{"id":270,"date":"2024-04-08T15:47:53","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T15:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/wcp-laurengirod\/?p=270"},"modified":"2024-04-15T23:29:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T23:29:00","slug":"you-wake-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/wcp-laurengirod\/you-wake-up\/","title":{"rendered":"You Wake Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You wake up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re forgetting something but it doesn\u2019t come to your mind immediately. It\u2019s a thick fog, but there\u2019s no chance of it letting up. You get out of bed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your feet touch matted carpet. You should vacuum today. You get to the mirror in your room and see your greasy hair that you keep putting off from washing. Today. You\u2019re going to shower today, because that\u2019s what you told yourself yesterday. Where\u2019s your phone – oh, it\u2019s in your hand. It\u2019s like a limb to you. Can\u2019t lose it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You move to the bathroom. Every step seems a little easier than the last. You stumble into the dark before fumbling for the light switch. In that 40 watt lighting you see your face. It\u2019s gaunt. You look like shit. You feel like it too, but this sight is the usual. No point in trying to change it now, you\u2019ve got things to do and if you don\u2019t get going the panic is going to start setting in. There\u2019s deadlines, you know. And if you don\u2019t hurry, they\u2019re going to get tired of your excuses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You wonder who \u201cthey\u201d are. You shake your head. No point in doing that. You\u2019ve always had a competitive streak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You get dressed in jeans that don\u2019t stink and find some clean underwear in the laundry you haven\u2019t folded yet. You should fold that. If it sits there too long, it becomes dirty again. Then you wash it. You know it\u2019s illogical but there\u2019s a thrum in you. Dirty. Filthy. Wash it. Wash it again. Is it clean? Clean enough. You get dressed and throw on a shirt that\u2019s passable for something society can accept. That \u201cthey\u201d can accept. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where\u2019s your phone? On the couch. Grab it. You have to go. You are going to be late. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are an entity piloting this flesh suit, even if the skin fits too tight. Your responses are automated. There is nothing personable about the words you are saying. They\u2019re natural, they\u2019re deadpan. I can work on that. I like that. I hate that. You parrot those words like the robot getting fed simple commands like \u201cHello World!\u201d. Hello world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You tune back into the channel from the commercial break. You\u2019re back home. When did you get home? Where\u2019s your phone? It\u2019s dark outside, what the hell did you do today? They\u2019re going to think of you as lazy. They\u2019re winning. They always win. Your phone is in your pocket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kitchen is a mess. You should clean it. You go in your fridge, something rotting but you\u2019ll get to cleaning it at some point. You grab a canned coffee. It\u2019s dark out but you want that coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You go to your room. You sit on your bed in your jeans, avoiding the matted carpet. You lost your top somewhere on the journey from the kitchen to your room as a marker of where you were. You throw your jeans on the floor and sit in your underwear. You stare in the mirror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You look the same. This is the same. This is normal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re going to shower tomorrow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You lay back on the bed. Close your eyes. Let go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You wake up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You wake up. You\u2019re forgetting something but it doesn\u2019t come to your mind immediately. It\u2019s a thick fog, but there\u2019s no chance of it letting up. You get out of bed.  Your feet touch matted carpet. You should vacuum today. You get to the mirror in your room and see your greasy hair that you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4779,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction-pieces"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/wcp-laurengirod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/wcp-laurengirod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/wcp-laurengirod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/wcp-laurengirod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4779"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/wcp-laurengirod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/wcp-laurengirod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/wcp-laurengirod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/wcp-laurengirod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/wcp-laurengirod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}