3:24 PM F 4-16-99
Man, I'm tired.  I'm at El Coyote.  Let's see if I can tell this weird dream I had on the air mattress at Demona's last night.  One of the strange things about it was that I experienced it both as an active participant and an outside observer.  It was like I was an audience member watching myself in a movie I didn't know the end of.  I was at a resort on a tropical island.  There was, I knew as an audience member, a dangerous young couple at the resort, a sexy woman and her boyfriend.  Their racket was to seduce unsuspecting people and rob them, murder them if necessary.  The me in the dream didn't know this, though.  The woman came up to my room.  We started to kiss and embrace and undress when she pulled her gun on me.  I managed to push her off the balcony where she fell to the beach three or flour floors below.  She was lying in the sand unmoving.  I didn't know if she was dead or what.  I went to the phone.  I thought I should call some authorities, but I wasn't sure if it would only get me in trouble for murder.  I went out to the balcony to look again, and she was gone.  I saw her walking out of sight around the hotel.  I hurried to the roof to see if could see where she would go.  There were magnificent pools and waterslides on top of the hotel and huge banquets full of food and fruit.  I went up to the very top, to an air conditioning unit on the roof.  I spotted her walking to a boat moored off the beach.  Her boyfriend was there.  She changed into a bathing suit and they swam in the shallow water off the boat.  They were kissing and petting.  She swam down and he grabbed her by the legs and held them open and started to eat her crotch through her blue-green floral bathing suit.  I noticed a woman in a business suit on the roof next to me, watching me watch them.  She was talking to someone on a cel phone.  I got scared then and took off back through the hotel.  I was passing through the banquet when Dallas Cowboy QB Troy Aikman stopped me to talk.  Then the audience me realized the me in the dream was a sportswriter at some celebrity getaway.  That was when the alarm woke me.

12:52 PM Th 4-15-99
It's warm and springy today.  The once barren trees have sprouted leaves overnight.  I left my jacket home and rode my bike to school.  The house is being fumigated, so I won't be going back for a few days.  I read some more Frost poems while the kids did some standardized reading comprehension practice.  These pastoral New England farm themes and settings are starting to get repetitive.  1:14 PM  We're in the auditorium for our music lesson.  I'm using the piano for a desk while Mr. Coane explains quarter notes and eighth notes and half notes and whole notes.  He's going out with one of Shirelle's friends.  We met her at a party for the Holyfield/Lewis fight.  He asked, "How's Shirelle?" when I walked in right now.  "Female," I answered.  He half laughed.  We've got to finish our chapter review when we get back to class.  After that, maybe I'll put on the end of "The Horse Whisperer" or maybe I should wait until after school for that.  Maybe we can play some baseball today.  I don't know.  I've got to figure out where to kill time between classes today.  I could go to Rita Flora and Il Literature or Larchmont Village and Chevalier's or El Cholo.  Then, I've got to ride my bike to night school.  We'll be having our end-of-the-week test.  I've got to return Odilia's Tupperware.  She gave me a bunch of food last night, a banana, some beef and vegetables and a salad.  Ana Gloria brought me some pupusa fixin's.  After class, I've got to ride my bike to Dina's new place all the way the fuck down by the Beverly Center.  Aah, it'll probably only take about twenty-five minutes, and it'll be good exercise.  Tomorrow: school and bar.  Sunday: Long Beach Grand Prix.  I've got to call Tim.  What else?  Having finished this, and the newspaper, I'll have to do my third-person page out there somewhere to kill time.  Then I can finish the Frost poems.  3:19 I've just finished watching "The Horse Whisperer."  Why's love always such a bummer?  Whatever.  Ugh.  Spoke with Anna a bit at PE.  I accidentally bounced a ball off her ass.

12:43 PM W 4-14-99
The kids are doing their silent reading.  I've just come from eating a schwarma plate at Flame Chicken.  I'm beginning to wonder why the hell I didn't get a cup of coffee.  I was up 'til after midnight last night writing and watching the Dodgers choke in the sixteenth inning.  I'm so tired now, I can't think.  I shouldn't have eaten so much.  I read the newspaper this morning except I spilled a cup of water on it halfway through the crossword puzzle while I was eating my schwarma.  I finished "...And God Created Woman."  Yowzah!  I thought it was a great movie, and not just because I had a hard-on for Brigitte Bardot for the whole time, but because it was all about the evil and chaos that are ascribed to sex and love, about how a beautiful, sexy woman, innocent by nature, can drive men insane.  ~~~~~Whatever.  What else?  I'm supposed to write about my perfect day for my third-person exercise.  I've reached a point in Jim in where I'm wondering what his morning was like, and what is his educational status, and I'm realizing I'll have to develop the character of Tink's boyfriend.  Except, I'm going to want to take a nap when I get home.  I picked up two new movies:  "Rounders" and "The Horse Whisperer."  There's a staff development for salary points this Saturday.  Antuan is reading about Pandora's box.  The house is going to be tented tonight, and we're going to be displaced until Saturday.  I've got Robert Frost's book of poems, Mountain Interval.  The first poem is the famous "The Road Not Taken."  My "Jeopardy!" check came yesterday.  I have to pay my bills.  It's sunny today.  Dwan Diaz is here.  She's reading The Mouse and the Motorcycle to class.  I have night school tonight.  Tomorrow, I'm going to have to pack three days' worth of clothes.  I'm not going to have anywhere to relax between classes on Thursday.  If I just take that night off...I suppose I could just kick here and then go to a bar.  UGH.  What else?  The Long Beach Grand Prix is this weekend.  I should call Tim and see if he wants to go.  I have to mail out my taxes.  I have to find a nice, good high-interest, short-term account to put about four thousand dollars into.  Where will I work this summer?

8:06 AM Tu 4-13-99
I'm at school.  I added a few lines, a new development of Jim's history, to my novel.  I hate that word, "novel."  Thank goodness.  My prayers were answered with those lines. I hope I can do some more tonight.  I'm a little behind on my schedule now, though.  Because I was working on Jim, I didn't get to do my fifteen minutes this morning, and I forgot to check out my third person topic. This morning, I ate some fruit that one of my night school students gave me last night.  I watched the beginning of "...And God Created Woman" last night.  It's due back today.  We have a staff meeting after school today.  Plus I have to get a haircut.  I'm going to be on a tight schedule all afternoon.  I probably won't get to read the paper for the second day in a row.  I have about thirty pages of Player Piano left.  I have to mail out my tax filings. Phylisha and I adjusted my withholdings yesterday.  The "Jeopardy" lady called and said I should get my trip info and money in the next two weeks.  There's going to be a big earthquake drill at school today.  I'm on the Search and Rescue crew. We check all the classrooms for victims after the quake.  What else?  It's overcast [pencil sketch of Gustav Caillebotte's Paris, Rainy Day] today, but at least it's not raining.  So far.  What else?  11:11 AM
The earthquake drill is over.  The kids are doing an activity to practice estimating time.  Shawn brought me a newspaper.  This pencil needs to be sharpened.  I had a turkey and cheese croissant at recess.  We talked about the NFL draft while we searched and rescued, and Rodney joked with me about which one of us was the "HNIC." It's already almost lunch time.  I think I'll just stay in and read Player Piano.  I thought I might return "Six Days, Seven Nights" to Blockbuster, but I may as well do it when I return the Bardot movie tonight.  Our house is going to be termite-tented Thursday.  I've got to figure out where to sleep Thursday and Friday.  I have a ticket to the Cardinals at Dodgers for Friday night.  I have to call my mom when I get home.