August 1 , 2002
3:10pm Thursday

OLD FRIENDS MEET ON THE EDGE OF TOWN

This morning I had two inches of my unruly mane lopped off and it was both expensive and slightly traumatic. It's always fun paying somebody cash money to make your blood pressure go through the roof.

For two years the guy in Studio City who cuts my hair also cut the hair of my married friends, their sister, her roommate, and her friend. Now they're all gone except me, and today I got the interrogation. "I know they moved, so I know it's not personal." I nodded my head. "I know she was laid off and doesn't have a job, so it's hard for her to come in." I nodded some more. "DOES she have a job now?" I stammered and said no I didn't think so and it was completely obvious I was lying, and since the questioning happened in the first two minutes of getting my hair washed it was awkward for awhile after. "They don't like waiting around while you color other people's hair!" I could've said, or "They hate it that you talk about Madonna so much!" but I kept my yap zipped. I always get in tongue-tied messes trying to cover up for other people.

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We're going to a wedding in the Bay Area this weekend, and we're leaving now to drop Paul at my parents' house. Gray just came in and said, "You know the wedding's Catholic, right?" to which I started unpacking my bags, but then he sneanked in a "Just kidding" and left the room. I don't like the stand-up/sit-down and I don't being peer-pressured into taking communion. But it's not Catholic, so I'll be in attendance afterall.

It's a wedding on Gray's side, so it'll be all his friends, who are now all my friends, who I think are just about the coolest people one could forcibly inherit. They're genetic researchers and pilots and mathematicians and in sports information and lawyers and librarians and in public relations and work the internet and at colleges... they're totally unlike everyone I know here. It'll be a regular love fest.

That reminds me, I have to buy a bottle of Wild Turkey before we leave. It's nice when the people you're staying with share the same alcohol taste buds you do and you can package it as a host-gift and then partake. There will be no pink zinfandel this weekend!