in(me)between

Around 4:20ish at work, this girl I work with and I go for a smoke break, so Nancy and I are talking about whatever girls talk about on smoke breaks when 3 well dressed black people walk by. Odd? Not really, considering that my job is right next to a graveyard, we go back to what we were talking about when the older man comes up to us and starts talking to Nancy.

Guy: I just had to turn around and tell you how fine you are, you are so fine for reals, I couldn’t just walk on by and not tell a good looking woman like you how fine you are, you look good , you married?

Nancy: uh, yes

Guy: uh yes? You see if you were married you would just say “yes” not “uh yes” *notices me* can I have a cigarette?

( I hand him one)

Guy: You fine too, see, women in Austin you have asses, white woman in Austin have asses.

( at this point he kind of pats me on the top part of my right thigh and I back away, he kids of stumbles at a apology but continues with his previous rant)

Guy: I’m from Houston and black and Mexican chicks there don’t have asses but white woman here have asses, you snow bunnies (yes he really did say snow bunnies) can roll up with me and we can go up into some black clubs

So that’s not really word for word but it went something like that. At some point he walked away and we went back inside, it’s was funny I have to admit, though I didn’t really appreciate the minor attempt at grouping me and the fact that I’m not white so therefore not a “ snow bunny”

Back home all the baristas used to joke that we all had some sort of sensor implanted in our heads that went off when one or more of us started to gather at Starbucks. Seems that even after employment as ended with the company, the signal still goes off, though the strength isn’t as strong.

After I got off work at 8, I needed to post some stuff online for school so I went to my usual Starbucks down the road from my job. Kaegan and I were supposed to watch Glee (The Britney Spears episode) but I got out too late and had too much school work. An hour passes at Starbucks, I get what I wanted to get done with school, which is good because the battery life on my laptop was about to die and I forget my charger. Around this time Kaegan and Isaiah show up and we start chatting, 10 minutes until the conversation Kelsey texts me that’s she’s on here way

It felt like old times, we don’t plan this beforehand, it was a simple “hey I’m here if you want to hang out”, just like it used to be out in west Texas. Life is better for all of us here, there isn’t a doubt about that, but we don’t see each other as much. There was a point in time when we saw each other at least 2 or 3 times a week now it’s like we see each other 2 or 3 times a month, and to have all 4 of us at the same place at once? Whoa!

At one point, I updated my facebook status to how we all must’ve somehow transported back to Midland since we were all at Statbucks, Kelsey and Kaegan also updated their status to something similar, Isaiah didn’t but liked our status. As we were sitting there; drinking yummy overpriced coffee and chain smoking (I can’t even remember the last time a chained smoked), I wanted to saying something cheesy yet insightful, something that would be said at the end of a movie like: “We did it! We made our dreams come true!”, but then I remembered that I used to say stuff like that all the time for the first 6 months of living here whenever we would drive down South Lamar, so instead I just smiled to myself and sang the “double rainbow” song again.

            Midland sucks, it does. I would never move back there ever. I’ve told my parents that when they get old I will move them to Austin so I can talk care of them. I’ve told at least 2 of my friends that if I die before I’m 30 to make sure that my parents do not take my body back to Midland because in the 26 years of living the happiest have been in Austin. Having said all that, there is a corner of town, off Rankin Hwy, that is untarnished by Midlands’s lame dim light.

 It holds only happy memories of long talks about music, life and love. Random dance parties in the parking lot and sometimes on the clock in the café. Friends meeting in at 11pm at night to talk, being there for you as you fall apart in the back room, spending all night on the patio of the place you work with all the people you work with and having the best time just talking and singing. Yeah, I know that cheesy but I will always have a special place in my heart for that green and white logo

I don’t usually take smoke breaks at work because I just don’t smoke that much anymore but today I’ve been going outside every chance that I get. I always bring a cardigan to work with me but today I actually wore it around. *sigh* I just want to go to a park when I get off with some tea and a book, which, I just might do.

Please give me at least a solid month of this