Rose
11 am - I wake up late. I've been sleeping like shit again. I have "rum and coca cola" by the Andrews Sisters stuck in my head. I go into the kitchen and make my usual breakfast and say goodmorning to my roommates fish "Mrs Puff" the pea puffer.
12:10 pm I go into my backyard and get ready to take my bike out and head to work. My neighbor stops me to complain about the tree in our yard that blocks her view. She says she can't see down the street and it makes her feel unsafe, and that her dog ran away! This tree is haunted. Every summer for the past three years our landlord gets someone to chop it down and then it grows back around the leftover carcass stuck in the fence. I tell her the story, that my roommate has told him the correct way to remove it at least three times now but he ignores her and just chops its head off, but I'll ask again and remind him to dig it up.
I hop on my bike with my brat green helmet. I have to go a back route because my entire street was ripped up a month ago to be repaved and is un-bikeable. This summer I've been listening to a ton of charli xcx on my commute. I'm a lifelong angel. I'm not someone who found out about her June 7th release on the internet, or was recommended it by a friend. I stayed up until midnight when each single came out and had to watch the music video before I could fall asleep. I listened daily, kept track of the samples I was discovering, watched interviews, and had discussions with everyone I know! It felt exciting to feel like so many people were listening and vibing together. Kind of like when the sixers are doing well and you can feel the electricity in the city. People are happy. This was like … the gays have a fun secret. And sometimes I could clock someone listening in their headphones.
Today is Wednesday July 24th. Is brat summer over? A few days ago charli tweeted "Kamala is brat" when Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the race and endorsing Kamala Harris for president. I woke up to this news and was instantly depressed! The internet flooded with excitement and gen z immediately made tiktoks of Kamala's classic quotes with tracks from brat in the background. While I may end up voting for her because I live in PA and it's probably a good idea to put that vote up against Trump. Right now I don't know what the fuck I'm going to do. It makes me feel nauseous and annoyed. If we're against Joe for what he's doing in Gaza, how are we happy for Kamala? She's not different. She is not someone I thought everyone would be excited about. And now one of my favorite albums, that's been released in many years, is forever connected to this, to her. Politicians are not brats! Especially the queen of the cops. I get so distracted by talking to my neighbor I forget to put on music and bike in silence.
12:35 pm I get to Judy's house. Judy is an anxious, sensitive, sweet pitbull mix, born and raised on the streets of West Philly. I love him with my whole heart, and relate deeply to him. He excitedly runs down his hallway to greet me barking, and grabs a toy to proudly show me. We go outside and he is immediately upset by a person walking too close to us, giving us weird vibes. He wants to jump on him and beat him up, I can see it in his eyes and how his body is tensing up. I get him to refocus and eat some chicken chips I have in my pocket. We walk around for a while but Judy is nervous, stopping at almost every intersection to dig his heels in and try to go back home. I remember I forgot to take my new medication. I wonder if Judy now senses my anxiety. I bring him home and talk to his humans, who are working from home before I leave. We commiserate about doctors visits, and give life updates in their deep blue hallway, Christmas lights stuck to the ceiling so that it looks like the night sky.
1:15 pm I bike to my next visit, Perry. He is sitting in the sun room on a rocking chair with his cat brother Calvin next to him in another chair. They look like two old men reminiscing. Perry is adorable and tiny but would take your hand off if you try to pet him and he doesn't know you. We walk slowly down Osage, no gardeners today our usual target. We see the mail person in the distance and though she is nowhere close to him he growls to make sure she remembers who he is, and who's block it is. I talk to my Mom on the phone and we also commiserate about doctors visits, she tells me about various family members who are dying or no longer on speaking terms. I bike down 47th half paying attention to her.
2:45 pm I have a short work day, and on my way home I stop by my friend's house. She's the only person I know in town who both has a printer and has ink and paper. She hands me the beautiful double sided document I emailed to her, we hug and I get to see the brat car she told me about yesterday still parked on her street. I continue home, take my medicine, change out of sweaty clothes, say hi to my roommates angel dog and then get back on my bike to go get blood work done.
3:30 pm I go to Presbyterian to get my blood drawn. I walk into the hospital and check with the security guards that I'm not about to walk through a metal detector. I have a pacemaker and always get nervous it could get messed up by something like that. Many of them are now pacemaker friendly. They were not always like this! Standing too close to a microwave could scramble the settings. I go to the lab and everyone is really nice! The front desk woman calls me "Love" and I am put at ease.The person who draws my blood has a thick Jersey accent, septum piercing and long nails. Her accent is comforting and I'm in and out of there in 10 mins.
4:00 pm I get home, eat a few random things and stare at my phone for a while. I see footage of Netanyahu speaking to congress. I can’t bear to listen to him actually speak but see that he got a standing ovation … I am sickened and rage post a few stories. I try to take a nap but it’s loud out. A tow truck is driving up and down the street yelling about how he’s going to tow every car, I think they’re finally going to pave the street!
8:00 pm I was finally able to sleep a little. I turn on my computer and stare at my final project requirements for a bit. I’m in the last two weeks of a 30 week coding bootcamp. Later on I sit and watch tv with my roommate and cuddle with her puppy, Ivy.
Rose is a boy lesbian who bikes around west philly all day visiting animals and listening to music. He is about to finish a coding bootcamp and hopefully transition into a career as a full stack software developer.
