I realized this morning that I had no cream for my coffee. Rather than walk a block down to the store, I took out a tube of white face paint from my makeup room and then painted an upside-down “milk mustache” above my upper lip. I made a sign on a piece of 8.5″ x 11″ office paper that read GOT MILK? and walked down the hall in my apartment building. The first door, nobody answered. The second door was an old lady and she didn’t understand what I wanted. (I had decided to make this a visual-only performance piece; no talking.)

A few more not-homes. A young couple passed me in the hall and just looked down when they saw my face and sign. I wanted so badly to say “Hi!” to them but again: no talking. Then I knocked on the door of the D.C. City Council Member who lives in my building. When he opened the door I just silently pointed at my sign. He played 20 Questions with me gamely for a while till he finally guessed: “You need me to give you some milk because you are out of milk?” And I excitedly pointed at my nose several times to indicate he was right. He went in his kitchen while I stayed at the transom, then he brought the milk (2%, not bad) and said, “Please. Keep the bottle.”