1-29-00 Sa 4:07 PM
I'm hungry.  Rochelle and I are sitting in Fantastic Sam's hair salon on Crescent Heights and Third.  I have some sort of post-inebriation neurological disorder.  I have very little in the way of psycho-motor control today.  I drove down to the corner and got a newspaper after I had typed for fifteen minutes.  I finished Book One of Paradise Lost.  I still have to write my grandmother and send the keys back to the St. Charles.  Maybe we'll go to Every Picture Tells a Story.  I told Rochelle I couldn't get my haircut at any place that didn't have a barber pole in front of it, but she wasn't having it.  We've got to go to Pasadena tonight.  I'm hungry.  I'm shaky.  What else?  Rochelle has been on her period now for a week.  It's making her a little bit testy.  5:23  Rochelle decided she didn't want to get her haircut at Fantastic Sam's after all, so we left.  We went to Carl's Jr.  An epidemic of shitheadism grips Los Angeles today.  Whatever.  I struck out on "Millionaire."  What else?  Artie Passage called.  He and his wife are coming up her to watch the Super Bowl tomorrow.  My mom and sisters might come, too.  What else?  God, I feel so weak.  I'm home now.  I'm lying across my bed writing in this journal which is on the floor.  I'm not going to read McCain.  It's already time to go.  Blah blah.  Rochelle says I have a gift.  She says I'm talented.  She says she's biased because she loves me.  You would think I was hammered right now this penmanship is so sloppy but I haven't had a drink today.  I did so much damage last night, though, that this is how I'm writing today.  [Illegible] should try to get up to Pablo's before the Gonzalez's.

1-28-00 F 11:48 AM
I'm at Tam's.  The sun shines through the shades in stripes on the table.  I just finished eating.  I wasn't hungry, and I swore I wouldn't eat 'til I got home today, and then I came here and ate anyway.  Weird compulsion.  I have to get a plunger.  I wrote a letter to Grandma Miller yesterday and put it in the mail with a picture of Rochelle and me.  Then I watched Tyffany Mynx get       by a room full of        .  I rode over to LACAS and got some more books for my class.  Jose showed me his new reels.  I rode to class.  They're learning numbers and "next to" and "across from" and how to find a room in a school.  Class ended early so the teachers could go to a workshop.  I rode home first and had a bourbon and a smoke.  I was a little buzzed when I walked into the meeting.  It was very lame.  I felt superior to the other teachers.  I was silent lording it over them because I knew I was a great teacher, and they were not.  I left at nine o'clock even though the meeting wasn't over.  I heard one of the lame-o's whining when I said good-bye.  "How come he's leaving?  I want to leave," and a lady said, "Because he's bold."  Yeah.  That's me.  Bold.  I drank beer with Rochelle when I got home, and we switched channels around and baked some stuffed pork chops.  I talked to Getoff about what kind of guitar to order and how to start a business.  He said you just declare yourself a private contractor.  We talked about drinking tonight.  I would like to shoot some pool this afternoon.  I have to write Gramma Zurn a letter.  We've got "Notting Hill" to watch.  I might go see "The Straight Story" tomorrow.  I think I'm supposed to pick Bern up from the airport tonight.  We'll ride the bus to the Westside Pavilion tomorrow.  Mariachi's having a party tomorrow at which Rochelle will be the guest of honor.  There is no baseball game this Sunday in honor of the Super Bowl.  I found an Italian/English dictionary on the sidewalk yesterday morning.  It was all wet, but I left it on the bench outside my classroom door to dry in the sun and it is now only slightly damp.  Walter said, "Mr. Zurn, my tooth is loose."  I said, "Come here.  I'll knock it out for you."  He didn't come.  Yahaira Yahaira Yahaira said, "Mr. Zurn, Angel take my eraser Barbie."

After I wrote here yesterday, I never wrote again until today.   I fell asleep reading the editor F.T. Prince's introduction to the first two books of Paradise Lost.  I didn't realize it was only the first two books when I bought it, even though I thought it seemed awfully thin.  I woke up just in time to ride to night class.  I didn't get a chance to go by the office.  Class was a breeze last night.  After I rode home, Rochelle and I went to the market and bought mainly liquids: beer, wine, Irish cream, milk, juice, batteries, bagels, a bucket of ground coffee and cottage cheese.  We drank beer and watched a semi-amusing movie called "Office Space."  I didn't get up early enough this morning to type at all, but I did tune my guitar.  I forgot to take my vitamin. It was cold riding to school this morning.  I parked my bike here in class and signed in and got a paper from the corner store.  I read a little in the break room.  We worked in our phonics books on short vowel sounds and did an exclamation/command/statement/question recap.  I went to Taco Bell at recess.  I corrected yesterday's math tests.  The kids bombed it.  I scolded them pretty good.  It's lunch now.  I'm done with the paper.  I've got some more McCain to read after this.  We have to go to music today.  Third person.  Call Rochelle.  Call Regis.  Call 21.  Jeff.  Nina.  Get a new journal.  My writing in here has been weak.  There's a meeting at LACAS tonight.  I want to see a move at the Westside Pavilion called "The Straight Story" Saturday morning.

1-26-00 W 2:04 PM I’m sitting on a bench at the handball area on the Wilshire Hill playground.  I typed fifteen lame minutes this morning.  Mostly, I just sat there.  Them I put on my jacket and got on my bike and rode to school.  I left my bike in class and walked across the playground to the office.  I got my mail and signed in before walking over to the corner store for a newspaper and a cup of coffee (We’re out of coffee at home.  Plus, I need two AA batteries for my beard trimmer).  Mohammed, the clerk at the store, didn’t have change, so I told him he could just give it to me tomorrow.  I went to the break room by the cafeteria.  An old gal in there who had come out of retirement to sub talked about how disrespectful the students are now than when she was teaching.  The bell rang, and I led my kids up to class.  They had had to rewrite their personal narratives for homework.  They read their final drafts to the class.  Jocelyn Palacios wrote the best one.  It was about how the death of her great-great-grandmother affected her family.  Most of the others were crap.  After that we did a lesson on exclamations and commands. Then it was recess.  I correct their math pre-tests.  Most of them did well.  It was a take-home test.  We corrected their chapter reviews.  Then, it was time for lunch.  I copied their final chapter test. Then I read the newspaper.  I got a ham and cheese croissant.  I wish I wouldn’t have.  Pedro’s mom came to sign papers to have him moved to the r----d class.  3:07  PM I’m in Tracy Holzt’s room.  She teaches orthopedically handicapped children.  We’re trying to figure out what to do with one of her students who studies with me in the mornings.  The girl’s name is Charli, and she has a cleft palette and aphasia.  I’ve got to ride up to the developer and pick up my film.  4:31 PM  I’m lying in bed now.  I took my shoes off.  I don’t usually take me shoes off when I get home in the afternoon since I always go to go out to moonlight in the evening, but I did today, and it feels pretty good.  I’ve got to go to LACAS and fill out my payroll card.  I’m going to begin Paradise Lost today.  Sort of an interlude.