hi there .
find out what's going on in january.

21 december 2000 . 08:41 pm ET
Bonnie and I are in fast-forward drive mode. The goal is to get to New Haven, Conn., for dinner tomorrow. Well, we left Jon north of Chicago this morning and are pretty certain we're going to make the homestead sometime early this morning. Yes! We left knee-high snow and ice in Illinois, battled the windy blusts of Indiana, cleared Ohio with several coffees in hand, and now, now!, the open Pennsylvania highway yawns ahead of us.

I had to eat a salad for dinner. That's one thing that always grips me on long-distance drives: the fast food blues (extraneous note: we just passed Puxatawney! Doncha love groundhogs?). I just cannot eat another burger/fries/soda combo. I mean, it will be months before I can enter a McDonalds. So sad. It was even sadder for Jon (read: health food freak). In Colorado he asked the high schoolers behind the counter if they had any fresh avocado ("Well, they have it at the Subway in Beverly Hills."). And then at that last McDs? He made them fix a batch of fries -- without the salt! !

19 december 2000 . 06:53 pm MT
We just cleared Denver. And we're not telling our parents (yet) that we drove through Colorado. It was a risk we had to take. Bonnie and I are both wanted in Texas, so we decided to cruise through the mountains to avoid jail. And I'd say it was the right choice; the trooper that pulled us over in Utah was only concerned that Jon might be hiding a gun and/or narcotics in the back seat. No ticket for me, going 91 mph. Anyway, I told him I had the music on too loud. So I drove through most of Utah this morning (after yesterday's journey down to LA, and over to Vegas (Vegas, baby!!!) for dinner, and then to motel in Beaver. (Beaver, Utah: Birthplace of Butch Cassidy. Yes.) and it was breathtaking. The land changes colors, across layers, and down in canyons, over and over again on all sides of your empty highway. You just keep driving on Route 70, and soon (300 miles later) you're staring up at snowy mountains and the Vail ski slopes. I admit it: driving across country makes me feel very Forrest Gump. Of course, now I'm updating my Web page in the backseat of a Saab ...

a fun cross-country list:
number of people at one gas station who asked us to jump their car: 2

number of cars we actually jumped: 1

number of people who's cars we jumped were wearing a handmade sparkly scarf from Egypt: 1

number of "businessmen" in Beaver who told us Californians don't know how to handle Colorado: 1

number of people with missing teeth who attempted to sell us chains for the car: 9

number of people with guns we should be "concerned about" according to the Utah state trooper: lots

18 december 2000 . 12:44 am PT
In less than six hours, Bonnie & I will be on the highways & byways heading East. I won't get back to these parts until 2001. I'll have a new roommate, a new project, a fast-healing knee (i went _dancing_ on friday night! oh!). I'm going to join the neighborhood gym, buy a new bed and a printer and a bean bag chair. Who cares if I can't pay _all_ the bills right now? And I'm just not going to apologize for my lack of stories, or pictures, or links on this page. I keep saying, One day it _will_ happen. And you just have to believe me.

My brain is raw right now. I must sleep. I hope I don't have nightmares about the upcoming five days -- three people in a car, in the Midwest cold, with no Internet access. Aghhhhh!!

Oh: Bud Cort (of "Harold and Maude" fame, of course) says stuff and looks so _scary_ in that picture.

12 december 2000 . 05:57 pm PT
Hey, wow, Microsoft is going to give me some money to "write," how exciting! And, oh my god, I'm quoted in this Newsweek article, no joke. *erupts in riotous, self-mocking laughter*

12 december 2000 . 09:34 am PT
Yesterday I spent most of my time and energy getting deep down in the Valley for an interview at WebTV. I like saying I went down to the Valley yesterday (Silicon Valley, that is); I like even more describing how I wandered around the Microsoft "campus" searching for the right door to enter. It's this beautifully manicured place, with lots of glass in the buildings and a volleyball net in the middle of it all and a kick-ass cafeteria (at least that's what everyone said. I wasn't sure if I'd be allowed in there, the interloper that I was). But ... there weren't very many people walking around. Not at all. But, really, I had an excellent interview and really enjoyed all five people that I met (their names? Garth, Dylan, Yungpa, Anka, and Melinda. Is that normal? I'm so suspicious. Will they read this page?). I even talked to one of them about recently reading Coupland's "Microserfs" and I hope that wasn't out of line. All in all: I was surprised how much I liked it there. I think the commute would kill me, though. Two hours from door to door! EACH WAY!!

