on my forearms. i worked barefoot, so i could tell if i accidently stepped on any paint globs. next came the two windows. that was followed by the crown molding and the ceiling edges. then the corners of the room and the door frame. finally the baseboards.

at one point i almost passed out; not from the fumes, but rather from not having eaten anything the whole day (other than a bowl of miso soup). my father dropped by a few times to see how i was doing. he told me he didn't think we needed another layer, that the single primer coat was good enough. nevertheless, i'm coming back tomorrow to do a 2nd layer for my own personal satisfaction, flat white on the walls, semi-gloss on the crown molding and baseboards. the one piece of excitement came in the form of a crane truck delivering some industrial air conditioning units to the renovating restaurant next door.

i went to the cafe afterwards, where my godmother's son jack was there chatting with my father. i was in a sleepy daze following a day of manual labor (my arms and hands covered in paint), and asked my father for an espresso. fearing my low caffeine tolerance, my father made be a decaffeinated version instead. jack brought over for me a package of smelly tofu he got from super 88. i stuck around for about an hour before leaving, taking with me a container of food my mother left for dinner. in the evening i watched obama joint address to congress followed by a brand new episode of glee.