9-16-98 Tu 1:17 PM
The kids are enjoying a little "free time" while I finish off the paper and try to get this out of the way.  That means they're reading, writing, drawing, and coloring.  I'm stuffed from Jack in the Box.  Why do I do it?  But this is all the same crap I always write.  I wish I hadn't lost that last journal.  I always lose the momentous ones.  Like the one I lost when I was single and partying and scamming and getting laid----heh [a sort of worried looking happy face is drawn].  I know the epic east coast trip is lost.  New York, Philly, Baltimore, DC, up to Boston and then through the Poconos--gone.  Whatever.  I have three more closets to straighten up in this classroom.  Then I've got to climb on top of them and figure out what all posters to put up there.  I have to get construction paper still and manila folders and hopefully Betty will fill my materials order soon.  After work I have to do my fifteen minutes.  I thought something comical earlier today--What was it?  Seemed like I thought of it pulling into Seven Eleven.  Oh, some little irony - damn, I don't remember anymore.  Oh, well.  I'll play Brain Buster a couple games this afternoon, and I'll try that Old Testament game.  I have to remember to watch "Jeopardy!" tonight.  Finish a third-person-page.  Work at Jim.  I lost another Final Jeopardy last night.  What else?  We have a three-day weekend coming up.  No school Monday for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.  I don't think we have single Jewish student at Wilshire Hill.  We only just started back.  I'd rather take a day off for Yom Kippur in March.  It's a long stretch from President's Day til Memorial Day.  No time off for Easter--Why's it gotta be on Sunday all the time?  Besides, New Year's celebrations are a dime-a-dozen.  Days of Atonement and/or Redemption are what we need more of.  Seems like Christians ought to celebrate Old Testament holidays.  What else?  I have a nice class, well-behaved.  It's hot, sky blue, boop-boop-pee-doo.

9-15-98 5:49 PM Tu
The LAPD Bomb Squad just went screaming by on Pico.
There's a woman in my class named Lesbia.  Two of the other girls snicker when I call on her.  She is a quick learner.  I almost read the whole paper today.  I still have to finish the crossword.  I haven't played NTN yet.  I found the right game for Jeopardy practice.  It's called Brain Buster, and I keep getting my donkey kicked.  I couldn't crack the top ten out of sixty or so in five games last night.  I think there must be repeated questions and frequent players who know them to do as well as they were doing.  I kept coming in between eleventh and fifteenth place.  I taped Jeopardy so I can watch it when I get home.  I did my fifteen minutes this morning.  The transmission place was just down the street from school.  I took my car during lunch to have the tranny serviced:  new filter, gasket and fluid: fifty bucks.  Maybe I should have done it myself.  Well, it's fixed now anyway.  Now I have to clean off the driveway in the back in case we actually play ball after school back there on Friday.  Some of the guys at work said they wanted to come over and play.  It wasn't my idea, but I said sure.  I won't be surprised. if they don't show, though.  I ate a Papa Rico's bacon cheeseburger for lunch.  It was so-so.  I had two toaster waffles for breakfast.  I'm hungry now.  I'll eat my corn on the cob when I get home.  Then I'll watch my "Jeopardy" tape.  I started the rollerblade scene for Jim in yet another unfinished third person page last night.  If  I stay home to work on it tonight, Shirelle will prolly dump me.  I'm not sure I care.  Last night I was in love with the sub next door, but now I'm not.  I like that lady Anne Villasenor at school.  Sigh.  Whatever.  Faculty meeting was long and boring.

Aren't We All?

M 9-14-98 11:55 AM
At school.  Really those two words cover it.  I can hear Miss Roberts trying to reason with the little brutes in the next bungalow.  I'm skipping lunch.  I had a bowl of cinnamon apple oatmeal and a celery stick with peanut butter for breakfast.  While I was eating, I heard a terrible screeching noise.  It seemed to screech up and down the street before it stopped.  Carlin's left back wheel had locked up, from rust, I guess.  She now has a bum left tire to go with the bum left leg she's been hobbling around on, saying her "foot is chipped."  I think she's lonely, and it's a physical manifestation of a need for attention.  Aren't we all?  Whatever.  I have to figure out where that transmission place on La Brea is exactly. I still have to pick up my camera, too.  I hope the NTN Wipeout game online works again today.  It's nearly the best "Jeopardy" practice.  The sky is clear and blue today.  I saw Ann Anne Anna Villasenor walking regally across the playground.  Shirelle and I slept apart last night.  Her attitude has been demanding, selfish, bossy, pushy, short-sighted, shallow, and immature lately.  What else?  After lunch we'll have some silent reading time.  I read most of the sports page this morning, but that was it.  I didn't type my fifteen minutes yet.  I still didn't get a third-person page finished.  I saw where that Beyond Baroque place in Venice is yesterday.  It looks like an old church or library.  The poetry slam I went to in Cambridge was better because it's at a bar, the Can Tab, and you can drink.  LA is starting to seem like such a dumb town lately.  It really is as shallow and image-conscious as everyone says.  I want to be a five-time "Jeopardy" champion.  I want to play for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars on the Tournament of Champions.  Then I would have enough money to try teaching in other cities.  I have a lot of Xeroxing to do.  I have no TA yet this year.  They gave Gladys to Mr. Xanax because he needs someone who speaks Spanish.  We're planning a little two-on-two basketball tourney in the backyard for Friday after school.  Mariachi is expecting me for the De La Hoya/Chavez mismatch.  I wonder if I should invite any of the women from around here.  Prolly not.  The bell's going to ring soon, and I'm still not finished with these three pages.  Starting to get hungry.  My stomach will have to wait a couple hours or so.  I can have a plum when I get home, or a veggie burger or something.  I have to go to the LACAS office after school and pick up my paper work.  I'll type after school.  I should try to take some shots.  I'm going to have to clean car fluids off the driveway.  Tomorrow we have a faculty meeting.  Next week I have to visit the doctor.  Hosebag is coming.

