Whenever Never

I get up this morning and literally run to the bathroom.

Jeez, did I wake up, having to go. I pack up my shit and head out of the apartment to go to Starbucks, and upon opening my door, does my neighbor opens her door across from me. My neighbor from The Box, Paula. Great.

Hello, I say. "HI," she replies, just as happy to see me as I am to see her. "Where are you off to?" Oh, some of this and some of that, I respond. I give her my back as I lock my door. I had placed my garbage at my feet. With my garbage is my latest piss bottle, sitting there like an accusation. She looks down at it, no doubt wondering what it contains. I lift everything and take a walk down the hall. She follows in lockstep. You're going to the laundry? I ask over my shoulder, noticing her bag of clothes and detergent. This is something that I should be doing myself. "Yes," she replies. We stop at the elevator. I throw out my garbage while she presses the call button. The banter is friendly and goes back and forth as we ride the elevator down.

"You know we have a meeting to go to this Wednesday at The Box," she tells me. We do? "Yes, our Housing Class. You have to go there at the end of every month." I didn't know that. "Yes, you have to go. I'll ask if you do and leave a note under your door." That's funny, this Wednesday is New Years Eve. Why the fuck would we have to report to The Box on New Years Eve. Plus, this was my second Wednesday here and I didn't make the last housing group. Really, how important is it?

I wave her away and head over to Starbucks, rushing as my water pill is working me to death already. I hit Starbucks and I see him again. Some one who I've noticed before, two other times here at Daddy Day Care, with his laptop open, his headsets on. He is staring at the screen of his MacBook. Diminutive, quiet, unassuming, clean shaven, simply dressed. He is one of my neighbors. I saw him leave from a door down the hall from mine twice before. He stopped, looked at me, and probably recognized me before I recognized him today. He is my neighbor, and he is also a chip head.

I go to use the bathroom, and as I do so my mind starts churning data. Churning feverishly. He's down here at Starbucks. Wouldn't it be great whenever my Internet connection kicks in. He'll never have to come down here to Daddy Day Care again. He can jump a signal on ZAPRANOTH at anytime day or night and ride baby ride....oh shit.

I sit back at my seat and frown at him. He's down at Starbucks. I was down here before and I don't remember seeing him with the same frequency that I do now. He looks Italian, and the signal that I used to be on so strongly, which is gone now is NAVARRE. Could that be his last name? Could NAVARRE be his router, down for the time being and because it has been he is down here at Daddy Day Care?

Something to fucking think about. NAVARRE has been gone for some time now. A lower case Navarre is up now, and it is password protected. That's the only kink in my assumption. If he has a signal, why is he down here? Unless so too, he is not NAVARRE but a fellow piggybacker like I, and since NAVARRE has been gone, he's been forced to come downstairs like I have.

It's a bitch being poor. I return to the bathroom and take another leak, then return to my laptop to blog and blog more. I'm a blogging mother fucker. I make phone calls on my Skype. My account is running low. I'm going to have to do something about that soon.

The holiday season is upon me, and I am excited. There are a lot of things to be excited about. We have those days between the two major holidays of Christmas and New Years. There is an electricity in the air and people the world over are giving thanks. I sit there at my little table at Daddy Day Care while my neighbor...lets call him Cautious Carl, closes his MacBook, packs everything away, rises and leaves.

I stare, for some reason I thought he would be here like me all day.

Then I look at my watch. Nine Thirty in the morning. I close up shop. I'm not going to be here all day either.

Hobobob