The Cassandra Propaganda show at Sapir/Whorf did not destroy the building. I missed it because I was working the door, and there was a huge line waiting but we couldn't let them in because it was at capacity and the cops totally keep tabs on us, being the "anarchist bookstore" and all. Luckily it wasn't raining.

It's like half the school was there. I've never seen so many psychic kids in town at the same place all at once. Mostly they don't mingle very well with the "townies," and the non-psychic townies are mostly oblivious to their antics. Kids out front were making rainbows (in the dark), will-o'-the-wisp dancing lights, giving themselves animal heads, or wings, space-bending - all the usual stuff those kids do when they're in a big group and showing off to each other but acting cool. The townies can't really see any of that - it doesn't register because they can't comprehend it. But it makes them a little uneasy. Or they just think the psychic kids are stuck-up.

People seemed pretty impressed with the Cassandra Propaganda - psychic and non-psychic alike. But nobody would really explain what they saw. I did see Power Value Stance, and was actually pleasantly surprised. I kind of have a soft spot for that heavy/distortion/shoe-gazer/psych thing. And they made pretty colors - if you're able to see them. There was some synth band that opened but I missed them too.

I went back to clean up today and I did notice something strange. We don't usually have homeless people camping right up against our building, but today there were like 6 or 8 people who were covered with coats and tarps in the alley and around the dumpster. They weren't really hurting anything so I didn't bug them. Didn't get a real good look directly at them, but the hands and faces I did see poking out all seemed kind of, I don't know, electric? Like they had TV static for skin? Grey and shifty and radiant. Or maybe Power Value Stance is still effecting my perception.

I volunteer after school at Saphir/Whorf, the infoshop. Some people call it a bookstore but it's not - it has a lending library. And computers, and coffee (pay what you can). And a needle exchange, now that turntables are so popular again.

It attracts a lot of interesting "alternative" characters from town, but they don't know about Psychic High School, or about real psychic youth. They kind of guess or pretend that we exist, but if you don't experience it for yourself, then you can't really believe it, can you?

They are mostly good people who really want to change things, so I like them, and I alphabetize the books in the lending library or clean the bathrooms or whatever needs doing. And then I use their computers and drink their coffee. And maybe their bathroom.

It's also a place local bands perform. Tomorrow there are some bands from Psyhigh playing, which is something they've never had before. I hope it doesn't blow everybody's minds too much! Or bore them to death. ;)

I live off-campus, in the town. My parents have the last bit of farm land that's left in the city limits. My dad says the town used to be all little farms, but now it's all subdivisions and strip malls with Subway sandwiches and nail places and street light grids and cul-de-sacs. So my parent's land is completely boxed in by the city. You can't even drive to it anymore because it's completely cut off from the streets. I know how to slip in and out between the fences and dirt-road alleys and get to the bus, but my parents don't get out much.

The farm isn't even on the city maps anymore. When I was little the city council didn't know what to do with it, since it didn't fit into their plans, so they just removed it from the city maps and declared that it didn't exist. Then they removed that decision from the official record, and hired some two-bit hypnotist to erase it from the council's minds, so now it's completely off the books. It doesn't have a mailing address, and isn't hooked up to the city water or electricity. You can't even see it on google maps. They save a ton on taxes.

So thanks for the offer, @Pearline, but I'm already set. But either @Diadem or @Karena seem like great choices!

My great grandma is in the nursing home. I remember when she lived in her own house, and she already seemed super old then. Since she's been in the nursing home it seems like she's frozen in her oldness. She doesn't get any older, but then again it doesn't seem like she /could/ get any older.

"You've only ever seen me like this," she said, moving her trembling hand to indicate herself and the tiny room that smelled like pee and antiseptic. "But this is just one very short period in my life. You never knew me when I could do THIS!"

--and she cocked her head and moved her hand faster than I would have thought possible, and the whole wall behind her was swept aside, replaced with an idyllic mountain scene of a small cabin on a lake, and crawling out of the lake was an enormous black creature, shaped like a man but too large, with massive black horns growing out of his steaming, cracking brow, and eyes that smoldered and grew red.

"There's your grandpa!"