we got it good, whether you like this town or not

KL, this won't be 2000 words. This has to be brief, because I have to go to work soon. Bah. I don't like being a grown-up.

But I do like my work. Man, when am I going to figure out that nothing is as bad as I expect it to be? Let's examine the past year, shall we?
Molly goes to Spain: "Wahhh I'm not going to have any friends!" Spain was amazing.
Molly comes home: "Wahhh I don't want to leave!" Reunited with everyone & lived with Katie. Amazing.
Molly goes home for the summer: "Wahhhh Sears!" ...okay, that one was pretty bad.
Molly goes to Port Townsend: "Wahhhh extrovert living on my own..." Made lots of amazing friends.
Molly works at Seattle Times: "Wahhh it won't be as cool as Port Townsend."
And now...?

Well, I have to say that it's not as fun as Port Townsend. Nothing could be, really. There's no hippies and no Water Front Pizza. But I like it. It's not scary and corporate, the people are fun, and - BEST OF ALL - I don't have to get anyone coffee. Chya. Turns out, "Cafe" is what their Intranet is called. Who knew.

And now I'm actually writing a story. !! For the SEATTLE TIMES. Jeez I can't get over that. It's about this local outreach group that's going to Peru this winter to build a community center. Guess who I'm interviewing in about an hour? The woman in Peru who planted the idea.

IN SPANISH.

Oh yes. I told Roman last night, and he said, Aww, look how useful you are! psh. Your face, Roman. Because really, I'm so excited to get to interview someone in Spanish. Plus, I just had my Spanish class, so I'm thinking in that language now. Perfecto.

In other news....I'm still chewing ice. All of ze time.
Also, I need to learn to meditate, because I'm stressing myself out so much over random things that I can't sleep.
Also, today was one of those beautiful crisp fall days that make me want to buy school supplies and drink hot cider. Breathe deep, Seattle.

All right, me voy a trabajar.

Love always,
molly

and so it goes.

I have a new goal in life:

In other news, today is my last day in Port Townsend. My dad's picking me up tomorrow morning. And I'm going to cry. I'm sick of making friends and then leaving them. No more. I can't handle it. This is a shout-out to Elena, Anna, Chauncey, Sarah, Sam, Ellie, Ben, Joe, Melanie, Natasha, Allison, Sarah, Lynn, John, Patrick, Kathie, Malcolm, and everyone else who made this summer such an incredible experience.

I'll be back.

Love always,

molly

I love it when

...I want something to happen, and then it does.

I also love Sufjan. Good guy.

That's all.

Love always,
molly

I am my mother's daughter

So how uptight am I?

I really don't think it's too much to ask that someone flush the toilet when they pee. Or that they keep their dirty socks off the pillows that I'll be sleeping on in a couple of hours. To me, that sounds like common courtesy.

But this is a recurring theme in my life - mostly with my guy friends, but increasingly more with girls, too - people telling me to just chill the hell out.

I think I've grown a lot in the past couple years. I think I'm much more at ease with myself and my surroundings than I ever used to be. But apparently, by my new friends' standards, I'm just an uptight bitch.

Really, though...If I'm not as relaxed as they are, is that a bad thing? The more they call me out on it, the more I have the urge to fight back, hold on to my standards, defend my rigidity. (Is that a word...?) One of my friends here told me, when I was darting around the apartment to make my bed, put dirty dishes in the sink, throw clothes in the dresser, that if I didn't fix it now, that behavior was going to become very "harsh" in me when I got older. Wtf is that? I think it's better than never learning good cleaning habits and being a slob for your entire life. And I'm not harsh about it - I'm not demanding that anyone use a coaster, or even that they wash their own dishes. I just like my space to be reasonably neat.

I mean, granted, I have rather absurd standards for sanitation, given who my mother is. (You all know Jackie.) But clean is not a bad thing!! Why don't people understand that?!

Mostly, I think, my problem is that it happens to be a very cute boy who's calling me out on all of this. He's decided to "push back," he said, by not flushing the toilet when he comes over.

Cute as he is, I may have to kill him.

Love always,

molly

to the mostest

I'm imposing a no-dirty-socks-on-my-bed rule. This is ridiculous. Cute boys should bathe. So should their clothes. I don't understand the problem.

I've been having fun turning my apartment into movie central this week. I have friends! Good times. We watched Se7en on Wednesday, then Pete's Dragon last night (I'll be your candle on the waaa-ter! Oh man) and The Craft tonight. They were right; now I want to be a witch.

But srsly folks. TAKEASHOWER.

Also adding to the medley of odors - these friends are all over 21. So they bring alcohol. Hey, cool, no prob; I don't like beer or wine enough to drink it, but they can. But it SMELLS SO BAD. Why does anyone LIKE to drink it?! If you drink it, YOU smell bad! And now my kitchen smells bad. I also look like a total alki, because there are empty cans and bottles in my recycling and on my counter. It wasn't me, I swear!

Anyway. Advice to boys: You are SO MUCH CUTER if you smell good. Change your socks. Wear deodorant. Use good shampoo. It works wonders.

Peace out for now, peeps. I'm off to nightmares about snakes coming out of sink faucets. Thank you, Neve Campbell.

Love always,
molly

sing this lullaby to yourself

Good night last night.

Started with delicious locally-grown burgers, moved on to absurdly frank discussion about topics that make me feel awkward, to renting Se7en and holding hands during the scary parts, to falling asleep to the sound of rain on the roof. I've never enjoyed the sound of rain so much.

Then, of course, my computer decided to be a nutcase. A couple days ago, I'd started streaming Pan's Labyrinth online, and hadn't closed the window with it yet because I still want to watch it. Somehow, at about 3:40 in the morning, my closed laptop started playing the movie. I woke up to a deep voice saying, "Hace muchos, muchos anos, vivia una princesa que sonaba con el mundo de los humanos." I couldn't get it to stop! My screen was black - the computer should have been hibernating - but no! "Hace muchos, muchos anos..." Plus I was deliriously tired and half-waking from a murky sort of dream...anyway. Finally took the battery out because it wouldn't turn off from just holding the power button.

Man, that burger was good.

Also, I have 15 days left here. Not ready to leave. Especially not to go back to school. I've already asked if I can come back next summer. And I'm planning to visit. Seattle's not that far away. Tambien, hay un chico que me gustaria conocer mas....jejeje. El dejo su movil aqui anoche; que lastima que tendra que regresar para recogerlo. La vida es buena.

In other news, I've been spending so much time on textsfromlastnight.com when I'm bored that I kind of want to get high just so I'd have funny texts to send people. But not really. Don't worry, moms and dads. I'm not actually considering it.

Love always,

molly