up at 7 am, thanks to the subwoofer neighbor. out of the house by 8:30, to run by dominick’s and pick up (chips|water|soda) to keep painting volunteers refreshed. at the new place by 9:15, after carting groceries plus painting supplies up to the third floor. washed walls and trim in office (read: v. small bedroom). carried ladders (2) from car upstairs. met building caretaker, nice guy, rides a nice bike. began washing walls in living room. around 12:30 folks start showing up. wash wash wash wash wash scrub scrub scrub scrub scrub. make two auxiliary trips to the corner hardware store to fetch accessories. wash wash wash scrub scrub scrub scrub. folks, i have to tell you, the last guy that lived in the apartment was a filthy, filthy slob. i am not exaggerating. the bathroom alone was horrifying. bill volunteered to rip out and repair the caulk around the tub, which is a herculean task and for which i am immensely grateful. masking tape, masking tape, masking tape. finally painting began, in the cleaned rooms, while we continued to clean other ones (and bill continued to make the bathroom considerably better). painting operations ceased at approximately 1945, when michael and i both said “fuck this” and dove headfirst into stephanie’s chocolate stash.

back on the ranch, i have to tell you: i have never in my life been quite so grateful that we live in an age of modern technology such that if i pick up this gadget and type in a series of specific pre-selected numbers, it lets me speak to someone who will actually show up at my house with food and i don’t have to do anything other than give them a couple pieces of paper for it. (eta: man, you can tell how tired i was writing that by how many typos i didn’t notice before publishing it. uh, fixed now. and yes, i still hurt in the morning. yikes.)