pigpen diaries

the following post is dedicated to k. mcg.

thanks, lady, for sticking around from the years of oversized roots pull-overs and embellished jeans to the more current button-downs, scarves and powersuits. i hope we take our buttoned-down selves all the way into orthopaedic, velcro-snap shoes. you rock.

you must remember when my parents booted me out of the front door the day of my sixteenth birthday and told me to find a job. aside from a stint at the northside guest home, you must also remember my second and most time-consuming job: that of cashier at the local superstore. you must also remember, then, the grump i put on regarding how i was (seemingly) the only one out of all of the girls to be forced into labour once legal (don't worry, v. i know you rocked a uniform, too!). so when i was appointed from cashier to clean-up during a four month hiatus of store reno, you probably recall the stories from my then alias, pigpen.

i became a pigpen only because i was asked to dust things on free weeknights and weekends. the store was undergoing a massive facelift and the constant changes in size and shape of my former place of employment left me with endless shelves, counters, cans, etc., to dust. i was coated in dust more often than not. my clothes were greyed and my face filthied. i was dust. i voiced my dirty complaints to k. mcg., claiming that if i kept dusting things for long enough, i'd start to wear out friends' hairdos and nasal cavities. i'd rub off of my cat and even she'd slither away disgusted. i was nearly at the point of traveling with my own brown cloud when i was forgiven of whatever grocery sins i'd committed and sent back to deal with the general public.

i thought of that point in my life today, k., because it was time to empty the vacuum filter and dust case. aside from the t-ring on my finger and a different set of cleaning clothes, i'm back to my old, pigpen self. i've been sneezing all morning and i've got a mad urge to keep these clothes on and pigroll myself all over your newly-fashioned apartment. for some reason, this strikes me as hilarious.

the point is not that i'm dirty (and always have been) but that the most mundane, daily tasks often hit a recollective nerve and you are usually involved. it's neat to recognize/vocalize the fact that we've been close since pre-adolescence, it's more neat to have an entire carrying case of memories that back those years up.

i hope my brief entry into the pigpen diaries made you laugh and not regret befriending a little cloud of dust ten years ago. to be safe, perhaps it's best we not see each other today - your curls might fall out.