- August 16, 1988 (Tuesday)
- I'm at Joe's. Nothing has particularly happened. I taped "Whole Lotta Love" off Joe's album and re-recorded Sad Songs.
- August 17, 1988 (Mittwoch)
- We went + saw A Fish Called Wanda. Joe bought me some blank tapes and pads for my headphones.
- August 18, 1988 (Donnerstag)
- Recorded all of the Doors 1st album + various other songs. We're going to visit Grandparents S. mañana.
- August 21, 1988 (Sonntag)
- We went to camp meeting hier [yesterday]. I wrote about in my portable notebook. It was typical, and I got a Sno-Cone and an ice cream cone out of it.
- I spent the actual days recording. On my headphones, the TV has been occupied by baseball + golf.
- Joe took me to see Davidson College today. It was neat, I should've brought my camera. Afterwards he took me to visit some old friends of his, Steve + Karen Page + their daughters, Missy + Erin. Erin showed me her room and it is so neat! She's got posters of Duran, INXS, + The Cure everywhere, a waterbed on the floor and these great curtains with peace-signs on them! It used to be a garage, so it's got steps leading down [from the house door] to it + everything! There's stuff on the floor and the posters aren't symmetrical. Steve showed me a picture of Queen Anne's Revenge [the band he and my dad used to play in] and I can't believe that's Joe! The parents were kind of ex-hippie types but so is Joe -- the type who was in ROTC but into Jefferson Airplane, y'know?
- On the way back we were in Joe's Alfa Romeo with the top down and "Born To Be Wild" came on. It was just one of those moments that happens far too few times; I hope I'll always remember it.
- August 23, 1988 (Dienstag)
- I'm writing this on the plane from Atlanta to Tampa. A small note -- this plane is different from the others I've been on (except Granddaddy's). The seats are blue leather or a reasonable approximation thereof instead of that nasty orange and brown cloth, it's older (you can see bits by the window of sun fading) and something in here smells like raspberries (but I don't mind.) The plane is a DC-9, just like les autres, so the explanation probably is that it's older. Weird. At 9:00 this morning I was in Long Island, North Carolina, at 5:45 (in 57 min.) I'll be in Tampa, FL.
- Nothing much else happened in NC. School starts the day after tomorrow.
- August 24, 1988 (Mittwoch)
- I'm home safe. Bigger concern: School starts tomorrow. a) I do not yet have a restricted li
scense (I can never spell that word) and unless the computer screwed up, Drivers' Ed does start tomorrow. b) Usual nervousness: will the teachers be OK? Will there be anyone I know in any of my classes? (Don't be silly, Suzanne: you know half your PAT grade level, how probably is it that no one you know will be in any of your classes?) OK, any of my friends? Just wait and see. c) Usual nervousness not for any definable reason. Bye.
- Note: about 3 hrs. later: I called Jeni. She told me that her gang are meeting by their lockers so they'll be a bunch of confused sophomores together. I may join them. Bye. (Description of tomorrow should follow.)
- August 25, 1988 (jeudi)
- There was a Guns'n'Roses concert on MTV last night and I watched it. (It was great, incidentally. I must get that album.) Anyway, they played a song that was something about "out to get me!" That must have been a portent! Today sucked.
- Jeni + Allana are not in any of my classes. Just as bad, neither is Tom or Noah. Or even Jason. Mike Schmidt is, but even though he's gorgeous he grates on my nerves. We do have some semi-friends: Beth, Janette, etc. And some semi-cute guys - Jim, Aaron, Mike G., Chris, and if I know my psyche, one of them will soon be elevated.
- 1st - World History - Mr. Davis. The one with Mike G + Chris + Beth + Janette. Curricula sounds interesting but the mentions of essays give me a sinking stomach.
- 2nd - Driver's Ed - Mr. Mewha. Restricted license must be gotten by Monday (only a few more days to be nervous). Sounds endurable.
- 3 - English - Ms. Vera. We're starting A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens is second only to Mary Shelly in boringness but this one's shorter than Great Expectations. And then we get to Twain and Shakespeare.
- 4 - Practical Computer Skills - Ms. Hilderbrand. Loc, Lyn, and a few of that crowd are in here. Someone, at least. Class is unjudgable yet since I haven't been near a computer since 4th grade.
- 7 - Physics - Ms. Waters - Interesting s'far, seems easier than biology. Michelle White in here.
- 9 - French - Mme. Dyckman. Look up last year's description, it hasn't changed. (Well, different people.)
