It’s a sweltering-hot October afternoon, not uncommon for fall in Los Angeles. I spend the day as I’ve spent every day for the past few years, reading birth charts online for $200 a pop, making memes, and writing dumb listicles—”‘90s Sitcoms as Zodiac Signs”; “Disney Princesses as Signs”; “East Asian Cities as Signs”—for online-only publications.

For a while, astrology paid the bills and more. But affording my meager lifestyle is becoming increasingly difficult because of a few circumstances beyond my control. I can’t technically afford the rent on my sun-bleached studio in Thai Town. It is just a white box with white carpet, white venetian blinds, a white fridge, a white stove, a white bathroom, and a white mattress pushed up against the wall. All the white means it is dirty all the time, a sort of dusty off-white. But I chose this apartment because it’s on Winona Boulevard. There is a Girl, Interrupted poster above my bed, and I named my cat Lydia after Winona Ryder’s character in Beetlejuice.

I also picked this apartment because it’s down the street from the Mirror Box, an iconic burlesque dive. I typically go on off-hours, in the early afternoon, right after I finish my work for the day. There isn’t much to do in my apartment aside from look at my phone and refresh websites. I got Lydia for something to do, but she has no interest in me. I crave affection, a humiliating human impulse, so I go to the Mirror Box every day as soon as it opens and throw money I made lying to people online at women pole dancing to Radiohead.

Today I don’t have much work. Just one birth chart, which I finish quickly and robotically. It’s a boring chart—mostly Sagittarius, the least interesting sign—but I like to gas people up. I tell her she is a star. Everyone just wants to hear they’re special in very specific language, and astrology is a perfectly nebulous vehicle for this.

Afterward, I make and scrap a few memes for my astrology account, Exalted. I can’t get into a creative flow. I drink a blue Gatorade and eat a few slices of turkey standing up with the fridge door open. I reorganize my Juicy Couture tracksuits by color. I bought my first Juicy tracksuit as a joke a few years ago and then realized they are by far the most comfortable thing to wear. I got one in every color and style, and I wear one almost every day.

At 3:07 P.M., I start to feel unbearably restless. I suck a steamy hit from my sparkly blue bong and walk outside.