sic transit gloria.

"is that Latin?"

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

if i'd have known beforehand

that this growing up thing involved amassing unpaid bills that come out of nowhere i never would have fucking signed up.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

i was walking back

from my lunch break when i saw jake, a 5th grader (one of my talent-show helpers), scrubbing the water fountain on the kindergarten yard with a toothbrush, bucket filled with soapy water at his side. he greeted me in the same way he has since the day i met him--'what up, tony danza?'--then proceeded to explain that he was doing time for getting into yet another fight.

i shook my head told him that he's smarter than that, that he should know better; but the meaning is lost when you tell that to someone who's constantly suspended. i wanted to say something else, something meaningful that would come off as effortless and hint that there was plenty more wisdom where that came from, contrived as it may be. just how will gives advice to marcus about cool in nick hornby's about a boy. the stuff after school specials are made of. but all that came out was, "why do you reek of cigarettes, man?" i've been meaning to ask him that for a while, because well, he usually does.

jake explained that he's home alone everyday after school until his mom gets home from her clerk job at rite aid. so he pretty much does his homework, watches tv, and smokes her cigarettes until she arrives around midnight. she's usually too tired to yell at him, he says, so she goes straight to bed. then he lights up once more and catches the leno monologue before going to bed and getting up to do it all over again. like every other adult he told this to, i reminded him that he was a great kid and that there are people who truly do give a damn about him. he said 'thanks' like someone who's heard the same thing a million times yet chooses to be a good sport about it.

i'd be lying if i said that as he told me this i wasn't thinking about how i would recreate this in a film (low-light, no dialogue and set to this song); it really is a fantastic image, to me at least. so simple yet so heavy.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

the only writing i've been doing lately


has been for personal statements and scholarship essays. that's my only excuse.

i'm happy to say that no matter how boring i may be, i will never run out of interesting things to say about my peers, nor will i tire of vicariously soaking in their glory. sometime last week i was on campus to pick up some letters of rec when i ran into an old student of mine who's TA-ing his own section now. i initially thought, hey, it's kinda neat that he decided to follow in my footsteps, but then i snapped to and became frightened, because well, someone decided to follow in my footsteps. we don't need anymore twenty-somethings in los angeles wasting their time at swap meets and drug stores like sixty year old men. i also ran into my old chum natalie, who can be found at disneyland during the summertime where she is paid to don a canary-yellow dress, smile big, and respond to "belle."

when i was an RA there was this guy who lived in my building who i considered to be alright, but not everyone seemed to agree. he tended to make those around him uncomfortable, not in the "oh my god this guy is a serial-killer" sense, but in the "i think he just told a joke but i don't quite get it and feel obligated to laugh to break this awkward silence" way. you know the type. anyway now he's the star geek on beauty and the geek 2. from what i've been told he is kicking some major ass. christopher, rock on with your greeting-card-making self.

it's not even a month into the new year and things seem to have gotten pretty interesting for everyone at zanzibar. the last time i visited it was as if i were in an alternate universe where the people were the same, yet had distinctively different things about them. brian's not around because he's off doing whatever it is that interns for national geographic feature films do. mike has a new ladyfriend, who is quite the knockout. he also has a new cell phone, the flip kind; so does brian, i'm told. not only does lee finally have a cell phone (thereby taking the last-of-tony's-friends-to-get-a-stupid-phone-award from tracey), but she's on the couch popping vicodin because apparently she just had some work done; she moved around by balancing on her heels, toes pointed upwards (her feet were also wrapped up in bandages) with matt facing her and holding her hands as he walked backwards, guiding her to wherever she needed to go. it seemed they had gotten this routine down pat, and seeing them waltz through the apartment like this reminded me of everything i seemed to have forgotten about this thing called love.

matt jokingly said that we should all get boost mobile (*beep* "where you at?!"). i'd be lying if i said i didn't take this as a feasible suggestion rather than an afterthought. the fact that we all have the flip kind of cell phone stupidly signifies, for me at least, that these are truly new and exciting times. did i mention that at work we caught fifth grade girls smoking (or trying to) in the bathroom?

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

what better way to spend new year's eve


than stranded at mccarran airport in las vegas after missing a 7:23pm flight to los angeles thanks to a heated argument with security goons who searched your bags and forced you to part with not only your zippo, but also the travel-sized sewing kit you needed to fix a tear in the lining of your jacket? i could care less about crappy needles and plastic thimbles, but COME ON. (read like gob from arrested development. now once more, with feeling!) don't tell me that zippos aren't allowed on board. i flew with this bad boy last year, and there are signs everywhere that say "certain tobacco materials" are permitted. don't make me pay to have it sent to my home. screw that. what? then you'll keep it for yourself? fine, i'll cough up 14 big ones. but only because that lighter was there for me when good fortune was nowhere to be found, case in point, moments like these. no need to apologize and call me sir, i'll live. and thank you for jamming my stupid magazines into the wrong pocket. happy fucking new year.


other than this quasi-fracas and my second flight being delayed by 45 minutes, the past few days were quite nice. my parents recently invested in a house in las vegas--they're taking advantage of nevada's booming real estate market, they say--and a bunch of family members caravan'd from LA to check it out before the renters move in and make it their own. now there's family time, and there's good family time; despite the absence of warm water (for a few hours at least, until someone came to activate the gas) and furniture (unless you count sleeping bags), and me not being too fond of sin city in the first place (huge crowds generally scare me, but the opportunity to play bingo with senior citizens is appealing), everything fell into the latter category. and not necessarily because we were drunk or up five-hundy by midnight.


believe it or not, lazing about in an unfurnished house with nothing to do but eat junk food, play board games, and laugh stupidly with those who share your DNA and whom you may or may not always get along is not a bad way to spend the weekend, even when the bright lights, a thousand pretty women, and one-armed bandits promised by elvis can be found a few blocks away.