INT. One Bedroom Apartment in Queens

The Week in Selfies: 8/10/20 - 8/16/20

Aug 14, 2022

Hello! From a place with considerably better weather than I have experienced the last couple of weeks.

I am continuing on with the subscription donation project. This organization for August is Stop AAPI Hate. If you are new here (welcome!) or need a refresher about the project, you can always find more details of the project on my About page.

So, if you are enjoying this newsletter or connecting to it at all, I’d love if you would like, comment, or give it a social media shout out to help make the impact go farther. Or, if you could share with just one other person, I would melt into all heart eye emojis.

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Samantha stands in the middle of a small living room, surrounded by boxes. She is 34, dressed in grubby athleisure, and cursing the fact that she has very little upper body strength. The buzzer rings. Aggressively. For far too long. And constantly. There’s no way she can make it to the door in the tiny lull between buzzes. There is one more long obnoxious buzz which leads into…

SAMANTHA ATTEMPTS TO BE HANDY MONTAGE

- Quick cuts of Samantha coming in the front door multiple times with boxes of varying sizes. The final time she struggles to push in a box that is nearly too big for the door.

- Quick cuts of Samantha opening the boxes, pulling out packing materials, and unboxing the contents. It is clear what some of the items are. It is unclear what some of them are. It is down right impossible for the audience or Samantha herself to tell what some of the items are and how they go together. The final image is of Samantha sitting on the floor, sweaty, surrounded by boxes, bubble wrap, and particle board that will eventually become furniture.

- Samantha drags the particle board pieces of the bookshelf into the small bedroom.

- Samantha starts putting the pieces together, successfully at first.

- Samantha struggles.

- Samantha leaves the room.

- It is nighttime. Samantha is back, drink in hand, finishing the bookshelf. She is triumphant but looks more defeated than anything.

- It is daytime again. Samantha is in the living room, trying to put the couch together.

- Samantha realizes the couch is missing pieces.

- Samantha emails customer service.

- Samantha looks satisfied and gets ready to move the defective couch to the curb. She notices a zipper on the bottom of the couch. The extra pieces are there. She laughs hysterically. She tries to put the couch together. The pieces don’t fit. She cries hysterically.

- Samantha drags the couch to the curb.

- Samantha sits on the ground. It is still covered in boxes and packing materials.

- Samantha moves the pieces of the dresser into the bedroom. It’s quick cuts of the same process at the bookshelf.

- Quick cuts of Samantha putting together a coffee table, a bedside table, a desk with a drawer. There is some struggle with these processes but they mostly seem to go okay.

- Quick cuts of Samantha going out the front door an inordinate amount of times with boxes and packing materials.

- The front door opens. Samantha enters with a small envelope. She opens it. It is a rustic beer opener.

- Samantha screws the beer opener into the side of her breakfast bar. She takes her time. It’s methodical and no mistakes are made.

- Samantha opens a beer on the beer opener. She smiles.

END MONTAGE

Monday, August 10, 2020