Wednesday I dropped off four rolls of film, mailed off Shelley's present, bought a delicious pasta salad from the Corner Bakery, and relished the Colorado summer sky. At noon, the sky blazed blue just as it ought, and by afternoon, our late summer late afternoon thunderstorms were building up. I was glad to be back.

In the morning, my mother called. I am pleased to report we had a pleasant conversation. This is when she said she knew ASZ. She told me she had sent me an article from the Gazette about one of my baby-sitting victims, who has just finished 11th grade. I am further pleased to report that this person, who was, frankly, one of the ugliest baby-to-toddlers I have ever seen, is now a perfectly agreeable looking young woman.

I told her about my slinky new dress, about Abby the yellow lab, and the whale watch. She told me about their upcoming vacation to lovely Fresno, California. She didn't think it unreasonable that I asked her to hold up both ends of the conversation while I brushed my teeth and couldn't talk. She believed me and responded when I said it was 7:00 and I had to catch the bus instead of insisting on "just one more thing."

Thursday this occurred to me during staff meeting:

In the spring of 1989, I took a class in Arthurian Literature. My friend-through-my-boyfriend MAF was in the class too. One midsummer morning (actually early one April afternoon ) I glanced down at my desk and read the following graffiti:

"I need a woman"---Ratt

You need a life

You'll need plastic surgery if I ever find out who you are!

I broke in here: Ooo, what a manly man you are to threaten physical violence! I find that so attractive you know. Can we do the nasty?

The next class, Hey, of course we can get nasty! [note the change in sentence structure] D'you like metal?

At this point, I mentioned this amusing exchange at lunch. MAF cracked up: she had written the first, green comment. We skedaddled excitedly to class to read the next installment.

You people make me sick.

This was the funniest yet. I could easily believe the Rattboy had no ear for irony, but for yet another person to intrude without understanding simply cracked me up. I wondered briefly if the nauseating factor had really been the possibility of an assignation through the medium of a desktop scrawl or if the vandalism had repulsed our critic more. Then I realized if the critic had such a problem with vandalism, he ought not have used the selfsame medium to condemn it. It had to be a passing stranger with as little comprehension as Rattboy. Since our acquaintance was however cut short, I did the decent thing and brought an eraser to the next class. Little haloed moi.

Friday I thought I might pass out from lack of garlic. My pasta salad Wednesday included whole baked cloves and supper Wednesday and Thursday had plenty. If I didn't have more soon, withdrawal would set in and vampires light upon my neck. RDC wanted curry. At the Isle of Singapore, a place new to me, I pounced on the Hainan Garlic Chicken. Garlic rice, chicken roasted with garlic, and a green sauce loaded with garlic, cilantro, and ginger. Thus I diverted the DTs.