the pop box

A real store on a real street in real Bellingham, Washington. It's actually called "Deals Only: We Only Have Deals." I think everything might be discounted or something... Unfortunately, I did not get to go inside but I did make my cousin drive me back to the store so I could get a good shot. She says they do in fact have good deals.

Subject: ....
From: J
To: E
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 9:11 am

I had a dream last night that you had a pet monkey and a wildcat. The wildcat just seemed like a big regular cat until you felt its pointy ears and VERY long arms and paws. It had huge teeth but it was super friendly. These animals lived in your bedroom.
- J

Commentary by E: The funniest thing about this message is that I now have a cat named Jenga. And he's very wild and has long arms and paws but is super friendly. See...

One of my new favorite and shameful obsessions is A&E's new reality series, Parking Wars. The show follows meter maids, booters and impound lot officers all over the city. Now who would have thought that an entire TV show about the day-to-day lives of Philadelphia Parking Authority workers could be so entertaining? For starters, it's all based in Philly which means you're going to get the cream of the crop from downtown bitches, rude tourists, ghettolandians, college kids and more...

My favorite character goes by the name of Swoop AKA Tiffany. She's a ticketing officer who says she has to say the "Serenity Prayer" to get through a stressful work day. Her goal, every day all day, is to write the most tickets possible. Rundown of Operation Swoop: Swoop hides out in park behind bush across the street from bank with handicap meter right out front. Patrons continually pull into the handi spot to run into the bank (shame shame shame). As soon as the drivers are out of site, Swoop runs across the street and writes a ticket like lightening. Angry driver comes out pleading and cursing: "I was only in there for 5 seconds!" LIAR!Swoop has already written the ticket and she's all smiles. Suckers.

To me, Swoop is a local celebrity. My sister was in Center City the other day. She writes,

"u will never believe who i saw! SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!! she came by my meter as i was feeding it with the smart card and i went "SWWWWWOOOOOOP" and swoop went "heeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyy..."

And that was it. I heart Swoop. - POP by E