This one wasn’t that long ago.
Work is over, at least until camp, so I’ve had a lot of time. I don’t have any problems with summer, and I like having time off. I just really love the work. I don’t always feel like I’m a contributing member of society, but while I’m working I feel like I’m actually doing something.
Anyway, one way I decided to kill some time is get a tattoo. My friend’s sister is a tattoo artist, and I figure it’s a better idea to go to someone I at least sort of know. I didn’t realize it was almost an hour away! I should have done that research before making the appointment, but oh well. I haven’t really been eating and when I show up to get tattooed I see that right next door is Papi’s Pizza.
I’m in the tattoo place for a while. I wasn’t certain of the design I wanted so she didn’t have anything drawn up. There’s a lot of small talk going on that sounds like the small talk of every tattoo shop I’ve ever been to. As I’m laying awkwardly the artist can reach the back of my arm, I’m staring at my phone waiting for someone’s reply. I’ve spent way too much time these past few months staring at my phone for this same reason. It’s agonizing. Nauseating. I barely noticed the needle rapidly drilling ink into my skin.
When it was over I was hungry and went right to Papi’s. As I’m walking in, a guy in an apron with an unlit cigarette in his mouth is walking out front. When he sees me coming in, he turns around and goes behind the counter.
“What can I get you?”
“Slice of plain.”
“To go?”
“No. Here.”
He hands it to me on a metal plate and I realize that’s never happened before. So many pizza, so many pizza places, I don’t think they’ve ever handed it to me on a metal plate.
Wait, maybe one other time…
The pizza is not good. When I go to make a fold the crust cracks and falls towards the plate. As if this rogue part of the pizza wasn’t satisfied with just seceding from the slice-as-a-whole, it rips the entire sheet of cheese down to the steel plate with it. I’m not proud of what I must have looked like stuffing that mess into my face.
I’ve eaten one more slice of pizza and gotten one more tattoo.
And I drive home alone.
‘til the next slice.
