check your change.
"Our school systems teach the children that they are nothing but glorified apes who are evolutionized out of some primordial soup of mud," said DeLay, in the course of explaining to us why 12 students and a teacher were shot to death by two other students in Littleton, Colo.
3.5 miles. On the back stretch, another jogger emerged onto the street and held a pretty steady lead about 10 meters ahead of me. As we approached the final hill to my house, I put on a burst of speed, overtook her, and got a sizeable distance, which I held until I dragged my weary ass to my front door. Whee ha.
Today I had lunch with Tamar that was Damian-free, because Tamar's husband Daniel was home to watch him. We went to the Authentic Cafe, which is most Southwestern-type food, and had BBQ Chicken sandwiches. Pretty darn tasty.
Tamar also introduced me to her treasure trove of Regency romance novels. The books go out of print so fast I hadn't seen most of these books before. I wasn't sure whether Darin would scream in frustration that I borrowed so many (oh yes, Tamar, eventually they're coming back to you) or be happy that at least I won't be buying any more. For a while, at any rate.
I didn't get much else done today. I got my car cleaned, does that count? I think I've mentioned that there are no drive-thru car washes in LA. Every car wash entails getting out and letting a team of Hispanic (they're always Hispanic--this town runs on the back of Hispanic labor) workers vacuum, wipe, wash, and scrub your car inside and out. It takes about 15-30 minutes, depending on time of day, number of cars, and how much stuff you want done to the car.
Some times I wonder if we've not been reannexed to Mexico. I stopped in a coffee place today and the girl behind the counter, who had a noticeable Hispanic accent and so was probably not originally from the US, gave me my change.
The BARISTA hands DIANE her change.
Diane peers at the change, then plucks out one
thin silver coin.
DIANE
That's not a dime.
The Barista studies the coin.
BARISTA
Yes it is.
DIANE
Not in this country.
I don't know where the coin was from, but it was the same size as a dime and was worth 10 (insert currency of country), because it had "diez" written on it. But non-US money is so common here that she didn't bat an eye at it, insisting it was a dime. She eventually gave me a coin that had Roosevelt on it and I felt better.
I've been harassing two new enrollees at Clarion, Karen and John, telling them to go visit my Uncle-in-law's restaurant in East Lansing, Beggar's Banquet. (That's a cariacture of Darin's Uncle Bob on the home page there.)
Karen wrote back and said she'd heard of it already and would stop by. (I told her to drop Darin's name. I'm not sure what it will get her, but I'm hoping if Bob or Betty is there she'll get a hearty hello.) She also said that she had read Ceej's Clarion journal. Evidently online journals have made quite an impact on Clarion--something like five members of Clarion East alone are doing journals about their experience, and they've been warned not to wail on one another in the journals. Like they won't be doing enough of it in the critiquing sessions.
In further journal recommendation news, I've been enjoying the hell out of is If I Wrote You, by Katie, because she's a writer and she writes about the process of writing, so she has dug herself a little niche close to my heart. I keep writing her long letters encouraging her and telling her not to let the turkeys (like Valerie) get her down. Wisely, Katie ignores these missives and gets on with it.
Fernando and I are headed out to dinner. One guess what we're having, Darin! (While the cat's away, the mice have sushi.)
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Copyright 1999 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com