shanmonster | Hi, Chris!

Reminder to self: subscribe to Asleep By Dawn. You can do it, too. It's a free magazine, and I think the next issue has an interview with Rachel Brice. It also comes with an industrial/goth CD, so what's not to like? It's only available in Canada and the US, though.

Work progresses as usual. I'm a booking factory. I think I may break my previous record of 68 bookings. I'm just past the halfway mark of my shift, and I've already booked 45 rooms.

I sure would like to get commission.... I'm so broke that money could barely fix me.

Hmm. A lull. Maybe I'll have time to tell you about Chris.

This happened on NYE, as

snowy_kathryn and I were coming back from the grocery store. We were both quite intoxicated at the time, and were navigating the great icy hinterland that is the vacant lot between the grocery store and the street. It was as slippery as KY, and nowhere near the fun, and we held our bags out like balance poles as we skatewalked.

A voice boomed out at us. "Hey, guys!"

I looked up at a young, cute, friendly-looking guy and I smiled. According to Kathryn, I said, "Hi, Chris!", although I have no recollection of doing so.

"How're you doing?"

"Not too bad," I said.

We stopped for a while while he regaled Kathryn and I about how he was going to start a band, go to Saint John, get messed out of his mind on hallucinogenic drugs, and then go clean to write his memoirs. He was far more out of it than Kathryn and I were, and that was saying something.

As we parted, I said, "Happy new year!"

"Oh yeah," he said. "That's tonight, isn't it? I forgot all about that!"

And then we wandered off.

"Who was that?" asked Kathryn.

"Not a clue," I said.

"Then why did you say 'Hi Chris!'?"

"I did?"

Kathryn nodded. "You did."

So I guess I somehow divined his name from thin air, if indeed Chris was his name.

...

And now I have booked 58 rooms.