Twittering from
the Circus of the Dead
A Story
Joe Hill
Twittering from the Circus of the Dead
What is Twitter?
“Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? . . . Answers must be under 140 characters in length and can be sent via mobile texting, instant message, or the Web.”
—from twitter.com
TYME2WASTEI’m only trying this because I’m so bored I wish I was dead. Hi Twitter. Want to know what I’m doing? Screaming inside.
8:17 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEMy, didn’t that sound melodramatic.
8:19 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTELets try this again. Hello Twitterverse. I am Blake and Blake is me. What am I doing? Counting seconds.
8:23 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEOnly about 50,000 more until we pack up and finish what is hopefully the last family trip of my life.
8:25 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEIt’s been all downhill since we got to Colorado. And I don’t mean on my snowboard.
8:27 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEWe were supposed to spend the break boarding and skiing but it’s too cold and won’t stop snowing so we had to go to plan B.
8:29 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEPlan B is Mom and I face off in a contest to see who can make the other cry hot tears of rage and hate first.
8:33 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEI’m winning. All I have to do to make Mom leave the room at this point is walk into it. Wait, I’m walking into the room where she is now . . .
8:35 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEShe’s such a mean bitch.
10:11 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTE@caseinSD, @bevsez, @harmlesspervo yay my real friends! I miss San Diego. Home soon.
10:41 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTE@caseinSD Hell no I’m not afraid Mom is going to read any of this. She’s never going to know about it.
10:46 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEAfter she made me take down my blog, it’s not like I’m ever going to tell her.
10:48 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEYou know what bitchy thing she said to me a couple hours ago? She said the reason I don’t like Colorado is because I can’t blog about it.
10:53 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEShe’s always saying the Net is more real for me and my friends than the world. For us nothing really happens till someone blogs about it.
10:55 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEOr writes about it on their Facebook page. Or at least sends an instant message about it. She says the internet is “life validation.”
10:55 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEOh and we don’t go online because it’s fun. She has this attitude that people socially network ’cause they’re scared to die. It’s deep.
10:58 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEShe sez no one ever blogs their own death. No one instant-messages about it. No one’s Facebook status ever says “dead.”
10:59 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTESo for online people, death doesn’t happen. People go online to hide from death and wind up hiding from life. Words right from her lips.
11:01 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEShit like that, she ought to write fortune cookies for a living. You see why I want to strangle her. With an ethernet cable.
11:02 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTELittle bro asked if I could blog about him having sex with a certain goth girl from school to make it real, but no one laughed.
11:06 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEI told Mom, no, the reason I hate Colorado is ’cause I’m stuck with her and it’s all waaaaay too real.
11:09 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEAnd she said that was progress and got this smug bitch look on her face and then Dad threw down his book & left the room.
11:11 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEI feel worst for him. A few more months and I’m gone forever, but he’s stuck with her for life and all her anger and the rest of it.
11:13 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEI’m sure he wishes he just got us plane tickets now. Suddenly our van is looking like the setting for a cage-match duel to the death.
11:15 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEAll of us jammed in together for 3 days. Who will emerge alive? Place your bets, ladies and germs. Personally I predict no survivors.
11:19 PM – 28 Feb from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEArrr. Fuck. Shit. It was dark when I went to bed and it is dark now and Dad says it’s time to leave. This is so terribly wrong.
6:21 AM – 1 Mar from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEWe’re going. Mom gave the condo a careful search to make sure nothing got left behind, which is how she found me.
7:01 AM – 1 Mar from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEDamn, knew I needed a better hiding place.
7:02 AM – 1 Mar from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEDad just said the whole trip ought to take between 35 and 40 hours. I offer this as conclusive proof there is no God.
7:11 AM – 1 Mar from Tweetie
TYME2WASTETweeting just to piss Mom off. She knows if I’m typing something on my phone, I’m obviously engaged in sin.
7:23 AM – 1 Mar from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEI’m expressing myself and staying in touch with my friends, and she hates it. Whereas if I was knitting and unpopular . . .
7:25 AM – 1 Mar from Tweetie
TYME2WASTE. . . then I’d be just like her when she was 17. And I’d also marry the first guy who came along and get knocked up by 19.
7:25 AM – 1 Mar from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEComing down the mountain in the snow. Coming down the mountain in the snow. 1 more hairpin turn and my stomach’s gonna blow . . .
7:30 AM – 1 Mar from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEMy contribution to this glorious family moment is going to come when I barf on my little brother’s head.
7:49 AM – 1 Mar from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEIf we wind up in a snowbank and have a Donner Party, I know whose ass they’ll be chewing on first. Mine.
7:52 AM – 1 Mar from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEOf course my survival skillz would amount to Twittering madly for someone to rescue us.
7:54 AM – 1 Mar from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEMom would make a slingshot out of rubber from the tires, kill squirrels with it, make a fur bikini out of ’em, and be sad when we were rescued.
7:56 AM – 1 Mar from Tweetie
TYME2WASTEDad would go out of his mind because we’d have to burn his books to stay warm.
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