Thursday, February 14

My friends from home missed me. I hadn't seen them in so long and they wanted me to come back.
I acquiesced and spent a day with them back in high school. We even stopped by the cafeteria kioks and got a croissant (Vous le fa fa).

I left the next day because my family was taking a trip. We were going to the beach. When my friends complained that there were many pretty beaches in Costa Rica I told them I was actually going to a beach in Alaska. I'm pretty sure that was a lie.

We took an airplane. It had very, very little space to land on, but it did just fine, and we landed right next to the pool.
At the beach we had to share our house with someone else. The other people were ok with it, but they seemed a little uncomfortable. Our house, though, was also part of a hotel. It was on the 10th floor of a large building.

I crept into the 6th floor to try and steal a tree as a prank. I was unsuccessful, however, because the guard on the 6th floor told me I could only go to the bathroom in my own room. Going to the bathroom had been part of the plan.

Back in the city the couple we shared the beach house with called. They had enjoyed spending time with us and were wondering if we'd be interested in living together all the time. I decided to think about it while I walked through the city. Both of them kissed me on the mouth.

It was a busy day on the streets, there were cars and buses full of people everywhere. I decided to go to a favorite restaurant right on the fringe of town. It was dangerously close to where the bad part of town started but it was worth it.

On my way there, I ran into Jeff Pike and Carmon Colangelo (my 2 bosses) and they were headed there as well. They were planning, they said, on talking loudly about the school while they ate in hopes of attracting more applicants.

I was a little disgusted and decided to go somewhere else for lunch. I took a wrong turn, though, and ended up in the bad part of town. I tried to get out as quickly as possible, but I kept making wrong turns. The bad part of town stretched ominously in all directions.

I finally found someone who gave me directions and I could see the good part of town shining in the distance. I walked as fast as I could. I heard yells behind me and turned just in time to see a boy in a bicycle zoom by. I was sure he meant to rob me and I was frightened.

I found another restaurant and ducked in. It was a Hispanic restaurant and the owner offered to drive me home. I turned him down, though, because I didn't want him to lose his good parking space.

I found my family. They'd been driving around looking for me. We were finally headed home, but my aunt Livia begged that we stop. On the side of the road she'd spotted a house that she recognized from her gossip magazine. It was supposed to be the house of some big-time actress. It looked abandoned to me.

She and I walked up to the front door slowly. I could see it was ajar. There was certainly nobody in there, I thought. It was abandoned. But Livia was relentless.

She approached the house and pushed the door open. We both screamed. In the house, taking a shower, was the grandma from the Beverly Hillbillies.