And before that...

Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew.

I bought a refurbished HP printer/scanner (from Fry's) and it's been here like two weeks, and I have been here a year and never ever seen anything other than a gnat or one time an ant in this apartment, and a fucking roach just crawled out of my printer.

ok. gross.

oh also while i'm here: the other night at dinner I got a fortune cookie with nothing in it. What does that mean?

If i die, you can have my stereo.

ok the roach is under a can of "all purpose spray" right now (20% free! dominating! conqueror! fast luck! protection! divine eye! money drawing! peace!) and i think i just decided that that can will not move for at least two weeks now. That fucker can starve to death before i wipe up its smushed entrails from anything in my house. That's how it is, roachy. That's how it goes down in Chenburg when you trojan fucking printer/scanner your way into my happiness.

What if there are more? What if it laid eggs? I'll cry and cry and cry.

So uh, let's see, an update's in order I'm guessin... I had Philly visitors here last week (last 10 days actually); Jim Houser and Ben Woodward are in a show at the New Image and the opening was Saturday. They brought their lady friends and their Brian Lynch. It made me so glad to have them here; in general don't you find it's just nice and comforting to have people around who have known you for a long time, especially people who were part of a lot of your best anecdotes from adolescence? though 10 days is a lot of days to be part of a 6 headed monster, especially when 3 of the heads are major major cigarette smokers and you're a shi-shi California resident now with sensitive nostrils. Man, i must be going soft. Anyway, Jim and Ben's show is amazing as per usual, go see it if you're in LA; Lori D is in it too and I finally met her and she's even nicer than pie. Nicer than THREE pies. Three PUMPKIN pies.

One of the best things about them visiting though, is that I got to go with them to Ed Templeton's house. Not THE best thing but definitely way far up there. Kinda like how meeting Mark Lewman definitely gave me more of a starfucker (O.M.G.!) freakout than meeting Mike D did, going to Ed Templeton's house was way way more exciting to me than any other "real" celebrity encounters I've had out here. I was an Ed Templeton spaz in high school. Spaz. You can ask Adam Wallacavage. I remember he did this Transworld interview that was decorated with his drawings, all these little black linedrawing people on a yellow background, and i cut them out and hung them in my locker, just exactly like an imbalanced freak would! (actually, i told becky that story and then she told deanna and i um blushed and felt um pretty gey.)

But so, just like with Mark Lewman, meeting him was on that level of fantastic that you only reach on the best most caffeinated days because he didn't disappoint at all. And neither did Deanna (whom I always admired too as a truly gutsy and seemingly unlikely artistic collaborator in so many of his photos and paintings) because they were both So Nice. And So Interesting. And So Regular, and Laid Back, and Smart, and Funny, and Have Great Happy Pets. Like I like and admire them even more now, which.. i don't know how many of your heroes you've met in person, but that's pretty rare in my experience.

Oh and I got to watch him skate a little which I'd never done (in person), and especially it's always great to watch a pro skate just for fun on some tiny inadequate course, rather than in a contest, nah mean?

Oh and Lance Mountain Jr. came too and if I were 15 right now I'd so want to marry him immediately. I'm 27 and I'm not totally convinced I don't.

Uh, lots of other shit but just in general yeah, I'm working again, freelance, and money's tight but it's so far working out, and that roach will eventually die, and there's not much wrong with mashed potatoes and a whole lot right, and life has been lately by turns bizarre, surreal, and at the very least quite interesting, and I think that's a lucky spot to be in. "May you live in interesting times," right? Provided that fortune cookie doesn't herald my death or disappearance, things might be OK in their own distorted way.