I went to a book talk.  Brian Evenson was there.  I said hello.  We chatted for a little bit.  He introduced me to his girl. He was like, “This is my girl Joanna Howard.”  I thought about asking him for $15,000 so I could invest in Walgreens, but it didn’t feel appropriate.  Another poet from the MFA program was there.  He said, “Hey, I have the same cell phone as one of the authors reading.”  There were chairs.  I sat in one.  Someone behind me was telling a joke.  I only caught the punch line.  They said, “Mathew Derby fucked a turtle.  Everyone laughed.

Three authors read.  Blake Butler read first.  I couldn’t really follow his story.  One of the words in his story was ‘areola.’  I don’t like that word.  Three months ago someone said, ‘areola’ and I said, “What’s that?” and they started laughing.  I don’t like the word ‘areola’ because it laughs at me.  Robert Lopez read next.  He literally stood at the podium and masturbated to his own book (see above picture).  After ten minutes he said, "I could do this all day," and then sat down.  I forgot who the last reader was.  Whoever it was read a story about Providence.  He kept saying, ‘RISD’ and ‘Brown’ and then smirking.

On the bus a man clipped his fingernails.  I watched him for a while.