WHERE DID MYOPIC GO?

by PhD McGee

I keep thinking it's still on Division so when I'm trekking over there, to that neighborhood, where I used to live, but don't anymore, I walk up and down Division between Ashland and Damen, muttering to myself because where the fuck is it? How do you hide an entire used book store? This is usually when my palms start sweating because when I want to read a beat up copy of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, I don't like to wait. A Kundera jones is an ugly thing to live through.

I can remember Myopic on Division because that's when I used to live right by it and I spent many days reading biographies of dead British men and The Art of War. It's when I lived in an apartment with six roommates and paid $100 a month for it and considered myself politically active because I read the headline on the Tribune everyday. I got through many days drinking Boones Farm and eating Ramen Noodles, which are nutritious, if you drink enough Boones Farm. I think I was also going through college at the time. And by "going through," I mean, "flunked out."

But now Myopic isn't there anymore. It's on Milwaukee, though I still find myself stomping down Division, looking for the eye, expecting the sign to jump out at me soon, wondering where that shoe boutique came from and why that bar has a red velvet rope in front of it and where the hell are all the fuckin whinos? When did it become safe to walk around here alone at night?

My friends say I'm living in the past, "like, way last centruy, dude," and by "friends," I mean, "voices in my head." And yeah, I know that I'm living in the past, but give me my daydreams because I used to live cheaply, eat hardly, drink often, and it was always summer and that's why I prefer to live in a world where Myopic is on Division.

Myopic Books. Your life will be way better if you go there right now and spend all your money.