- 10 - Geometry - Ms. Haug (pronounced Haig). Totally typical math teacher.
- Bus - Mr. White. We're still doing that nonsense with picking up Southside people at Campbell Park, meaning all of 771 squishes on 770 for a few minutes, and there are more people on both buses this year, so it's 3 per seat or Gibbs people in the aisle. At least 771 gets off at Campbell Park so then it's much less cramped. Mike got kicked out of Gibbs and is at Seminole (according to Gina) so he won't be on the bus anymore, but unfortunately Rick + The Assholes still are. Luckily, Justin is still there so I can at least watch him.
- August 28, 1988 (dimanche)
- Mr. Mewha said we have to get our restricted licenses by tomorrow. I don't have mine yet but Mom agreed to take me tomorrow after school. So tomorrow I have to explain this mess to Mr. Mewha and hope that he'll let me go this way. If not I'll have to get a schedule change and to through all that rigamarole and take Driver's Ed next semester.
- I'm starting bringing my lunch instead of fighting the cafeteria lines.
- September 8, 1988 (Thurs.)
- I got a schedule change to Health (Driv. Ed. next semester). Class is boring as hell, no one I know. No other class changes (Dieu merci!) for me. Mike G. + Chris got changes, no longer in any of my classes.
- Major event that ought to've been first: The bus got stuck. They changed the route, not the stops but how we get there. According to Mr. White, this is to save time (it doesn't change the time at all) because he's paid by the hour and they want to pay him less. Anyway, instead of up the Interstate and Park Boulevard, we go down 1st St. N. and to Tyrone. But First Street is in the older part of St. Pete where the streets are kinda sunk into the ground. And it's been raining solidly since Monday so half the street was flooded. And when we tried to drive through one spot it was deeper than it looked and the engine quit! We were stuck there for about 45 minutes until some nice guy (not even from the school!) pulled us out with his truck. When we opened the door [while stuck] the water wasup to the 2nd bus step! Due to this + much other traffic slowdown we got home 45 min. late.
- Recently I've been eating lunch with Caroline who's in my English + computers classes and her friends Lars, Chris + Joanna. Much better than alone.
- September 11, 1988 (dimanche)
- I bought Guns'n'Roses new album hier. Mom spent the night at Paul's so I got to play Guns'n'Roses loud half the night (and stay up until 3:00 AM!) I think this will be the year of Guns'n'Roses, they are great! See August 25; the song is called "Out To Get Me."
- No other news really.
- Septembre 18, 1988 (dimanche)
- Life is boring, except for Guns'n'Roses and Harlan Ellison. Rock and SF in general, actually, but those two are my current favorites. Life, as I said, is otherwise boring. Nothing at all to report, except maybe that I did 1 hr. hier et 1 hr. aujourd'hui of swimming (at Martha's) for my PE waiver, the 1st I've done other than walking. [The school offered to waive one of the required credits of PE so that Academically Talented students could take academic classes. To get this, you had to have parents documenting that you were exercising outside of school.]
- le 23 septembre 1988 (vendredi)
- Another crush. This one is never going to go anywhere. Explanation: I don't know his name, he's not in any of my classes, he's not on the bus. The only time I ever see him is passing him in the halls; and he doesn't know I exist. Or if he does, I'm just some girl. Il ressemble à Jeno, hair same shade, but longer, a few more zits, one ear pierced, my height, or maybe an inch taller. He likes Megadeth, Anthrax, others of the same genre (from his t-shirts). You're never going to hear anything about him in here, I mean, what could I write? "He rides home with his friends in an orange van with black curtains that have skulls on them"? That's true; but would it matter when I probably never will know his name (unless he turns up in drama or Driver's Ed next semester, or chorus next year?) I figure he's a sophomore, too short to be older and I remember seeing him last year, just had other guys to concentrate on then. Anyway, I just wanted to record the fact of his existence for posterity.
- le 27 Septembre 1988
- Nothing to say really. I'm staying home today on account of a sore throat. Listening to the Doors; wishing I could think up a decent science project (Mrs. Waters is making us do them but we don't have to do displays!)
- le 12 Octobre 1988 (mercredi)
- Science project: measuring the specific gravities of things.
- John + Jerry (new on the bus but not freshmen) and Cameron (last year) have gotten together and brought a tape player on the bus. Luckily for those of us with ears, their taste is hard rock: Guns'n'Roses (yeah!), Led Zeppelin, White Lion, Pink Floyd. Justin + Melanie also provide tapes. Maybe I could persuade them to play one of my tapes...
