12-9-98 W 1:42 PM
Aspiring actress Dawn Diamante is reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the kids right now.  Tonight is the Jeopardy party.  I don't have a ride.  Neither do Rosaflor, Candelle, or Elmer.  I guess my plan to get there early isn't going to work.  Candelle and I might ride the bus.  First, though, I'll walk home and write my fifteen minutes I didn't get to this morning.  Thing gave me a ride to Shirelle's last night.  We watched TV and went to sleep.  The next thing I knew, the alarm was going off.  Shirelle's radio had found its way to some conservative Christian station.  I forgot what was being said, but it annoyed me.  I changed it, but got no better:  Howard Stern.  I had expended all my energy and was stuck there.  Hit the snooze button a couple of times.  Finally got out of bed.  Shrill gave me a ride home.  I walked to the donut shop for croissant, coffee, juice.  The kids have been trying my patience lately.  Whatever.  What else?  Won't get to work on Jim.  I don't think I'm hungry.  I skipped lunch.  Dawn's giving the kids kisses.  Hershey's Kisses that is.
12-10-98 12:20 PM Th 9:52 PM F 12-11-98 Kitchen table.  Very chap lips.  I I I what else?  Don't need to party as much as I need to get on the treadmill.  The phone's ringing.  Thing got it.  Short of breath again.

12-8-98  Tu 12:15 PM

The kids are doing their silent reading now.  This morning they wrote sentences with their vocabulary words.  Daniel wrote, "I remember when I got shot in the head."  He really did get shot in the head.  He has a big dent and scar on the upper left side of his head.  It happened when he was a few months old, though.  Is he imagining the memory from hearing about it?  Or maybe it was so profoundly traumatic, he does actually remember it.  He says he got shot twice on his mom's glass table.  He was in the hospital "only" about twelve weeks.  Maybe he was older than a few months.  Apparently, it was some random drive-by gangbanger bullshit.  He drew a picture of the whole thing.       What else?  Miss Mulrooney has been friendly lately.  I gave her a hand with some Christmas decorations in the auditorium.  She's a lovely creature.  It's kind of cute how concerned she was about getting the decorations right.  She told me her parents in Boston would be watching me on "Jeopardy!" tonight.  I went to Taco Bell for lunch again.  A wacky lady there told me her granddaughter goes to Wilshire.  She said her granddaughter was in Miss Senora's class.  She must have meant Villasenor.  "They want me to work with my granddaughter," she said.  "She's active.  They had her under observation at St. John's for two weeks."  "Lauren?" I asked.  "That's right," she said.  "I've had her in my room," I said.  She seemed to know this.  "I'll help," she said, "but I'm not volunteering.  I already did all that when my baby was in school.  She's thirty-one now.  I did PTA with Mrs. Chalmers..."
When I got back to the line-up area, Miss Villasenor asked me to take Lauren, coincidentally.  "I just met her gramma at Taco Bell," I said.  "It seems to run in the family."  She laughed and said, "I know."     We watched "Microcosmos," the bug movie.  Now we're outside playing handball in the breeze.  Vincent is acting like someone killed his mother because he lost a handball game on a controversial call.  There's a faculty meeting today.  Ugh.  What else?  I'll not have much time for my third-person page.  Stranger than fiction.  The effect of the Gulf War on Jim?  Walk to work.  Read the Mohicans.  Read Coydogs unless McKey has any chess puzzles.  Work on Jim when I get home.  What else?  I'm a little nervous about Q's tomorrow.  I hope Shirelle will be cool.  I wonder how many people will be there.  Too bad we have this dumb meeting today.  There's a UTLA free beer and pizza party on Friday.

12-7-98 9:24 AM M
At school again.  The kids are writing in their journals, too.  I didn't get to type this morning.  It's a bit chilly.  I saw Mrs. Villasenor.  She asked how I was doing.  I said better.  Weirdness.  The Insanity Pepper stopped by last night.  Told about his chatline adventures.  He said one of the chicks was fat with a tattoo on her tit.  Whatever.  I asked him for a ride to Shirelle's.  He said no problem, he could go to Astro Burger then.  I read Calvin and Hobbes at Shirelle's.  That stuff is so great and laugh-out-loud funny.  Shirelle said, "There's John reading again.  You're always reading."  I said, "So.  You always watch TV."  She made me a stuffed pork chop.  My diet yesterday was appalling.  I did treadmill for a half hour last night whilst I read Last of the Mohicans.  Who is the stranger with Heyward and Cora and what's the other girl's name?  Is he Natty Hawkeye Bumppo?  And is the Indian leading them Magua?  The second chapter was more entertaining than the first.  We got some characters now, a little dialog, some suspense.  I worked on Jim some last night, too.  I ought to have Jim eat some jimsom weed.  I need to get to the market for milk, bread, juice, beer, whiskey, and wine.  What else?  Back to work tonight.  I bet my class is mad at me.  I have to call some of my students' parents.  What else?  Shirelle made a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for me to take to school.  I brought a big mug of coffee with me, too.  I have to correct some papers.  What else?  The Jeopardy party is the day after tomorrow.  My kids are so lame.  [pencil Picasso line drawing of nude woman at mirror]  They can't figure out the simplest shit for themselves.  Mondays are always like this.  Their parents let them get retarded for two days and send them back to school brainless.  Twenty-five minutes 'til lunch.  I am going to read the sports page and make new problem-solving cards.