I'm reading another excellent book... how did I ever stay away from books for so long? I'm so glad I'm going to major in English. I could read books and talk about them for the rest of my life. Anyway, it's Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland. Author of Generation X. The book's title is also a Smiths song, and throughout the book he inserts various Smiths song titles (Bigmouth Strikes Again, Hand in Glove, Half a Person, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore). Also, it takes place in Vancouver, my beloved hometown. Everything he's talking about is real, I've been to these places. I know all the in jokes, finally. He always writes with the same theme, the same feeling, and every time I read another one of his books I begin to understand more. He writes well, too. Not as bizarrely as I would prefer, but wildly funny. And we're on the same level. Scenarios he describes are real; I experience them. Maybe they're not as deep as I think, and everyone else feels them too, but nobody else writes about them. Here's something I really connected with:

I have always noticed in high school yearbooks the similarity of all the graduate write-ups - how, after only a few pages, the identities of all the unsullied young faces blur, how one person melts into another and another: Susan likes to eat at Wendy's; Donald was on the basketball team; Norman is vain about his varsity sweater; Gillian broke her arm on Spring Retreat; Brian is a car nut, Sue wants to live in Hawaii, Don wants to make a million and be a ski bum; Noreen wants to live in Europe; Gordon wants to be a radio deejay in Australia. At what point in our lives do we stop blurring? When do we become crisp individuals? What must we do in order to end these fuzzy identities - to clarify just who it is we really are? ....I remembered people.... friends who would adopt a persona - the chic Euro-person; the embittered Grunge Thing; Stevie Nicks - and after years of practicing, they suddenly becamethese personas.

Sorry, a little long. I tend to completely immerse myself in whichever particular book I'm reading.

And what else? They played Depeche Mode (Enjoy the Silence) on Z 95.3 this afternoon - a true feat. Z is this horrible radio station they play at work and that practically everyone listens to. The music is just terrible; all top forty. I don't understand the mainstream's taste in music. So I was happy. If it hadn't have been busy I would have called them and thanked them.

Some guy started ordering Chinese food in a bad Chinese accent today in Drive Thru. He was trying to be funny. While I was taking his money, he jokingly asked for a packet of soy sauce. "Ha ha ha," I said, more sarcastic than I've ever been at work before. It felt great. It was funny. You probably had to be there. Marly and I were in hysterics. I like her.

There was a cute Asian guy in Drive Thru today, too. I felt as though I should remember something about him in case I ever thought I saw him again, so, stupid me wrote down his license plate number: GNL 821.
He was hot.

Every time I make changes on a page, it seems, I try to upload them and everything gets deleted. Fuck this crap. I'm taking Patrick's advice and downloading everything onto my computer from now on. I was foolish thinking it would be safe, uploaded into oblivion. Anyway, that's where June 24th went.

Enough chatter about things you and I don't care about. Ta ta.