Dear Diary,

Well. Grocery prices are up again. I've been spending so much! Even just my beans-&-rice-&-hot-dog dinners cost me like $70 this month. This is getting crazy. Thankfully, the landlord promised that rent is going to stay stable this year, so long as we don't expect much in the way of maintenance. So, fingers crossed that nothing breaks, or if it does, that I can fix it for cheap.

Thank god we don't have to buy film for cameras anymore; I would be completely up a creek.

But on the bright side, Jean got me a comp ticket to her play, so I'm going to be able to see her perform on-stage! She's been working so hard on this play, I know it's going to be great. Maybe I can get Enrique to join me? Although, honestly, we probably wouldn't be able to sit together, since his seat would be paid for. Well, anyway.

I think I'll head uptown this weekend. I heard the Park is supposed to be having, like, some big event for bird-watchers. Those are usually good for some public interest pics, and sometimes I get some good gossip out of the attendees. I'll let you know how it turns out, diary.

Dear Diary,

So, I took my “Gift Coupon” over to the Fashion District like they told me, and found the apartment The Accounting told me about. Inside was a kinda short guy, with mutton chops, no cap, and like a 19th century suit, and wearing cheap plastic sunglasses. Wanna guess, Diary? The Production, apparently.

These Harbinger guys are insane. Also, are they all guys? So far, I haven’t seen any women. 0 for 3.

Anyway, so The Production asks me what I’m in the market for, and I joke and say “A way to pay my bills.” Except he takes it completely seriously, takes my Coupon, hands me a small glass ball, and tells me to break it. Completely sincere. So, feeling awkward, I break it between two rocks over the trashcan. And, I guess that’s it? I don’t feel any different. Not sure what I’m supposed to be feeling, though. Did it work?

Dear Diary,

Enrique stopped by today after work, and invited me to go with him to a martial arts gym. It was a Brazilian capoeira gym, which was wild, very, like, dancing, jumping-around kind of stuff.

Diary, I was amazing at it. Every single thing they taught, I was able to do, like, immediately. I’m not going to pretend I was better than the masters, or anything, but I was definitely better than some of the people who’d been going awhile. They even asked me where I had studied before, they couldn’t believe it was my first time.

It feels so good, Diary. I’m going to start going a couple times a week.

One of the guys there is apparently a luchador wrestler, by the way. He said my capoeira is already good enough that he invited me to train with him and his friends. I told him that the one time I tried amateur wrestling that it went very poorly, but he said to stop by anyway. I think I might.

Enrique, by the way, didn’t do so well. And he’s done some martial arts training in the past. I think he was a little sore about it, but more mad at himself than me, I think. But meanwhile, it leaves me wondering if this is what I got by trading in my Gift Coupon? Something to think about.

Dear Diary,

Holy crap! I finally got a power!

Okay, so after I mentioned to Jingle, O-Natsu, and Thistle that I never got any Powers from that last Gift Coupon, they insisted on coming with me with the next one with K. While they were looking at options, I mentioned to The Production that the last one didn't seem to do anything. They said (my fellow Contractors, not the Harbinger) that I needed something a little more obvious. The Production asked what I wanted, and on God I said, "something to make me more like a ninja".

So, like, okay, Proddy-boy didn't know what a ninja was, but once we explained to him how ninja are, like, super-fight-y, jump-y, stealth-y badasses, he was like "that seems incongruous with the desire for something evident, but if you are hoping for extra mobility, you'll want this," and he legit handed me a teeny-tiny spring, like the kind you find in pens, but shorter, and he says "swallow it."

On God, Diary, the others just looked at me like it was the most normal thing in the world (except K, who just threw some horns), so I swallowed the damn thing, and once the others made their selection, we went up to the roof and he's all like, "focus your mind on jumping high," and then no cap I jumped like twenty feet in the air! So then he's like, "now try that building over there," and I was like, "naaaaah" but the others urged me on, so then I leapt over and literally, I swear this is true Diary, I cleared the whole street and landed across the way! Then I jumped back, but Proddy told me to test it out on like a football field, because it only goes so far (for now!?) and I should know how far it goes before I try to, like, jump between skyscrapers or something.

So hey! I have a Power now! Not sure why the first coupon didn't stick, but now that I have one, I'm finally feeling like a goddamn superhero! Here we go, Diary!

Dear Diary,

Jean and I visited Benjamin and Meg and Jean’s folks in Forest Hills over the weekend, and while I was in town, after dropping Jean off on Saturday night, I stopped by the football field at FHH and took The Production’s advice.

I can jump 60 freaking feet.

Wild.