3-3-00 F 1:37 PM

[self portrait in blue ink] What?  I'm in class.  The kids have been doing whatever they want today.  

Some are watching "The Sword and the Stone."  Some are drawing.  Some are playing Chinese checkers.  Some are singing along with a tape, book, and headphones.  I'm not exactly working hard today.  Payday.  My check shows a gross of five thousand and a net of three.  I've got to pay for that desk this month.  

I never worked after school yesterday.  I went to Tam's for some grub.  Read a few pages of Blake.  Rode home.  Read about the Galapagos in an old National Geographic.  Fell asleep.  Rochelle came home.  I played some guitar.  Drove to night school.  The supermarket.  I met Phantom at the Sonora after work.  Had a bourbon.  Went home.  Rochelle had fallen asleep on the couch watching "Beverly Hills Cop."  Had some wine.  I was restless.  Didn't know what to do. Went to bed and put on "Virginia Woolf."  Rochelle fell asleep. Lot of hateful screeching.  I turned it off before it was over.  I'll try to watch the end tomorrow.  I didn't get out of bed 'til seven this morning.  Didn't have time to write.  Rochelle left a long letter on my office chair.  An explanation or apology or something because she says we haven' been talking.  I guess the other shoe has fallen.  We're supposed to go down to Irvine after school today and pick up our new car that I won't be able to drive legally.  I want to see Felix Trinidad get beat up tonight.  Maybe at Mariachi's.  I have to call him and Peachtree and Grandma today.  Carlos and Gil are going to spend the night at Dodger Stadium tonight to get tickets for Opening Day.  Maybe we'll see "The Green Mile" or "Cider House Rules" this weekend.  Rochelle wants to go on a "date."  Looks like our game is going to be rained again Sunday. I went to Tacho Hell today.  I don't know why.  Paul Ahn gave me a Krispy Kreme donut.  I don't see what's the big deal about Krispy Kreme.     What else?   I need to type a third person.  I need to get drunk and crazy.  I need dentures.  Get the new Cameron book.  Get some Jenkins for the shelf.  It's [abstract self portrait in blue ink] a miracle ordained by Heaven.  And then And then And then?

 3-2-00 Th 12:48 PM 

I saw a kind of bird I had never seen before riding my bike to school.  He was flying down the street alongside and past me, alighting in a tree.  It was a gray-brown bird with a red head and white chest, covered all over with black speckles.  About crow-sized, he was, and he had a long thin beak that he used to probe holes in the tree.  I stopped to admire him, and he fled my presence.

I'm at school.  We have to go to music soon.  I'll drop the kids off and work on this web page situation in the library.  

I typed fifteen minutes this morning and played guitar a little before I rode to work.  Got a paper.  Had to talk to Havard about Stephen.  Tried unsuccessfully to retrieve the application for the home page. The kids wrote position papers on their favorite colors and stood in front of the class and read them.  At recess, I went with Elmer to McDonald's and got a bagel with egg and cheese and shit.  Ate it and read about the latest atrocities in the Times.  The kids worked on more regrouping.  I stayed in at lunch.  They're doing silent reading now.  I've got to read more of Blake's "Jerusalem."  Do a third-person page.  I put two more lame lines to Jim.  LACAS again tonight.  Ugh.  Maybe I'll go with Jim to the Bounty tonight.  What else?  

1:40 PM We're back from music.  I couldn't access the keylink the webmaster emailed me.  Sounds like Dungeons and Dragons.  Unreal bullshit.  I couldn't access the link because my "Variable Quit InProcess is not defined," whatever that means.  Phylicia gave me my tax return. All bullshit.  Maybe I'll stop at Tam's and get some mushu or mooshoo or whatever before I go home.  The kids are watching Schoolhouse Rock.  It's supposed to rain tonight.   Agh!  What else?   I [blue ink sketch of Disney's Merlin and owl from "The Sword and the Sorceror"] wish I was twenty-four and stupid still.  Or ignorant still, anyway.  Ugh.  So we unpacked our adjectives.  Lolly, Lolly, Lolly get your adverbs here.  Got a lot a lot a jolly adverbs here.  Indubitably.  Conjunction Junction, what's your function?  What seems to be your major malfunction?

Without unceasing practice, nothing can be done.  Practice is art.  If you leave off, you are lost.

3-1-00 to 3-30-00

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#46 This is not the life that God envisioned

3-1-00  W 1:20 PM

School just ended for the day, mercifully.  Rochelle and I watched the Lakers beat the 'Blazers.  I was too tired or stoned or out-of-it to do anything after that except go to bed.  I got up early this morning and showered.  I finished a third-person page and ate a bagel. Drank some coffee.  Took a vitamin with juice.  Played guitar.  Rode my bike to work.  Got a newspaper.  Bush swept yesterday's primaries.  The kids presented their experiment results.  They did pretty shabby work.  My fault.  We did phonics and standardized-testing practice.  At recess, I had STEPS info put into the bulletin.  I have to find out how to get paid for Saturday.  Math after lunch.  "Regrouping More Than Once."  Picked up the Swamp Angel print from the framer.  Social Studies.  Basketball.  Estefania's stepmom.  Email to check.  Wait 'til tomorrow.  Go home.  Read Blake.  Nap.  A new sentence for Jim.  I lack originality these days.  Call GM.  Ride bike to night school.  Make chicken parmesan.  Watch "Virginia Woolf."  Music tomorrow. Friday.  The car comes.  Saturday?  No plans.  Baseball Sunday if no rain.  Six weeks until spring break.  Four months til summer vacation.  Househunt.  4:32 PM I hung the Swamp Angel.  When I got home, I realized I didn't have my backpack.  I rode my bike back to school and got it.  Now I can finish this.  

The latest interdimensional mystery: the paper with what I owe in taxes has gone missing in action.  It was on my desk all week when I didn't need it for anything.  Now that I need it?  Vanished.  I have to put the amount on my credit card today to get the earnings on my credit card toward our car tomorrow or else we have to wait another month, which would be bad.  Very bad.  I called Phylicia whose husband is the accountant that did my taxes.  She said she'd call me as soon as she got home and let me know.  I hope the IRS doesn't close at five.  Ugh.  What else?  I'll read Blake after this.  Then I'll play guitar.  Then I'll have to go teach my night class.  Urgh.  Then I've got to type fifteen minutes still.  Still haven't done that yet today.  I need to be more creative with my exercises.  Ugh Ack Ick Fuck Fick.  Shit. Crap.  Augh.