julie and raechel's house

• pink warm & heavy but in a cozy way; jake & jessie always trailing around; the cluttered shoe/"mud" room; the downstairs lights always being off & all of the walls a soft/worn pink; an item from the day/night's most recent meal carefully covered with tinfoil always resting patiently on the dark stove-top

robyn's house

• yellow & stuffy (like pollen) and the air 35% thicker & stagnant but in a good way and all of the doors wooden & all of the carpets thick

the high school blue science bathroom

• there was always a cold draft & the slightly-open window let you smell the outside (and told you that some anonymous girl was recently smoking in here); the light was always dimmed & it was hard to look in the mirror & there were always things written in the 3rd bathroom stall (approx ~3% of which my own words); its scent was almost always a distinctive mixture of sunchips, cigarettes, and bleach (in that order)

the high school auditorium we had drama rehearsals in

• dim & confining but also warm & inviting; kim eatin snacks n sittin on the tables & andrew singing the beatles in a cringey-but-endearing-sophomore-in-high-school-kind-of-way

the bicentennial on early summer weekend mornings for runs

• "nippy" & blue frosty; then gradually muggy & green foresty happy; tiny pretty summer bugs swimming out of the trees & i'm wearing my blue running shorts

aj & brook's kitchen

• thicker, clean cabbage air & pinesol washed on the scuffed-up floors; exercise equipment stuffed in the living room corner beyond all of the toys

the living room on blanchard street

• always felt very high-up (altitude-wise); the green perforated curtains always flowing up a lil from the wind (mom always had the windows open); can't explain the scent but it made my nostrils flare a little

my freshman year dorm room with logan

• small & tucked & green & stuffy sunshine; the wooden closet door always left open; my red corner table the first thing you see when you enter; phyllis playing bad 'brand new' covers on guitar downstairs with the door ajar vs. lily straightening her warm blond hair in the 3rd floor washroom vs. name/faceless upperclassmen boys loudly longboarding down mellen street when you peer nosily outside down the window

elise & ana's dorm room

• the coziest room i've ever experienced; christmas lights around the room all year long & the shades deeply drawn; all the lights off (substituted with campus-banned candles); bridget jones diary playing lovingly to all of us from a tiny tv

the earth science classroom

• clean & crispy & FREEZING with nice black leather chairs & sam wearing birkenstocks & mike hand-rolling his cigarettes beneath the desk & sarah needing help adjusting her chair because she's disabled & small and the 4 of us are a good group together

the ames library in easton

• the air conditioner vents under the tables & blowing the cold air onto my ankles & i just finished lolita walking around easton in the thick august summer heat because i couldn't go home

my first job

• the same jingle repeating on a loop on the speakers & a bell jingling every time someone enters or leaves the store & me hating to organize the clothes but liking to straighten the cereal boxes; the cleaning supplies aisle smelling strongly of clorox & chemicals; mike's small blue garden gloves to hide his hands vs. him peering through the windows to watch me at the register during his cigarette breaks in the dark rain; chris's red polo shirt, jingling keychain & ipod blaring ugly awful alt rock from low-quality speakers

working at berryline

• everything crisp & clean & a nice blue; the air conditioning always top notch & my yellow smock always on; white plaster dough & mochi on my hands & the smell of yogurt inescapable; stacks of big carton boxes in the basement & my ipod plugged in to practice chinese audio clips for class; will with the afro & skateboarding shoes playing grizzly bear songs; chris talking to me about mad men episodes; closing up & washing the dining tables in the evening, starin' all wistfully n longingly out of the dark massachusetts avenue windows out at the pretty boston evening lights that are all flickering on or off; riding my blue bike home in the cold secret thrill of the dark

FSG

• "non-profit" & clean & vegan; my bottle of vanilla handcream from lush perched on my desk & my trader joe's salad for lunch; the tables are all black, new & shiny and everyone wears fancy suits or talks about "eating organic" with big plastic utensil smiles and it's friendly but empty & sad and in the washroom it all glistens so white