the habit of being

Once upon a time there was the lauriejennamarcuskatharine collective.

We performed a skit at the 3rd Comm. Arts coffee house. I say ‘we’ even though I had no role. If we’d done Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread like I wanted, I could have been 1st Woman, but no, we did the one ‘about’ Agnes, English Made Simple. Jenna was the narrator and Laurie was Jill and Marcus was.. the guy. I don’t remeber what the guy’s name was. I wasn’t really in the skit, but I was at all the rehearsals. I stood on the tables in the library and took pictures. I made comments. I clapped a whole lot.

pt 1. Laurie was an Art major. Her passions include playing the bassoon. She sometimes wears her hair in pigtails with two braids each. She says things like ‘fly’ and ‘word’ constantly and it actually works for her. We looked through back issues of ‘The Journal of Sexual Behavior’ for at least an hour. Her many talents include her being able to make up songs spontaneously. She’s gonna lick Vic Chesnutt. I saw her.

pt 2. Jenna was a Science major. She knows everything there is to know. She’s going to send me Bettie Page goodies some day. Her back massages are heavenly. I might have beat her in strip Rummy Kub, but I don’t really remember. In the mail, she got sushi ingredients and nasty milk stick things. She wore the same Wal-Mart black dress to every concert. I think I made her cry once.

pt 3. Marcus was a Commie, like me. He has bad taste in men. I was disappointed when he told me he was gay. He called me an earth goddess, but said I wasn’t as pretty as Laurie. He bites people. I remember lying next to him on the steps of the library one night. He said I didn’t have to live up to my legacy. I miss rubbing his head. He ‘likes it like that.’