Recently, my uncle reminisced about how he and my mom used to get high on her deck when they were younger. He said that she called it her office, as in step into my office or let’s go discuss this in my office. She would call it officione. But officione is not a Spanish word, it’s not even Italian. They used to repeat the word to each other when one or the other was thinking of heading out onto the deck to smoke a joint. The word became an inside joke and they started to use it all the time, only not to just signify getting high. It was a phrase used to signify the freedom of doing what you want and the ability to do what you want. Mainly, I think it was used to signify the excitement that went along with that freedom. After some time, they didn’t need the deck anymore, just the word. The word could take them where they needed to go.
This is where I began my project: in search of an ephemeral place to get high.
-Matthew Spiegelman, 2007
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