“Do you ever look at the ceiling and see stuff in the popcorn?”
“In the what?”
“The bumpy ceiling stuff is called a popcorn ceiling. So do you?”
“Um… no. Do you?”
Month: June 2016
Jewelry Department Meeting
So me, and the two other girls who spend the most time in the jewelry department were called into a small meeting about jewelry department policies today. It was mostly bullshit but at least I got to sit down for a little while. Continue reading “Jewelry Department Meeting”
Lisa’s Story: Zombie Apocalypse – Chapter Four
Easing the outer doors open enough to squeeze out, I stepped out of the store. I crouched down, baseball bat clenched in both hands at the ready with an eye on the car I thought I had seen movement behind. Staring at the car, I wondered if I could leave without whatever I had, or had not, seen noticing me. Would it be better to make noise and see if anything happened? Should I try to sneak up on the car? My knees began to ache from crouching too long. Another fight with a zombie was not something I wanted. Any action that might lead to a fight was out. That left sneaking away.
First, I had to close the sliding doors to the store. It would be bad if one or more zombies wandered inside. Picking flashlight up off the ground, I clipped it to a belt loop with the attached carbine. Slipping my bat between the duffel and the small of my back, I turned around and pulled the doors shut. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I looked away from the parking lot. The doors slid closed easily and I scanned the parking lot again. Still empty. I pulled my bat out and began walking keeping an eye on the car.
Seven Time Machines
It seemed simple enough when she told you how to travel through time. So, simple that a child from four thousand years in the future had done it on a whim. Four thousand years is a long time for advancements to be made but you thought with a few expansions on the tech needed you could do it.
The first time machine prototype’s particle collider was undersized and the necessary expansion of space though the eighth dimension caused it to implode.
Sleep is Just a Little Death
I collapsed onto the ground exhausted from running my back to a tree. They would catch me eventually but I only had to stay ahead of them for a little while longer. I just had to keep moving.
“Hello,” a voice said. My eyes darted toward the voice’s source. It was a woman in a flowing white dress sitting… sitting on nothing. She sat demurely, with ankles crossed and a straight back, legs bent like she was sitting on a chair. Her feet swung inches from the ground.
Lisa’s Story: Zombie Apocalypse – Chapter Three
I stopped at the highway between Andy’s convenience store and the superstore, aware of how silent the world had become. Tires on pavement, engines purring, growling, or sputtering, music fading in and out, the occasional car horn and yelled curse word. Instead there was only the chirping of birds and rustling leaves. I crossed looking for zombies instead of the erratic drivers that normally made it hazardous to cross.
From the last bit of cover at the edge, I surveyed the parking lot. A few cars had been left behind scattered around the lot but most of it was empty and thankfully zombie free. I hoped it would stay that way until I got inside at least.
The doors were shut and the store beyond dark. I pulled the tire iron out of my bag and stuck it between the doors. I pulled and pushed against the tire iron. The door creaked but remained locked. I looked around again wary of being exposed for so long. I removed the tire iron from between the doors and tried shoving it into the key hole twisting and turning it as much as I could. Several hard turns broke something loose inside and I pulled the lock out of the door. A minute of fiddling with the mechanism and the door unlocked. I looked around the parking lot one more time before slipping inside. I repeated my lock-picking skills on the inner doors.
LGBT Movie Night: “Do I Sound Gay?”
I went to a LGBT movie night hosted by the local Unitarian Universalist church. Quite a few of the regular members are LGBT so it’s a pretty accepting church. I went for a while but I’m not one for getting up early on my days off when I have Sundays off but I’m still friends with a lot of them and show up to events.
We watched “Do I Sound Gay?” which is about a gay man investigating why some gay men have what most people identify as a gay sounding voice. Also, throughout the movie he is talking to speech therapists to try to change his voice to sound less “gay”. I kind of didn’t like how the movie was framed around him not wanting to sound “gay”. I wish it had just been about what sounding “gay” was and how gay men related to it, instead of framing it as a bad thing from the start. Besides that it was an entertaining film.
As a trans woman I have a complex relationship with my own voice. I’ve gone from not caring to hating it to accepting it. I still have days when I don’t like my voice but I accept that it’s what I sound like. I’m lucky to not have a super deep voice but I do get sired on the phone. It’s too much to really unpack in this post.
I would love to see a film called “Do I Sound Like a Woman?” about trans women and how we relate to our own voices. Not from the point of view of someone trying to change their voice though. Just interviews or round table discussions about how we have or haven’t changed our voices.
Steer into the Weird
“What’s going on? Who are you? Why did you save me?” The target screamed at me while we ran down an alley.
[MISSION – PROTECT] my armor’s AI reminded me. “Private contract. Extract and protect until enemy is neutralized,” I said.
“What enemy?”
[DATA CLASSIFIED] “I don’t know. Another team is going after them.”
A Whole World In My Head
“I just need to make a phone call,” I yelled at the uncooperative operator.
“Please deposit ten cents for the first five minutes,” the woman’s voice intoned for the fifth time.
“This isn’t a payphone,” I explained, “It’s a business phone. Please can you connect me to 555-5820 or just let me have a dial-tone.”
“Please insert twenty-five cents or hang up the phone,” she repeated cheerily.
“Please!” I pleaded, “Just give me a dial-tone!”
The phone began to scream a piercing monotone beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep–
Lisa’s Story: Zombie Apocalypse – Chapter Two
Half an hour later I was physically and mentally clean of zombie head gore. I dropped my shirt and pants in a trash bag. Before everything went to hell, I would have tried to salvage them. The pants especially, since before I didn’t have many pairs and wasn’t exactly rolling in cash. If things went well on my trip, I wouldn’t have to worry about clothes. If they didn’t, I still wouldn’t need to worry either.
***
I redressed for my first trip out into the new world. T-shirt and jeans for ease of movement. A sports bra in case I had to run. My hair was pulled back into a sporty ponytail. I dug a duffel bag out of the closet and adjusted the strap until it was tight against my back. Baseball bat and pepper spray for protection. From the back of my closet, I pulled out a small tire iron I had kept from my last car and stuck in my the duffel bag, just in case.