1-19-99 Tu 8:49 AM
It's overcast today.  Miss Villasenor said she was in a funk last week.  I returned Mr. Zannat's pitching wedge.  And that's about it.  I've got a coat and tie on today.  I joked when people commented on it this morning that I'm bucking for a promotion.  When people wanted to know why I brought a golf club to school, I told them we were going to be chipping golf balls for math today.  Had no breakfast this morning.  Screwed up and had spaghetti and meat sauce and Taco Bell and cinnamon rolls and potato chips yesterday.  I've got to walk to Hollywood video at lunch today.  What else? My ribs are sore from playing Brooks Robinson on Sunday.  The kids are writing in their journals, too.  We have a lot of work to do.  After school today, I have to do a final edit on that stupid Bayles story.  I'll send off that Bahamas thing today.  What else?  Got a little gas this morning.  I'll have to start a new book today, book number thirty-two.  I finished this one in exactly one month.  I have to pick play leaders for today.  What else?  Some day I won't be such a poor, dumb idiot.  Shirelle wants to know why we haven't had sex in nineteen days.  I say I don't know.  I could almost go for a puff.  Frick--what else?  What can I have to eat today?  I took some Cornish hens out of the freezer.  Maybe I can roast them.  Do I have to stuff them?  Will they cook right if you don't?  What can I stuff them with that won't violate my diet.  Maybe I could sneak in an apple fritter.  Or should I just get some beef jerky?  Oh, what else? I made my bed.  I better resign myself to my fate.

1-18-99 M 11:40 AM
Pyramid Lake, up off the Grapevine, not a bite all day, not a hint of a whiff of success, chilly dogs and water dogs--These salt and vinegar potato chips are good.  I had a little smoke and two of us bought eighteen beers.  Last night I went to Shirelle's.  I rode my bike there across LA with my broken-down fishing poles sticking out of my backpack and my creel slung over my neck and shoulder.  Two guys drove by in a lowered banana-yellow neon bug and drove by again and called out to me, was I going fishing?  "Yeah, tomorrow," I told 'em, wondering what the hell they were stopping me on my bike for.  "Where you going?" they asked.  They were Asian kids.  "Castaic or Pyramid," I said.  I wondered whether they could really only want to talk about fishing. I wondered so loud in my head, I couldn't hear what the driver said next over their chirping bug. "What?" I asked and still didn't hear him.  When he said it again, I didn't want to say "What?" again, so I said, "Uh-huh." He said, "Trout?"  I said, "Hopefully, but maybe bass."  He said, "We work at Sports Chalet."  Maybe they did only want to talk fishing, but I said, "Well, cool. Nice talking with you guys."  "All right," they said, and I bicycled away.  It was easier riding than last time.  Two dudes were brawling in the parking lot a the Formosa. One guy shoved another guy into an old Cadillac and kicked him and slammed the door.  He walked around to the other side to get in.  I stopped to watch.  It looked like one of the Formosa bouncers came out to see what was what. They drove off and I rode to Shirelle's.  I put in "From Here to Eternity."  I thought it was lame.  Shirelle wanted to watch this movie "High Art" that she had already seen once just the other day. "Eternity" is due back tonight, though, so I put that in, and Shrill want to sleep.  Now we're out here rocking in this skiff,  I feel ridiculous today.  I'm going to have to ride my bike back from Shirelle's.  Got to figure out what to do with that Doomsday cult story.

1-17-99 Su 3:39 PM
I'm sore from belly-flopping in the dirt at my baseball game today.  I think I bruised my ribs.  Got scrapes on both elbows and one knee, too.  All to get our a$$es kicked sixteen to two or something.  I had better success against the Sunday crossword.  My hands are slipping around on this pencil because they're greasy from the Icy Hot I smeared on f--ked up shoulder.  I have to remember to pay that f--king ticket for my brother.  It's overcast today.  The Broncos are pulling away from the Jets in the third quarter.  What else?  I typed my fifteen minutes today.  Have to read some Under the Volcano.  No school tomorrow.  We've got to drive out to Pasadena in the morning to meet up with Rawler to go fishing tomorrow.  We're supposed to be back by three.  That should give me three hours to submit my religious freak story to The New Times.  I've got to iron some clothes and put a load in the wash.  I guess I can do that tomorrow.  I've got to watch "From Here to Eternity" before midnight, too.  What else?  What about tonight?  I've got to call Florelle.  I'd like to workout some, too.  I wish that treadmill wasn't f--ked up .  Tigger's exulting on my coffee cup [pencil drawing of Tigger jumping in the air with arms spread].  Yoda's on the front of the Calendar section today.  What else?  Like to strum my guitar tonight.  The Gutierrez brothers are playing at their place tonight.  I'd like to go, but I really don't see that happening.  Jim and Ting and Aaron are about to get in the car.  The company Olds or Aaron's Jetta?  Then finally the rollerblading thing.  Mariachi wants me to go on a Stateline bus trip with him a the end of the month.  Ugh.  I kind of have to take a crap.  I finished reading about the Moroccan city of Fez in my National Geographic.  The next story is about the Tennessee-Tom River.  I wonder how blasphemous my Bayles story is?  Am I consigning myself to Hell for a laugh?

What you want and your best judgment are not always the same thing.
 1-15-99 F 12:37 PM
I'm at school again.  Cruising today.  The kids were supposed to make a cartoon strip of a dream they had had, but none of them did a very good job. Gotta admit, that's a hard one.  There was an assembly to honor Martin Luther King today.  Then lunch.  I'm blowing it.  I went to Tam's and got kung pao shrimp with rice.  Why'm I such a weakling?  Miss Mejia told me Miss Villasenor went home sick.  Zannat said let's golf tomorrow.  Tyson fight tomorrow night.  Baseball Sunday.  Florelle said to come over.  Ugh.  That ring business.  Fish maybe Monday.  Turn in that story.  Watch those videos.  It's going to be a busy weekend.  One hour and forty-five minutes until I can get out of here.  I better not go to any happy hours.  I want to buy some new books for this classroom.  Javier brought cards to school.  They wanted to play poker.  I played a few hands with them.  But they're not quite playing with a full deck, so I quit.  Now they're playing that electronic baseball game that's shaped like a bat and you actually have to swing it to play the game.  We should be doing Stanford 9 practice, but everything got goofed around because our assembly time got switched.  I bought razors at the market and a newspaper I already read.  Haven't read Under the Volcano yet today.  What else?  I better go home and finish that story.  Maybe go out for a drink later tonight.  No more food today.  What else?