Fey moves to Chicago after college and, after unsuccessfully applying for jobs in a restaurant and a lawyer’s office, lands a job working the front desk at the YMCA, “the epicenter of all human grimness” (63). There, she tends to the motley mix of directionless male residents and checks the member cards of young moms. Among her coworkers are Donna, who works the phones and complains a lot, and Eli, a preschool teacher, aspiring actor, and “complete nerd” (66) whose “plans for a one-man show about Charlie Chaplin” (72) never materialize.

Every day, Fey wakes up at 4:40 to arrive for work at 5:30. On her way back from buying pizza some nights, she crosses Gregory, whose head injury damaged his short-term memory so that he repeats his life story every time they meet. Fey notices that the office workers upstairs, who enjoy more freedoms without regularly being yelled at by residents, “had it made” (68)—all, perhaps, except “Mr. Mczrkskczk,” who runs the residence and “experienced zero point zero fun in his day-to-day work” (69). Mr. Mczrkskczk organizes the holiday dinner for the lonely residents; Fey, on her way to see her family a couple of days before Christmas, imagines him in the dollar store buying 40 pairs of tube socks for residents’ presents and spends the day in tears.