Rosa & Reseda

We used to smoke on the fire escape Now we just smoke in the living room In the plastic patio chairs, that the last tenant left I came to Reseda for the cheap rent and the distant listless gloom I answered a Craigslist ad for a roommate Rosa was it She waits tables on the weekdays Picks up any shift she can I paint houses that I can't afford to live in Scraping by, with what we've got, to pay the rent We used to smoke on the fire escape Now we just smoke in the living room And I play her the songs that I wrote last year when things got dim And her boyfriend's a real great guy He works down at the jiffy lube They teach me Spanish at night We eat what she takes from her shift They both think I can be something if I try They come out to all the open mics He's looking around to help me find a van that I could buy She waits tables on the weekdays Picks up any shift she can I paint houses that I can't afford to live in Scraping by, with what we've, got to pay the rent And mom wants to know how sunny California is Says the Island's been cold It sounds like she's over it Tells me Catherine's moving home Her husband's been pretty sick There's a doctor they hope Has better luck diagnosing him We used to smoke on the fire escape Now we just smoke in the living room And the lease is up and we'll never see that deposit again Rosa's moving in with her boyfriend I'm going to drive off somewhere new When I so desperately needed a friend Rosa was a friend