Tuesday, 16 August 2005 | Mop

Joy dressed us up in clothing she bought from a well known store. She told us to be careful with it, and made us wear special non-sweating deodorant so that she could return the items when we were finished. She drew liquid eyeliner just above my lashes and filled my hair with blond bobby pins and hairspray, until the top of my head looked like the hump of a camel. The other girls in the room asked if she would give them the same treatment sometime.

We changed clothes in the hot car while listening to an old Madonna cassette tape. Just as we were ready, it began to pour, so the four of us waited in the small square vestibule of a random apartment building, pressing ourselves against the wall whenever deliveries came through or people wanted their mail. The sun came out and left and came out again, and the wind whipped water at our temporary building in horizontal sheets. It took a long time for the weather to relax.

Jena chose the locations (brightly painted chipped walls) and instructed us how to position ourselves (look down, move your chin to the left) while she took pictures. Normally it would make me uncomfortable to be the subject, but I didn't feel much like myself and therefore didn't mind, even when curious strangers stopped to look.

I'd had too much coffee that morning (because it didn't seem to be working), and by the end of the day I could barely talk without slurring, I was so tired. So I unwisely drank another giant cup, which made me remarkably uncomfortable and gave me Invisible Skin Snakes. (I generally don't drink much coffee, which was part of the problem.) It didn't take long for the surge to reverse itself, but it kindly left the snakes behind, as well as the energy of a mop.

When I got home I took my hair down, my fingers searching for bobby pins in a tangled nest of Aqua Net. Upon completion, I looked like I'd been electrocuted.