First Forty

Tonight we signed up for baseball and we had to sell candy. We called our relatives and they bought some candy.

Yumi and I go in to the office; over to Ted's to study; after Don leaves, Ted and I get back on the topic of "god-in-a-box"; spend hours conceptualizing miniaturized worlds; Yumi upset to lose our Sunday evening together.

Clear and beautiful — but hot!; everybody down at the beaches; Casey called in the morning; thought about classes for next semester — also about minoring in Philosophy; I need to think about getting a job; called Mom and talked about how Owen’s wedding went; in bed at 11:00 but couldn’t sleep.

Trish breaks up with Casey

Brunch at McDonalds; take the bus to Quebec; sleep along the way; Fred and I picked up by Mme. Champagne; at her house, we're both scared — now it's real; dinner with the family; help daughter with English homework; watch Nordiques game on television; Connie calls; Fred and I retreat to our hideout in the basement.

Today we started the hockey tournament and we went to Andy’s house. We played with his slime and had loads of fun.

Kids show at Kuumbwa; Miki comes down from San Francisco with her boyfriend; study kanji at the library; dinner over at Eisuke's apartment; Yumi and I watch Juzo Itami's The Funeral; Miki's car breaks down in San Jose; they phone at 2 a.m., but the connection is lost; nothing we can to do help them.

Sleep most of the day; finish Farewell to Manzanar; go for a ride; stop and listen to drum circle; missing Meggin; feel foolish for wanting to chase skirts; read essays on culture and technology; will I be able to make it all work out?

Answering machine messages from Dad, Phil, Amy, Patti, Claire, and Andy.

Sightsee around Montréal; dinner at Bavarian beer hall; stop in at "Le Club Sex 969" to ask directions; cute coat-check girl; night of clubbing at The Business and The Passport; head back after not getting in to Thursdays; sleep through alarm in the morning.

This morning on Ray Rayner they had the winners from the jelly bean count. Nothing happened.

Clean out old files from computer; PCS wants $120 from Yumi for breaking the lease; the What-Nots (Kevin Northcutt's band) playing down at Whole Earth; call Case but we don't have much to talk about; we're both changing; stop by Kuumbwa; Yumi out playing poker with friends.

Read most of Farewell to Manzanar; call Grant; head downtown and stop to watch two girls dancing in their house; bad vibe in bar above the Redroom; get too drunk and wake up with a terrific hang-over.

Out on the scooter one night that Malathion is to be sprayed over the city; surreal; see a girl hitching for a ride outside of the Fish Grill on Beverly.

Arrive in Montreal; rooming with Fred, Dean, and Dan at our hotel; go out for pizza with some of the girls, then Fred and I walk up and down Ste. Catherine street; Montreal is cool because the people speak perfect French and English.

Nothing happened today.

Yumi and I take bus up to campus to eat breakfast; Lisa getting an HIV test, in a funk over finishing her dissertation; have one of Grandpa's navy pictures on my computer desktop; receive an email asking for The Last Vaudevillain review a.s.a.p.; see Yumi at Cabrillo.

Group-project is frustrating, and I'm confused about the major; first V.A. check finally arrives; Meggin calls with the news that Plouffis has died; I think Hal is growing weary of burying pets; call Mom to pass along the news; she and Tom are making cakes for Owen's wedding.

Rich goes away for a week to an intensive Forum “camp”, to get over his fear of heights; he says that he’s going to cross over a rope bridge spanning a gorge; Claire is hysterical, saying that he’ll kill himself; when he comes back he’s pretty quiet about the whole thing, and I wonder what happened.

Miss Poly Sci and French because I oversleep; because I need to finish research on a paper, I also miss English; Mrs. Delaney tells me the work is inadequate, and to get my life organized; race home to pack for Canada; Fred's parents take us to O'Hare; have time to think about how to straighten my life out.

All we did today was play because we had the day off.

Scan family photos at Amy's desk; in the market for a DV camcorder; Yumi and I go to classical guitar concert on campus; Joseph is the stage director; I am "monkey hand"; talk of Marcel contributing rent; Yumi resorts to "American" medicine.

Struggling with Hume; guest speaker in class from Shoshone Nation; cool guy, reminds me of Grandpa; beautiful sunset; attend talk on Hubble telescope; interested in space, once more; night walk.

Go to Naval Reserve Center to find out what I need to do for summer training; they're going to put me on a frigate based out of Treasure Island, in San Francisco; during my physical, the doctor detects a heart condition: mitral valve prolapse; I'm told to lay off strenuous exercise.

Grant and I go to Jodie's birthday party in Streamwood; it's been ages since we've seen her; Jodie shows us her pictures of the Europe trip, which bring back a LOT of memories; even Grant is feeling nostalgic; suddenly want to talk to Ann.

