Back when I was in high school, I sat for the pledge to protest the Iraq War. This was in 2002-2003 when people were hyper-patriotic and nationalistic, slightly more than you see today (though still maddening today).

Anyway, I got sent to the principle’s office and so on and so forth, and teachers and administrators wanted to punish me.

However, thanks to a law teacher, I was well educated. If you decide to sit, please keep in mind Tinker vs. Des Moines. That is a Supreme Court law  that states students do not relinquish their Constitutional rights when they enter school. This means you have the freedom to protest, as long as it’s peaceful and not disruptive to school, such as wearing an armband or sitting for the pledge.

Know your rights.

[closeup to katiekaylynn dancing in her room to britney spears and fucking up her eyeliner but it doesn’t faze her because she is happy and independent and ready to face the day]

mom: *comes into the room* KAY! ready for your first day of school? be down in 5 minutes or you’re gonna be late!

kaykyleigh: *rolls her eyes* alright mom whatever i’ll be down in time! *walks down the stairs, pushes her self described idiot little brothers out of the way, grabs a banana and meets her mom in the car*

mom: *driving like they aren’t gonna be late to school* are you ready for today? i know you didn’t want to move away from your friends, but honey, *tucks her daughter’s hair behind her ear*, it will be for the best. and you’ll make plenty of new friends here. this city is right for us, i feel it.

katarina: *sighs* i saw what kind of school this is. i don’t think i’ll fit in.

mom: but you’ve got to try your hardest okay? *10min lecture later* alright kay we’re here. don’t forget your lunchbox! bye honeypoo! i love you!

kylie: *rolls her eyes and gives her mom a death stare* BYE, mom. ugh. *walks up the stairs and trips* oh my god, this day is horrible already.

random bad boy probably named jake: *chuckles and picks her up* hey, need some help there? you look new. haven’t seen you around.

katchadorian: *blushing profusely and picking her books back up* uh uh uhhhhhhh yeah. new. hi

jackson: haha you’re cute. see you in there babe ;) *walks up into the school and leaves her behind*

[two random ass white girls and one token lightskinned black girl run up to kay]

AND FUCK DRYER SHEETS LITERALLY NOBODY EVER HAS ENOUGH OF A PROBLEM WITH STATIC TO WARRANT PAYING OUT THE ASS FOR THAT SHIT

DO YOU WANT CLEAN CLOTHES? YOU DON’T EVEN NEED TO BUY FUCKING DETERGENT JUST MAKE YOUR OWN* IT’S SO GODDAMN EASY AND 80X CHEAPER

FUCK THE ENTIRE LAUNDRY INDUSTRY *Fuck The Entire Laundry Industry Recipe

1 cup Washing Soda (not Baking Soda. Different things.)

1 cup Borax (not Boric Acid. Also a different thing.)

Step one: acquire $5 bag of baking soda from Costco.

Step two: lay that motherfucking baking soda out on a baking tray.

Step three: bake the baking soda on a tray in an oven at 400° for 1 hour (to make the moisture evaporate, leaving washing soda)

NASA created retro travel posters for different locations in our solar system in hopes of inspiring young people to imagine a future where common space travel is a possibility. 

We also have a ton of american urban mythology around famous roadways and sites off the sides of roads

Archetypes like these occur to mark the places in the world where the veil goes thin and humans can have extra-worldly experiences, out of the ordinary way of living

So why wouldn’t transient spaces like rest stops where everyone is just passing through from one place to the next, never stopping for too long, not be a liminal space where spirits frequent, too

Three days later–Sunday–we were traveling back and decided to stop at that church to thank them. We found it thanks to the truck stop, but this time it was the truck stop that was open and the church that was closed. Neither of us remembered it looking so decrepit on the trip down, and granted we saw it first at night in a snowstorm, but you’d think we’d have noticed the boarded-up windows. So we asked in at the truck stop.

The church had been abandoned for ten years. And yet I still had one of their youth group programs under my sun visor, very clearly labeled for the previous week.

Now when my friend, Alicia, and I left our home-state NJ it was already nearly nightfall so when we got into Connecticut it was midnight. Now Connecticut is a HUGE fucking state and takes a really long time to drive through so that made it worse but it was just terrible as you’re literally driving straight for like over 70+ miles I think it was. Now let me tell you it wasn’t for the entire state but for an entire like 20-40 mile stretch there’s a only one kind of gas station available. It was always the same, I think it was a Shell or some off-brand station, but it was ALWAYS the same. Every time we saw one, the gas station was on the right and on the left there was a the same food place and a rest area. It was the fucking same every time, right down to the gas prices. For what felt like hours it seemed as if we were driving the same 2 mile stretch of road over, and over, and over. It was actually really terrifying. 

