10.07.2004 | 2:59 pm

study like mad for twenty minute tests of your intelligence, and when it's over, try to believe that you're smarter than those questions made you feel. spend hours on the homework pad to be with the people you love and not the textbooks you hate, and trust that in the end it will miraculously pay off. write a newspaper article that will change the world, or at least one that should, and be satisfied with your eloquence in spite of the political idiocy of those around you. "so vote intelligently, watch 'I Love the 80s,' and don't assume we want your bumper stickers or other political propoganda just because we shared a hymnal with you in church." i set you a trap and you walked right in. birthdays, family visitors, and lip-synch contests will fill your heart with gladness and your eyes with tears: this is a love you never expected to find here. hear her tomagatchi calling from hongkong/thenextroom, and know that the good times make the struggles all worth it.

there's a picture in my mind that i can't seem to shake: onea.m. on the coldest night yet, and to the tune of our favorite songs the black night whispered happy birthday to her in the stars i saw through the holes in our flavored smoke.

welcome to october. i'm coming home to your punkrock show.