- Crush on Aaron seems to be intensifying, as well it may since he's in English, Physics, + Math.
- le 13 Octobre 1988 (Thor's day)
- Tomorrow is a teacher workday; no school.
- I have to take the PSAT at SPJC at 8:45 a.m. Saturday.
- I'm listening to the Dr. Demento show on WTAN on the 3rd radio (and the 3rd different station) in my room. They've played "One More Minute" and "Born In East L.A." and tons of other song que j'aime. 7-9 p.m. each Thursday, no longer will I be watching Cosby! I'm definitely a Dementide.
- le 14 Octobre 1988 (Freya's Day)
- Shit shit SHIT! Today, no school, I was listening to music and basically doing nothing. I walked from the end of the bed out of the room, but the glass doors in front of the entertainment center (pox the thing and curse the day Mom bought it for me!) were open and I must have brushed by one too hard and it shattered! I cleaned up the glass and told Mom about it when she came home for lunch, no big deal. Mom wasn't even that angry, she was glad I didn't get hurt by any glass. But (naturally) the last record I listened to was Guns'n'Roses! And some glass landed on the record! So now: there's a small skip in "My Michelle" and places where it will repeat indefinitely if you don't adjust it in "Think About You," "You're Crazy," "Anything Goes," and "Rocket Queen." Of course, my least favorite song was not affected. But this pretty much means I have to buy another Appetite for Destruction or listen to scratches and get up and adjust every song! Shit!
- The Ides of October (Saturday)
- Took PSAT. Not hard. One problem on math I left blank, none on verbal. Since we were in the area, afterwards Mom + I went by Bananas. I bought the Doors "13," Led Zeppelin 4 and Faster Pussycat's album. (Mom got Jimi Hendrix and Ike + Tina Turner.) I only spent $15 on 3 albums! (Because Led Zeppelin were $2.95 and the Doors were $3.95. Faster Pussycat were $8.98.) Mom is painting, so I get to listen.
- le 30 Octobre 1988 (dimanche)
- Saw The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years today. Last night I watched the Headbanger's Ball. Tomorrow (Halloween) there's a special Headbanger's Ball which Caroline is being nice enough to tape since if I stayed up to watch I'd fall asleep in Mme. Dyckman's class. So I'll actually view it Tuesday. Should be great.
- About the movie: indescribable in words. Poison, Kiss, Faster Pussycat, Seduce, Odin, Megadeth, London, various others.
- le 10 Novembre 1988 (jeudi)
- Keri Vizandou has invited me to her party on the 19th. Keri is nice; she (along with Michelle) is my lab partner in physics and we work well together. Since about half the PAT seems to be invited, everyone from Orlando and Becky to Caroline and me, it should be interesting.
- In PCS we've started printing things out and saving files of things. I have been keeping a file called Doodles, of the junk I always type on the screen during my free time. Sometime I'm gonna print it all out and save it. Should be interesting, full of song lyrics and junk.
- le 17 novembre 1988 (jeudi)
- Grandmother + Granddaddy arrived today, bringing [homemade] jelly, Sundrop [a soft drink unavailable locally] and disapproval of long-haired musicians and the fact that Mom's started smoking again. But they have agreed to take me to Keri's party! [Mom wasn't big on giving me rides.]
- Speaking of which, Caroline has invited me to spend the night at her house tomorrow (Friday). Mom says I can. See, no social life in months and then it all piles up in one weekend! Fuller accounts will undoubtedly follow.
- November 19, 1988 (Saturday)
- Indira Gandhi born 1917
- Well, I'm back from Caroline's, not ready to go to Keri's. Events: I rode home on bus 831 with Caroline. Her bus is not as interesting as mine; everyone just talks to their seatmates. There are a lot more black people on her bus. Also, Aaron + Crystal. We walked home with Jason + Carla, two friends of hers. After resting un peu at her house we walked over to the library of USF [St. Petersburg campus] to do some research (but didn't get much done due to lack of time before closing and problems with the copy machine). Then we went back to her house and ate taco salad. Then we babysat for a little girl while her parents played tennis. Then we made oatmeal cookies back at her house, played Uno with her little sister Jillian, talked, listened to music, and went to bed about 11:40 (she has a waterbed!) Got up (me) at 10, used her walkman until she woke up (11:30). Then we fixed hot dogs + beans but Mom came while I was still eating so I finished + left.
