I was wearing suspenders over a get-up with thiner suspenders.  The larger suspenders were of a fabric with two red strips with white running down the middle.  The thiner suspenders were a few blue rubber bands.  I had on a white dress-shirt tucked into baggy gray slacks.  I've been wearing rubber bands on my wrists.  I often take one off and play cat's cradle when I listen to others share.

I was back in college.  I was living in the campus apartments, in a single room—it felt good to be out on my own and the sun was out—where my bed was on a sort of metal spring, but like on the branch of a tree.  I was on the fourth floor, and my room had no walls. When I would lay on my bed, it would rock and sway like a hammock and I was in constant fear of falling off if the bed were to turn 180.  If I laid still, I could even out the bed, and —oh, and my room had no ground either and was adjacent to the sidewalk and this Asian dude walked by as I was trying to lay still not to fall off.  So like, I would be laying on my bed, and he would be walking on his sidewalk next to me, and we were perpendicular.

I was very tired and sweaty and I was tired of always trying not to fall off, so I put on my Real Madrid jersey, the white one with the purple strips, and thought I don't care if it evokes hostile feelings from Americans, I have to tell the RA about my fear of heights.  She was a feminist.  She didn't listen to me.

The president was in town, with his family and cabinet and associates; he was at the college to speak.  I walked past his room in my complex as I was sneaking into rooms and searching for another bed.  He was with his wife and son, all three had just finished getting dressed and were in front of a bedside mirror fixing their cufflinks or buttoning up.  I was very sweaty.

Then in class I wanted to hear this guy speak.  I sat down indian-style along the gym mat with the others.  We were behind some rows of empty chairs.  Another guy came to sit down and asked me to move down so he could see the speaker's face.    He wasn't going to get a view from behind that chair and he was going to ask me to move again; if he did, I was going to let him have it.  When he did again, I said, "That's my breadbox!" and my voice came out strange and unattractive to the girls by us, and just made me sound disgruntled.  Me and him were dressed the same as the speaker—I thought I was being original.  We all had on thin white undershirts.  He had a better build than me, but I had a good build too.  One of the girls next to me didn't like the speaker, and said what does this have to do with the book?

So I said the hell with these people and I left.  I walked down a flight of steps into a grand lobby hall and I thought I should still say hi to the president and be respectful.  He was seated like at a Senate Hall and he took me around the podium and introduced me to some older presidents.  I made sure to say all their names as I shook their hands.  Their skin was old and their bones were frail.