This is the third of 3 pieces about my time as a student in New York City (the first one is here, and the second is here). Desire is both weather and compass through the ocean of a woman’s life. In the Spring of ‘94 I get a job over on Columbus Avenue, near the Museum of Natural History, in a store that sells soaps, lotions, and perfume oils. The owner is a woman in her 40s named Joan*, a Jersey native who thinks Manhattan is the height of glamor, and always applies flecks of glitter to her nails and eyelids in tribute. Her wedding ring is bumpy with gems, her store does well and I want to keep up her standards. She is loud, brassy and blunt, and I secretly love her even though she scares me. Every time I walk into work, before I can even take off my jacket, she is on me with a list of tasks, counting them off in her honking purple voice. After that she disappears down the stairs to her basement lair, where she works on orders and listens to baseball games cranked high on her desk radio. I turn up the CD player
NYC MixTape Volume 3: China Rain (1994)
NYC MixTape Volume 3: China Rain (1994)
NYC MixTape Volume 3: China Rain (1994)
This is the third of 3 pieces about my time as a student in New York City (the first one is here, and the second is here). Desire is both weather and compass through the ocean of a woman’s life. In the Spring of ‘94 I get a job over on Columbus Avenue, near the Museum of Natural History, in a store that sells soaps, lotions, and perfume oils. The owner is a woman in her 40s named Joan*, a Jersey native who thinks Manhattan is the height of glamor, and always applies flecks of glitter to her nails and eyelids in tribute. Her wedding ring is bumpy with gems, her store does well and I want to keep up her standards. She is loud, brassy and blunt, and I secretly love her even though she scares me. Every time I walk into work, before I can even take off my jacket, she is on me with a list of tasks, counting them off in her honking purple voice. After that she disappears down the stairs to her basement lair, where she works on orders and listens to baseball games cranked high on her desk radio. I turn up the CD player