Alone Together

They were two close friends sitting alone together.
-Arthur Lobel
"Frog and Toad Are Friends"


"I command you to tell me everything!
I do not wish to be the frog that sits at the bottom of the well."
-Bette Bao Lord
"Spring Moon"

Twenty-five years ago today:

January 30, 1985
Wednesday

Carl Brooks, my tub mate, is really a fine character. I traded my noon lunch for Barbara Reynolds’s one o’clock lunch.

At 1PM I accompanied Carl to the Health Food Store where I bought a sandwich and treated Carl to a yogurt. We sat alone together on the sunny steps of Market and New Montgomery. We talked about the attitudes of certain coworkers (Dhyana, Guy, Hal and others). I agreed totally with regard to many of his insights. We had a nice lunch and I am glad I know Carl a bit better. I ought to invite him over here to Alameda one evening for a change of pace from the San Francisco grind. I would treat him to dinner and a drink. It would be a nice, needed change for him.

Work was “so-so”, not one of my favorite days. After work I made another visit to the Oakland Women’s Feminist Health Center, expecting a paycheck. I did not get one. What a downer! However, when I arrived home that evening there was a thirty-dollar check (which should have been seventy-five dollars) from them in my mailbox. That is going to be my LAST visit there for a while. I am beginning to feel it is not worth it. Besides…I feel I have been ‘just’ in contributing to one successful pregnancy.

I dropped in to visit my brother, John, and Ashley. I gave John a Houston Astros sticker that a customer had sent me. Then I gave John two tickets to the Pebble Beach Crosby Pro-Am Golf Tournament that Margaret Lai (a coworker) gave me. Margaret is sweet.
“Cool, I will use these tickets on Friday with Geoffrey Rookard!” John exclaimed.
Ashley smiled when she saw me. It’s neat to see and play with her. The responsibility on a regular basis would be trying on me. Taking responsibility of my own self, analyzing my moves and actions is a job in and of itself.

I went to my gym tonight. I felt a slight strain on my upper left arm, realizing it is because that joint was broken in December 1980. While at the gym I recognized a guy named Chris, one named Scott and the tall, slender one that Paloma thought had a nice body. I also noticed an Adam Carrington (Dynasty) lookalike who had a moustache. He kept staring at me. It made me think of Rick Clark or Ryan Hargrave who sometimes give me this ‘undressing you with the eyes’ look. It’s eerie but it makes me curious.

After my workout I went to Jack-In-The-Box for ‘two’ milkshakes. I ended up watching Dynasty at mom’s house while enjoying a burger that mom made for me. It was a nice pairing with the milkshakes.

"What is going to happen?" we all ask ourselves.
"How long can we endure this burden and torment?"
...This is a misunderstanding of some kind;
and it will be the ruin of us.
-Franz Kafka
"An Old Manuscript"