Today Todd and I played and watched Project U.F.O.

Amy furious at Baytree for tracking her down while on vacation; Japanese class is a real train wreck; Tajima sensei is great, but totally disorganized; Ted, Don, and I are ready to take out some of the younger punks; Muria has already promised the garage as a practice space for some friends of hers in a band.

No one in Section can agree on a topic; Prop 187 hunger strike planned for the weekend; don't tell me what to do; $7 massage; movies on Western Shoshone; finish National Geographic article on the Universe, which puts everything into perspective.

Decide to get hair-cut at barbershop on Larchmont; while there I meet Huell Howser, from KCET; we get to talking and he wonders if I wouldn't mind working with him on his next project; we exchange information, but I don't expect anything to come of it.

Go to another meeting at Stu's; stop by Yorktown to see Grandma and Grandpa at the show; while there I pick up re-mixes of "Sweetest Girl" and "Our House"; ask about getting Madness videos; Grant and I play Subbuteo; Jodi calls me out of the blue; she's having a party and would like Grant and I to come.

Tonight we were at a pow-wow in Wheaton. The Spotted Pony people were celebrated by Chief Walks-With-The-Wind.

Yumi and I have breakfast at Cowell; B.J. spots us and comes inside; he needs help with some translation and tells us about an international job fair he attended; he says I have the right "look" for Japan and says JET is a waste of my time; work in the office a bit; Virginia and Cheyenne drop by and Virginia is pleased that her daughter and Yumi can finally meet; Mose Allison show at Kuumbwa; tell Nina and Shinya of my plans to move into the garage.

Gorgeous day!; pick up hotel brochures for Mom; ride up to campus; before riding down, stop to take in the beauty; Meggin calls; tell her that I'm tempted by the women at school; she has similar feelings about the men around her; she tells me to just be careful, if something DOES happen; what!?; talk about my issues with sex and guilt.

August 2: Iraq invades Kuwait; I'm following the news constantly on KCRW; Case is put on alert and sent to Norfolk, where he spends his time digging ditches; while there, he meets a stripper.

Grant back from Pennsylvania; blood pressure still a little high; Grant goes out with Ann to movie; she's mad at Amy, too, and says I'm acting childish; head over to Pauls' after work; Grant and I go to Wag's but he's in a weird mood so I just drop him off and go to bed.

Today we had a feast. We had foods from other countries. Tonight we went to a pow-wow.

Spend day with Ted, watching movies; see American Beauty first at Cinema 9, then Totoro at his place; Ted has redecorated his apartment; he tells me of his idea to hawk desktop shrines; raining all day; WWII propaganda film; Ted relates his fated meeting of Masako in Tokyo.

Run into Michael at library; he must think I'm following him; watch Angel Island and bell hooks videos; bike parts come; finally clean room; Case goes out with both Maureen and Amy; he's worried about becoming an alcoholic like his dad.

While you were away... (pt. 3)

Change out of Calculus to Government; so many awesome girls at the Field House; cleaning "party" at Stu's; John and I are assigned to the inside the ice-maker; grades come — they're not good; measure blood pressure in class and mine is 150/50!

Today we started to set-up the things for the foods (on Friday for the dinner).

Yumi goes to San Francisco with Ted to watch Chinese New Year celebrations; have brunch with Chad, Denise, and Chel; Chad and I play soccer up on East Field; Samba Ngo at Kuumbwa; nice coming home to a quiet house.

Andy drops by to borrow "China Men"; catches me in my pajamas; racked by anxiety over the situation with Meggin; couldn't get anything done.

Taking classes through UCLA Extension; drop "Music" after one meeting, but stay with "History of the West" right up until the end; harangued about inferior vitamins at drug store on Larchmont.

Stay up all night with John watching Scarface; go to meeting the following morning at Stu's; rake leaves all that day; Dan B. stops by before leaving for Georgia; we talk and watch the tape of Comic Relief.

Today we went to Grandma's house and had a wonderful party.

Harvey Wainapel show at Kuumbwa; Yumi comes to hang out with me; Chad and Denise drop by and we go play darts at the Poet with Chel; I sink a double-bull to win the game.

Basketball driving me crazy; read, run; bottle of Stoli cuts into my food budget; Celtic rock band at Live Soup; cut on over to Red Room, dance to DJ cuts; drinking vodka that I keep in my socks; what a cheap bastard...

Jason is in L.A., staying with Joe; he comes to the job in Beverly Hills and Joe has us doing batting practice on the new ball fields; buy new glove, but it’s a bit snug.

Drive John to Goodyear; Todd cuts off his mohawk; he's being more himself than ever; "flame off" at work in order to complete my scripting requirements; pick up Dad at O'Hare and drive to see the Sting play Dallas (they lost).