Jake: I Have A Crush On You.

Isa: Wi-Fi went down for five minutes, so I had to talk to my family. They seem like nice people.

Isa: You are …flower.

Jake: Explain.

Isa: Makes me happy.

Jake: You know that tingly little feeling you get when you like someone?

Isa: That’s your common sense leaving your body.

Isa: Apparently I snore so loudly that it scares everyone in the car I'm driving.

barely anyone wants to read my shit. i’ll just keep posting till people actually like my stuff. just sayin.

I was punched and pepper sprayed by cops that my university administration set on student protesters yesterday. Including once where a cop ripped my mask off my face, grabbed my jaw, and sprayed pepper sprayed straight into my mouth. The university sent out an alert in the middle of our protest canceling classes for the rest of the day, only citing “adverse conditions”. After protesters dispersed under threat of even more violence and three buses of riot police from all over the state with rubber bullets and bully sticks parked in front of one our school’s famous landmarks. I staggered over to a couple of friends who were watching on the sidelines. They gave me water and an apple and held a bag of ice on my very pepper spray irritated face. As they were walking me back to my dorm we ran into one of their roommates. She had taken cancelled classes as an opportunity to get crumbl cookie with her friends. Standing in front of her, happy in a floral blouse with her box of cookies, in my pepper spray and water soaked tshirt, keffiyeh sadly hanging off my shoulder, holding an ice pack to my mouth, felt like a slap in the face.

After putting my pepper spray soaked clothes, shoes, and keffiyeh in a plastic bag and taking an extraordinarily painful shower, a friend and I went for dinner just off campus. There we had a pot of green tea and ramen to soothe pepper sprayed throats. We got ice cream after (shared a cup with chocolate and raspberry pomegranate with strawberry pieces on top, it was very good). From our spot outside the ice cream place we watched a steady stream of groups of sorority girls in matching jeans shorts and blue bikini tops walking back to their apartments after some apparently raucous parties. The cognitive dissonance was insane. I really felt a little like I was going crazy.

Even this morning, waking up to the smeared sharpie of the National Lawyer’s Guild’s phone number on my arm, a black and blue chest from where a grown man straight up clocked me while I was held up by two other protesters in a wall, and a still sore throat and eyes from the pepper spray, life goes on like normal. I still have final papers to write and a math exam to review for.

I’m not sure I really have a point. But, this feeling only makes me want to fight harder for a free Palestine. So, fuck Israel for being an apartheid state and all of their crimes over the last 76 years. Fuck university administration for not disclosing their level of investment in Israel. Fuck university administration for not divesting from this genocide. Fuck Joe Biden for actively supporting this genocide. And fuck the police.

Isa: I wouldn't ever admit this to Jake, but I like him. Kai: Like-like him or..? Isa: I just like him. His looks, his personality, his ability to woo girls. And the most important of all. Isa: I love him for his heart.

Jake: If we shouldn't eat at night, why do they put a light in the fridge?

Isa: In case there’s a blackout and we need to stress eat again.

Isa: Can I ask you for a favor?

Jake: I would literally die for you, but continue.

Isa: We need to talk about you starting sentences that way.

Job interviewer: And where would you see yourself in five years' time, Isa?

Isa: Personally I believe my biggest weakness is in listening.