2010

pst

wed
feb
24

My social life is pretty much Isma, knocking on my door in the evening, then me going over to her back door to help with her math or science homework at their dining room table. The rest of the family retreats to watch TV in the living room. It's all one room really, but we pretend. So I do this half hour or an hour almost every night.

Then there's the rest of the world. There are only two events I go to out there. One is the annual get-together which my St. Louis high school sponsors once a year, and because I'm interested in sampling such a social world from time to time, agreed to show up in San Francisco tomorrow, between seven and nine-thirty in the evening.

The other event is the annual get-together of the Internet Society – the nascent Bay Area Chapter – where you get a chance to chat with people responsible for inventing PhotoShop and things like that, and wondering at the mystery of how this event could possibly have been scheduled at the exact time and date as my High School reunion – tomorrow, between seven and nine p.m. down in Menlo Park – agreed to show up there as well. Isn't that the nature of a social life? You accept two parties at once. Oh! Torn Between Two! – Feast or Famine – though in those worlds, hardly playing at it, it's called, Playing Hard to Get.

At least no more than one thirteen-year-old girl knocks on my door.

pm
1:37

Last Night: (Dream) It's a school or something. I have a friend with me to show me the ropes. When I turn around, I see bunches of people, then Sasha heading off in another direction. I'll find a spot for myself here, it would be nice to find out who's in charge. My friend introduces me to some deputy, not the main boss, I can see. He gazes into my eyes, and I into his, that's our introduction. Now I still intend to find a spot for myself, though there are some sort of opening ceremonies about to begin, so shuttle into a place where I can get a gist of what that's all about. There's half a flotilla of sailboats coming up behind our motor craft, spreading out into a fan. Big show! No need to partake of that! I go back to where I might find a spot for myself and discover Havi dressing there, acting like I'm coming into her spot! No way! I dart back out into the main hallway, find a corridor to a room behind a room and go there. (Fin)

More Than a Few Nights Ago: (Dream) The family's going to Church and the limousine's supposed to arrive in forty minutes. All I have to do is write my essay before it arrives, get dressed for Church, and that's it! The essay is nowhere near finished. It hasn't even been started! One of my sisters discovers one of my erotic books and wants to meet with me later. I put my head close to hers and say, "Sure!" The limo's here, and waiting outside. Mom's downstairs, my stepfather's down there, too, I can hear them. I'm still rummaging around seeing if I can find any clothes a person might wear to Church, it's been so long. My trousers have a rip in the hip pocket, that's going to cause a stir. I'll wear an overcoat over it. When I get downstairs, the limo's gone, to be sure, so much for waiting for me! The limo dispatcher's down there, too, for some reason, and I take the opportunity to see if he can get a second limousine for me! Instead, he radios for the first limo driver to return. Meanwhile, ten or a dozen limo drivers are wandering around in our library. It turns out, Mom ordered sixty-six limos in her original order, and the drivers are still arriving. You know, this is really the limo dispatcher's fault, because he should have run a sanity check on the order. All Mom intended to order was one limousine, as if that wasn't too much already! I leave the drivers with my sisters and hop into the front seat of the limo when it returns, not even glancing at my parents in the back seat. I ask him whether he'd made it to the freeway before he'd been asked to turn around, and he tells me limousines are too large to have that much maneuverability, though by the way our guy is driving, that doesn't seem to be slowing him down any. When the traffic gets a little snarly, he simply goes down the sidewalk! I can see he's not going to obey your usual traffic laws. He's safe, somehow, and he's a law unto himself! (Fin)

2:00

I almost forgot about the snake. It was a vivid (Vision) I see a Water Moccasin, down at my feet (Fin) and came to full consciousness singing to myself, "There's nothing like a snake!"

2:11