There is nothing here.

1:16 PM Sa 9-12-98
Angels in Baltimore on Fox TV.  Maybe I should bring the trashcans back in.  1:48  Let's knock this off.  There's Shirelle's car.  We're leaving soon to go to Pasadena.  She's in the bathroom.  Now we're waiting for Thing to get ready.  Shirelle said there's a bug swimming around in her wine.
Su 2:59 PM 9-13-98
Shirelle and I ate at some Mexican joint in old Santa Monica, fighting the brooding contempt of familiarity.
7:41 PM
I have to write down my "Jeopardy" anecdotes tonight.  When I'm done here I'll shower.  I played basketball in the backyard for a half hour.  I read about the yoke Jeremiah wore and his prophecy of Israel's servitude to Nebuchadneezar.  I read a few pages of The Sportswriter.  Ugh.  What else?  I have a feeling I won't get much work done on Jim until the "Jeopardy" thing is over with.  The damn NTN wouldn't work today.  A roach is whispering from the bowl of a pipe Shirelle found.  Back to school tomorrow.  I'll study from the New York Public Library Desk Reference: THE ULTIMATE ONE-VOLUME COLLECTION OF THE MOST SOUGHT-AFTER INFORMATION.  A picture of the snooty-looking lion statue in front of the 42nd Street library stares off the cover.  Tensing Norgay accompanied Hilary to the top of Everest.  "The Simpsons" are on tv right now.  Sammy Sosa tied McGwire tonight at 62.  Mac sat out his game today with back spasms.  What else?  I ate a torta at lunch.  I haven't had my supper.  I'll eat my watermelon.  This is a pretty boring entry.  After this there's a show coming on called "That 70's Show".  I'm paralyzed.  I can't think of anything worth writing.  I turned off the tv.  The plant on the mantel is dying.  The clock stopped at 3:02 and one second.  It's been like that for days.  I need to wind it.  I have to call Mariachi.  I have to take the Chrysler to have the transmission serviced.  I have to pick up my camera from Samy's.  What else?  I haven't drawn anything in a long time.  This hasn't even been three pages.

The Monkey Chased the Weasel

9-11-98 F 12:45 PM
It's silent reading time here in third grade.  We've just come from lunch.  I took my payroll form to the tech center at lunch.  I stopped at my house and took a crap and grabbed a banana.  I ate the banana in my car.  It's all I've eaten today.  I really wanted an Ultimate Cheeseburger from Jack in the Box, but I was able to put it off.  After school I'm supposed to meet Florelle after school about a drink.  I might also meet Kendall at the museum.  Who knows?  Shirelle and I had a tiff last night.  First of all, in the afternoon, she was complaining again about our not living together.  So I say move in, but she doesn't like the carpet.  We've been round and round that mulberry bush a hundred times.  I had to go to work.  She said I could write after work, and she would come over around eleven.  So I called her at ten thirty and it was one of those, "Are you coming over?"s and "I don't know.  Do you want me to?" with a "Well, why do you think I called?" plus a "Can't you just invite me over?" then a "I thought I just did."  "No, you didn't"  "Well, would you like to come over?"  "Why can't you say you WANT me to come over?"  "Oh, you're just playing games now."  "No, I'm not."  "Well, I'm just going to bed now."  "Fine."  "Fine."  "Good-bye,"  Click.  I thought she might come by to torment me at lunch, but then I realized she would wait until just before school ended so she could torment me at happy hour in front of my colleagues.  Maybe I'll just skip happy hour and go home and write and wait for "Jeopardy", watch sports, drink beer and eat the food in the freezer.