Men in coffee shops and coups d'état

I'm sitting in Solstice watching this sneering college-age boy in a baseball jersey leer at every woman who walks by. Each time one walks by he follows her with his eyes and cranes his neck to watch her leave through the door. As he reels his head back in to return to his conversation, his eyes meet mine just for a second, as though he's checking to see if I'm still glaring at him like he's a fucking idiot. (Short answer: yes.) We've been playing this game for 28 minutes and counting.

Leer, little man, leer. It is your right. Just as it is my right to judge you for it.

I just got a text message from Chev asking if I might have time to call her. I didn't answer, I just called. The PCVs in BF are being consolidated, which is a step toward evacuation. I hope that things calm down, I know she wants to stay. I'm walking that fine line between concerned friend who wants more distance between her and the riots and fires, and the supportive friend who knows she wants to finish her work.

So I'm drinking black coffee after black coffee, glaring at baseball boy, and pretending I don't have a draft of my thesis due later today. My eye doctor gave me contacts to try and today is trial 1. My eyes do not hurt, I do not feel dizzy, I don't even notice them most of the time. But I miss my glasses. I feel uncomfortably exposed without them. Also, they hide the dark circles.

Last night I realized the only God I worship is Morpheus and he has forsaken me.

Are there offerings to be made to the God of sleep? Is there a holy book with instructions for ritual sacrifice? The Old Testament was so handy that way...

I can't sleep. I spend most of my time trying to sleep and not succeeding. Melatonin worked for a while and then it stopped working. I may just make peace with myself as an insomniac and learn to live on 3 hours a night. That might work.


OK, I can't ignore my thesis any longer. Baseball boy can keep leering unjudged. Oh Burkina Faso, please stay calm. I think every one should have freedom and no one should have to die for it. But the world has never worked that way. So I will hope, instead, that some balance of the two can be found, and soon.