- Hi. Now it's 12:30 Sat 19/Sun 20, depending on how you look at it. Back from Keri's. Not bad. I drank lots of Coke and ate some cake and occasionally tried to help Cindy + Joy persuade people to play Poison or Def Leppard instead of George Michael. The 1st part of the party took place on her porch; loud music, a few people dancing, most talking. Then gradually everyone moved into the living room where everybody talked. Definitely more fun than trying to drown out Laurence Welk with Faster Pussycat would've [at home].
- November 23, 1988 (Wednesday)
- The day before Thanksgiving
- The 25th anniversary of the 1st showing ever of Doctor Who
- Tropical Storm Keith blew through here last night, and Mom said I didn't have to go to school today. I was going to anyway, but the power went off in the middle of the night so my alarm didn't go off and Mom didn't wake me because she thought I had just decided to stay home. So I get a day off school, not that I'm missing an incredible amount except for a lab in physics.
- November 25, 1988 (Friday)
- Guess who's back en Floride? Hint: red hair, freckles, a reigning queen of Zannine-Brandmar. Oui! C'est Marie! She didn't get along with her [step-]dad, she's living with her grandmother again, back with boyfriend Ross, called me today to tell me (I also wished her Happy Birthday).
- Grandparents L. left today.
- November 27, 1988 (Sunday)
- I've just about decided to get a perm. How does that sound? I figure I'll get it at the beginning of Christmas vacation and give me time to get used to it. Mom is actually in complete agreement (guess she figures its better than nothing). [Mom was always trying to get me to pay more attention to my looks.]
- le 11 decembre 1988 (dimanche)
- Marie called me yesterday morning and asked if I wanted to go to the Mall with her, on second thought spend the whole evening, and why don't you ask your Mom if you can spend the night?
- Bien sûr, mom said OK, as she was gonna spend the night with Paul anyway. So I packed ye usual junk and they picked me up at noon. 1st we walked around Seminole Mall for about 3 hours. I bought a card for Grandparents L, some name labels to put on your golf balls for Granddaddy S., and book 5 of Myth Adventures for Joe. For me I bought a double ice cream cone, a computer printout of what happened on my birth date, and a pin that says "I'm Not Strange . . . You Are!" Perfect for the PAT, n'est-ce pas?
- Her grandmother picked us up. At her house she looked through the stack of pin-ups (although apparently she bought two of the same magazines I did so some of the stuff just got trashed). but both of us profited -- she got tons of Def Leppard + Bon Jovi while I got the BulletBoys!! You should see her room, Mom would kill me if I put that many posters up! (Although my total won't be much below Marie's soon avec all these new ones.) And we went through all the articles, especially the "Wild Christmas Fantasies" ('Five golden rings, four letter words, three French friends, two fertile shoves, and a blow job in a pear tree' -- Steven Tyler). Her grandmother went to work, we ate pot roast, french fries + french bread for dinner. Marie talked to her boyfriend Ross for a while. Everybody else went to bed about 10:30 but we stayed up and 1st watched this movie called Pacific Banana which was about airline pilots and every girl in the South Pacific. And at 12 we watched the Headbanger's Ball. it was a great night! Jetboy, BulletBoys, G'n'R, Circus of Power, Voivod (a 1st), Femme Fatale, Kix, Cinderella, Anthrax: basically needing only Megadeth and Faster Pussycat to make it complete. Marie tried to record "Nobody's Fool" but the VCR had been set to record in 30-min. time periods only so she got "Nobody's Fool," "Cold Blood," "Madhouse," "Way Cool Junior,", half of "Smooth Up," and this commercial for RIP magazine with Axl + Slash (who was, as Marie so eloquently put it, "drunk off his ass!") But after the Ball we went to bed (with visions of Tom Keifer {her} + Slash {me} dancing in our heads.)
- Waking up about 9:20, we ate hash browns, chocolate cookies, and water for breakfast. I love these varied breakfast menus at her house. We watched pieces of E.T. We hung up half her new posters and go ready to go, since she was gonna go see The N***d Gun [Sorry I can't spell out the name of this Leslie Nielsen film, but it seems to draw searches from people who expect to find images of unclothed teenagers] with Ross after they took me home. She stopped off and looked in on my posters.
- Next Saturday is Caroline's birthday. I am spending the night with her (so are 14 other people, Jeni + Allana included. I plan to bring my metal tapes.)