On the Caltrain coming back to the city, I sat along the top row, where you are provided with an excellent view and a little seat all to yourself. I couldn't help but stare down at this slightly ragged older man down below me. He was an obsessive compulsive, a man with a disorder that was not funny in any kind of Jack Nicholson ("As Good As It Gets") way. This man had to check each of his wallets, repeatedly, and count all the money in each, over and over, and open his briefcase, move two papers around, close it, open it, shuffle, repeat. And on the N line? This woman I was next to, who kept scrubbing her hands apparently because I was sitting too close to her, fell over all on top of me as she tried to disembark. I hope I didn't sentence her to a long evening of cleansing. Heh.

10 december 2000 . 12:09 pm PT
Without cable television, Bonnie and I are forced to watch figure-skating. This is not acceptable. Where's MTV2 when I need it? Actually, I used to think MTV2 was the hippest thing around, since I was one of the few people who actually got to watch it for any period of time (my parents have had access to it for the last four years or so). It doesn't have any boy bands or Oops I Did It Agains. This article says MTV2 could be coming to your home soon (you, too, can pretend to be hip!), BUT I think someone needs to address how I saw the No Doubt/Moby video TWICE in TWO HOURS on MTV2 this Thanksgiving. Not acceptable!

08 december 2000 . 01:01 am PT
I would hate me too, and I do. So what if I can't update this page every day of my life? I've only just reemerged on the social scene! Sure, we're all hoping that this time I won't fall down quite so often (damn those faulty crutches!). Just give me a moment to decide if I should follow the Crew to North Carolina for New Year's. So what if we burned the house down last year, it's almost 2000 and ONE! It's quite difficult to top that, elephants and midgets aside.

Tonight I watched a friend of a friend sing all lounge lizard-like at Piaf's. Ah, oui, c'est bon ca. Well, ah, there were candles and snowflakes on the ceiling, and weird little christmas tress with undulating needles. I kid you not. But, good stuff and all that jazz.

And tonight is Lynny's party! Here's Lynny (and Watts) the last time they let her out. And we're expecting Chang & Pan, Dowd & Bonnie (shown with with me, sorry) to work their magic again, some day. If you can handle it, that is. And I know, the pictures don't look A+. I should just stick to links, right? None of this digital picture crap. (voice offstage: I won't let them take that away from you!)

In book news, I would highly recommend "Bee Season" by Myla Goldberg. I'm 70 pages inside it. She's got words and spelling bees (and self-doubt) all over the place. You love it.

03 december 2000 . 11:18 pm PT
Have you ever tried holiday shopping on a Saturday afternoon with only one fully functioning leg? Well, I have. And it's quite hellish. But I did buy several festive outfits for myself. All those parties, you know how it is! Wait, am I supposed to be shopping for gifts?

Right now, as I listen to the evening news, I'm still thinking about the first two installments of "Decalogue," Kieslowski's 10-hour series on the ten commandments. I went out to see it tonight, at the lovely Castro Theater, and, man, it is intense. Film is not usually so poetic. And god-fearing. It's not often that a theater full of film lovers (I mean, who else sits through such art-house fare?) sniffles and shakes, occasionally awed and humbled by the emotions flickering onscreen.

I'm still so very very behind with what I want to do to/on this page. I blame my low production levels on 1) the bum knee 2) the arty movies I watch, pretending I truly understand 3) shelled peanuts 4) fear and 5) you. It's all your fault! But I did update my books page today. Sure. Right.

>>> Read what happened to my knee (and other things) in the month of November. Totally. <<