Demon Days

Posted: March 23rd, 2010 | Filed under: Personal | 7 Comments »

Long time, no blog entry. Exams, etc. You know the drill. For those of you who tease me about loving Starbucks, there is actually a Starbucks complaint today, so get excited!

This entry today is basically a melodramatic “Why is the world the way it is?” breakdown. It was probably sparked by the constant, gnawing graduation stress that has been eating my soul. Nothing extreme happened today, but the fact that everything was so mundane is probably what made it that much worse (i.e. foreshadowing the rest of your life).

My day started off pretty well, actually. I woke up tired, but had a good coffee and panini with my friend CT. I finally tried the Chicken Santa Fe sandwich from Starbucks (delicious) and I love the feeling that I get when coffee perks me up. Afterwards, CT and I were walking to class, and he made some joke. I didn’t laugh at first, but then I randomly started to giggle.

He said, “See? At first you think it’s lame, but then you think about it and it’s hilarious.”

I tried to suppress my laughter, and put on a cool smile and lowered my eyes in a casual, flippant manner. My hair was probably fluffed in the process.

“Whatever,” I drawled, lifting my cup of coffee to my cold face. It’s something I do quite often– it feels nice when it’s chilly outside. But as I shot CT a nonchalant, aren’t-you-silly look, a volcano of coffee spewed out of the mouth of the lid and covered the left side of my face.

CT nearly fell onto the road, his face alternating between laughter and amazement, and I started to laugh at my uncontrollably awkward reaction. Then I went to class, and I aced an in-class essay I had been worried about. Things were pretty great so far, even despite the weather.

But then my professor decided to make us watch “L’amant”, based off of Marguerite Duras’ novel. Normally when I watch a traumatizing movie, I’ve been forewarned so that I might brace myself. I had no such preparation for this film, and after witnessing most social taboos in heightened detail for two hours straight, I left feeling disturbed and isolated. It was a good movie, but I was absolutely not in the mood for it.

A few things went downhill from there, and things probably would have been different if the sun had been out. My feet were cold and wet, my body hurt from carrying around my laptop all day, and I was so tired.

I met up with my friend AC for dinner at Whole Foods, and had a laugh here and there. I was essentially trying to power through the day. Some time passed, and I decided to go to my beloved Bay Bloor Indigo Starbucks for another americano. They were handling something behind the bar, and one of the baristas jumped and let something go. It was some sort of item covered in small ants. She looked at me, and instead of freaking out about how that must be some sort of health violation, I smiled sympathetically.

They disposed of whatever the hell it was, and she made my drink.

I asked for soy milk on the bar, and she handed it to me. Hmm, it was brand new and unopened. Usually when that happens, the baristas are super nice, and shake it for me, and warn me that it’s full and that it’s probably going to spill all over the place. Well, no matter. I knew to be careful anyways. I poured it in, and tasted my drink.

It was really weak.

I’m really no coffee expert. Everyone’s always saying how this and that place has great coffee, but honestly, I’m pretty flexible and even I thought that this was bad. After hesitating for a moment, I asked that barista if she could re-make my drink. She paused, and said “Okay” neutrally. I thought to myself, At least she didn’t sound annoyed…

“Sorry,” I offered, and she avoided my eyes and shrugged.

I saw her pour the shot of espresso in, and then she began to fill it up with hot water. To my surprise, she stopped half way and plonked the drink onto the bar.

“Uh…”

I glanced at AC, wondering why on earth she left so much space.

“Should I…?” I looked at AC. AC nodded. “Um, excuse me, could you top it off a little bit?” She stared at me. “Could you add a bit more hot water? It’s…”

She nodded, grabbed my drink, added a second’s worth of hot water before shoving it back at me.

Hey, I’m sure dealing with those bugs was traumatizing, but really? What are you doing? I haven’t had a bad experience at Starbucks in a while, so this was really disappointing.

I’m trying to stay positive anyways. I’ll stop procrastinating now and get back to my essay. It’s always something small and random that lifts me out of crappy times like this.

AC just now: “Ingrid, my brain hurts. It’s telling me to stop putting things in. …That’s what she said.”

I totally lol’ed.

As you can see by now, this entry had nothing to do with the Gorillaz album – I just thought Demon Days sounded cooler than Bad Days. IY out.

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