1-12-01 F 11:24 AM

What’s on tap for today? I wrote fifteen minutes in the alternate journal. Read in the New Times about the new owner of the Silent Movie Theater and the internet publishing house Xlibris. The kids have gone to lunch. I’m nuking some microwave meal. We have to go to the auditorium after lunch to see the Martin Luther King program. I haven’t seen the LA Times yet today. I still don’t know who won the UCLA/USC basketball game. Lean Cuisine. I'm hungry. I’ll have to leave ina bout fifteen minutes so I’ll have time to get a paper before I have to retrieve the third graders. I could go for a drink. Wish I could go out drinking tonight. Have some fun. Tomorrow, Rochelle’s dad, the fuck, comes to spend the night. She says he sexually molested her and her sister when they were growing up. I haven’t asked her to elaborate. I’m not looking forward to having him in m house. I’d like to get out of the house, but I think I should stay around. I’ve got a nice T-bone to broil when I get home. Its an eight-dollar steak I got for three dollars. I wonder what’s the catch? Must be about to spoil. I’ve got a potato I can bake and some veggies, too. I’m being a bad teacher today, and I’ve only been so-so at best this week. You’d think I might be re-energized after a three-week vacation. We’re watching “Tarzan” today. Let’s see. What else? I better not bring my newspaper to the Martin King thing. I’d like to shoot some pool tonight.

So now we’re in the auditorium. The buzz of children goofing around is punctuated by the sound of grow-up hushes and hard heels on the wood floor. The fifth graders are seated on the stage steps. If the program holds to form, they’ll sing us a gospel hymn befitting an ordained Baptist minister. A bluesy recording of “We Shall Overcome” plays through the speakers. Many of my old students are among those who will be performing. I see Coleco will be Master of Ceremonies. Senorita Villa mouthed something to me. It looked like she asked me if I want to take a bath. I went to stand by here and still couldn’t figure out what she was trying to say. I wonder if that book I gave her has helped her. I wonder if it has helped her so much that she would like to do some long-term romping.

15 min 1-12-01 F 10:26 AM

It’s raining. I’m at school. I didn’t “borrow” that book from LACAS that might help me edit. When I got home last night, Rochelle had on sitcoms. I didn’t write. Went to bed about ten thirty. Woke up at six fifty. Showered. Rochelle came back to bed after spending the night with the baby on the sofa. I do not think that is healthy for us. I put on Gap denim pants and an Old Navy pullover. Poured a pineapple-orange-banana juice into a couple fingers of whiskey. Thought I’d call it a Sunburned Mick. Drank my vitamin with that. I sat on the couch awhile. The computer was on, but I hadn’t the time nor the inclination to write anything. I pinched some herb into the bowl on the bong and had a wee smoke. I put on the hooded jacket my night school students gave me. I printed a page of fourth person to use here at school to write a few lines for Jim, but I forgot to bring it. I loaded the complete works of Shaekspeare and the Norton English Literature Volume 2 into my backpack so I can research Lear’s storm some more and also added the Ancient Mariner’s thirst. I also grabbed my guitar and drove to school after I kissed the wife and baby.