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 that 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

Well 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