Now if this wasn’t spooky enough we had an experience that really fucked me up. Towards the beginning of this nonsense we stopped for fuel and food okay and when we did we met some pretty nice people in the convenience shop and the cashier was pretty memorable. Fast-forward to the end of this nonsense and we stop again for a bathroom break at another of the rest stops that looks exactly the same. After entering we find the SAME cashier working at the convenience store who, upon seeing us, asks us why we had come back. Immediately we left the store, only to find the same nice people that we saw the first time, WHO ALSO ASKED US WHY WE HAD COME BACK. THEY DIDN’T SAY “Oh look its you again!” as if we stopped at the same place by coincidence, THEY SAID “Oh why’re you back here?” LIKE THAT’S SO TERRIFYING.

Anyway. @amireal2u and I drove up here to kidnap the mate to move in with me. I drove from Kentucky to Queens in 16 hours. On a map it looks like it should be a shorter trip, but there are fucking mountains in the way. Also New Jersey traffic sucks.

But by that point? 16 hours on the road. Been awake since probably 6am. I can’t sleep. She can’t either. We get in the car and we drive to Maine because why the fuck not.

On the way to Bangor, we stop at a rest area. It’s honestly a beautiful place, full of old boulders that glaciers left behind and there were picnic tables all through that area and it was all blanketed by trees. You could see the place from the road, but the trees stole the sunlight so it was always shaded. I loved it immediately even though it was a REST AREA.

Fast forward the next trip to Maine.

I can’t find this rest area. Anywhere. It was only about two months later. The mate posited that they closed down this rest area, and…okay, maybe. But I never saw the building. I never saw where a building was taken down.

I never saw that rocky grove. Ever. Anywhere.

I think I was about 12, and, on my family’s way back, we stopped at a rest stop somewhere in eastern Nebraska. We were there for about an hour, doing a picnic and relaxing, the parents letting us kids run out some of our pent up energy from the hours and hours riding. I was playing with this kid there, climbing trees, wandering around, just two kids being kids… he was almost my mirror image, same glasses, everything… tons in common… it was odd, but, you’re a kid, and, you don’t care, it’s someone not family to enjoy some time with.

Anyhow… fast forward 10 years, and, I’m making a motorcycle journey across country… I’m tired, exhausted, I barely have gas money to get to my destination, so a hotel is completely out of the question… I pull into a rest stop about 20 minutes west of the Iowa/Nebraska border and, without even taking off my helmet I walk over to a picnic bench, put my head on the table, and was out.

Sometime later, still completely dark, but, everything was misty and foggy as it was a really wet spring that year, and, I’m being shaken awake by a kid. I recognize the kid, but… I’m totally in a fog.

“Hey, hey, it’s about to rain, maybe you should sleep under some cover…”

Seriously, it’s oh gods in the morning, dark as hell with just cones of light from the few lights about the lot and the restroom structure struggling to push back any of the darkness, and I look at this kid, who for some reason triggers a memory, his clothes are a decade out of place, as is his glasses and the newsie cap he’s wearing. (Seriously, he was wearing a Members Only jacket in 1996)

“Come on,” he says, “You’re going to get soaked if you stay out here.” and so I let him help me up, and he walks me to the bathroom and I go to the very back, put my back against the wall, slide to the floor, and start to doze. The kid helps me take my helmet off, and i think to myself “holy fuck this would look weird if someone comes in”

Then he says something odd to me. “You’ve gotten old…” and he’s squatted on the floor just kind of looking me in the face, and I reply, “I’m only 22…” And he gets up from his crouch, and idly says “Well, nothing stays the same does it?” and turns and starts walking to the door…

About that time, thunder crashes, and rain starts coming down in sheets intermixed with a bit of hail making a large racket on the building… the lights flicker and I don’t see the boy, and, I just figure he went outside.

I fall asleep hard… to be awaken by a big old grizzled trucker kicking my boot to wake me up, light is streaming into the window. He helps me up as I ask the time, a little after 7am… “Hell of a storm last night huh? Did you get caught in it?” “No,” I reply, “but I bet my gear is all soaked.”

I walk outside, there’s still some fog and mist holding low to the ground, and, my motorcycle is covered in a tarp… something I didn’t have with me. Nothing around, a few trucks out in the truck area. The trucker who woke me comes out of the restroom, “Hey, did you see who tarped my bike? I’d like to thank them and give it back.” and he says, “Nope, but, lucky for you huh?” and he walks off towards one of the idling trucks.