Monday, January 26th, 2004

I’m at Entertainment Outlet making an order. I see a catalog of upcoming releases and point out the titles I want. Lenny tells me that I can’t sell or rent Capturing the Friedmans until February. I just nod.

Later, I’m on a high school field trip. We walk out of a suburban home into a quiet street. I look around at the houses and say, “God, all these cul de sacs look exactly the same. The huge suburban houses, the way the street curves, the slight hilliness.” I keep talking about the houses as we walk up the street. No one is really listening to me. The houses are all huge and very open, some of them full of people cooking or talking. “Look at our huge house, come on in, there’s plenty of room for company. “ We pass houses with multiple rocking chairs our front and lounge chairs in the back. I continue commentating, sounding more bitter and melancholy.

We walk by some docks and I say, “Sometimes we like to take our friends out in our boat and head out to the harbor.” The group stops at a seafood shop and listen to someone speak inside. I stand outside the window and look inside at the seafood swimming about. There are small octopuses and calamari swimming in the windows. A teacher (or student) points at the calamari and says, “Look, if you cook up a few of these, you make (the dish) the twin towers.”

Later, I’m walking down the hallways of a school. I stop next to a photograph of 4 high school classmates from Henry Clay. I point them out to Susannah (who’s not there) and say, “Check this out…” I’m about to point out that they’re all in New York (or San Francisco) but then realize that these four are not.