WORK IS CANCELLED!! WORK IS CANCELLED!! WORK IS CANCELLED!!!
I haven’t been as active on Twatter or the blog as I would have liked to have been in the last few days, reporting on the hurricane and stuff, but sorrynotsorry. There’s slightly more important things concerning me at the moment. You know. Like. MY FUCKING LIFE???
To be honest, I wasn’t really paying that much attention to the weather. I woke up a few days ago with this unholy-end-of-the-world-larger-than-Sandy zit on my chin. It was from a handful of chocolate I had in a moment of crisis when my father told me he was going to Miami for a consultation on a plastic surgery. Apparently, someone else got ravaged by some psycho on bath salts and he was called in for support. You can imagine my surprise when he said he only had one ticket. He thought that since I was doing so well being independent I would have made arrangements to get out of the city and away from Sandy. Well, news flash, Dad. I’m not, and I didn’t.
I crammed a handful of chocolates in my mouth and savored their sinful deliciousness. It wasn’t until two days ago that I had woken up to a zit the size of Everest on my chin that shit started to get real. I had to get out of the city. If not for my life’s sake, for the sake of not being seen by anyone I knew.
A little bit about my living situation: I don’t live in the shittiest of apartments in lower Manhattan. But obviously it’s not the Hamptons. But on my floor, there’s a travel agent, Jessica. She’s constantly asking about my travels I used to do with my family. Somehow, word got out that I used to summer in Paris with Dad and then Spring Break in Bonaire with Mom. So she thinks I’m really worldly.
Anyway, I knew I couldn’t just go to the airport and stand in line at a ticket counter hoping that there was a flight out to Paris, or Barcelona, or some place dry with culture. Especially not with this abomination on my face. So I threw on some really chunky Chanel sunglasses and a Marc Jacobs headscarf that I usually only pull out on those days that I’m so swollen from drinking that I look like I’ve fallen in a salt lick, and walked down to her door.
The door was disgusting. I mean, most of the doors in my building could use some work, but this door was just straight up tacky. It had pin ups of ghosts and pumpkins and some fat green bitch riding a broom who looked like she was having way too much fun (sidebar, no way a broom could hold her weight up. But I guess not all witches are thin and pretty enough to travel by bubble). I tried to find a space on the door that wasn’t covered in fake/real cobwebs to knock on. When I finally found a space near the floor, I kicked it until
Jessica answered.
She, not unlike the witch on her door, was a plump woman. Frizzy red hair that was too done up with hairspray to be a mistake. Her glasses were askew and she was out of breath.
“Kaldi!” she cried. “What are you still doing here? I thought you’d be on your way to Miami by now with your dad!”
“He only had one ticket. And. Wait. How the hell did you know about that?”
“Paper thin walls. You know.”
I was instantly more nervous. What else had she heard? My phone calls with Dylan? My breakdowns after 9 hour days on cold bar? My obsession with Britney Spears? This bitch surely had dirt on me.
“Yeah. Well. Look. I need to get out of the city and lay low for a few days. Can you get me a ticket somewhere?”
“I know the hurricane is a mess isn’t it?” She smiled, shakily, exposing her lipstick stained snaggletooth.
“Huh? Oh yeah. The hurricane.” I adjusted the headscarf a little more to make sure my chin was covered.
“Actually. I have an extra ticket to my hometown. I tried to get my boyfriend to come with me but he changed his number last week. And I can’t find him on Facebook, and I don’t know any of his friends…”
She kept going on about her “boyfriend” which I could tell by this point didn’t actually exist. Jessica was clearly a victim of her own overactive imagination and her “boyfriend” was probably a Clay Aiken claymate. And as much as I would have enjoyed listening to her straight girl/gay man problems, I had a city to evacuate and she wasn’t making things any easier.
“Yeah. Jessica. That sucks. So. You have an extra ticket? Can I buy it off of you?”
She stopped her monologue and beamed at me. She was over the moon that I would volunteer to accompany her to her hometown, whatever shithole that might have been.
“Of course, Kaldi. It’ll be nice to have a friend along.”
A part of me felt bad. I never considered this chick a “friend” but she was doing me a solid, so I figure there’s no harm in letting her call me a friend. I packed a bag and Marilyn in her pet taxi and rode with Jessica to LaGuardia.
A few hours later I touched down in a place I never EVER fathomed I would EVER be.
Des Moines, Iowa.
I’ve tried my hardest to lay low over the last twenty-four hours. Not that there’s anyone here who would recognize me, but then again, you never know. I’m currently in Jessica’s parents’ house, sleeping in their guest room. It’s quaint but I need to get out. The walls are tainted with paper that might as well have been straight out of The Yellow Wallpaper and the upholstery hurts my delicate skin. I’ve seen more beerguts than I would have ever hoped to see in my life, and there are WAY too many Romney supporters. I don’t care if the state is projected to vote Democrat. The number of pick-up trucks and Fantastic Sam’s haircuts give me reason to doubt.
I need to get out of here. Please. Sandy. Go back from whence you came and let me return to civilization…. even if that civilization is Starbucks in lower Manhattan.
XOXO
Kaldi
Sandy blows harder than Frappuccino Happy Hour. #bitchingbarista