Cali-forlorn-ia

Both New Man and the Vice-Boss out sick--the New Man with a Cold, the Vice-Boss with unidentified ailment. Brain makes up story about new man and vice-boss having an affair. Are very likely meeting at the Penninsula. Perhaps have been conducting affair under our noses. Forget that have made up affair and become interested and scandalized. Imagine unspeakable scenarios. To combat images, force self to survey supply drawer and compile list of things to be ordered. This only moderatly successful--vice-boss still in skimpy costume and new man very badly behaved. The Contessa says, I have so much crap to do. As write down list, Say, I know what you mean, I have to do the Budget Document. The Contessa says, I think I'll go get some iced coffee, want some? Yes I do. Have finished with supply list. Thought of budget document gives me a headache and briefly think that I may have to lie down on the carpet until the Contessa returns. Quick perusal of carpet--carpet very very stained and see what think used to be a Raisin, but not positive--cures me of any need to be prone. Thankfully, the telephone rings. It is the Leg Model. Shriek, How Have You Been. Long telephone conversation ensues--she has moved to LA (Question: Did I know she was moving? If not, why? Further question: Should I be hurt that wasn't invited to going away party or guilty because was and forgot.) She says that she is settling in nicely. Has even made a new friend, woman who recently wrote article about the Donner Party for the New Yorker. Conversation recalls own childhood California, especially fourth grade history of which remember nothing except the unit on Missions and the very brief mention of Donner party. Of the Missions, remember nothing except that they existed. The Donners--do remember this--were cannibals. The article does not take a contradictory view, simply more nuanced. It seems likely that not everybody ate somebody. Even if some people did eat others, they at least waited to do so ate all the mice, deer, dead cows, and moccasins they could get their hands on, first. And when people ate people they--at least--didn't cook them. Not sure what sort orf distinction this is. Discuss article with the Leg Model--also a product of the california public school system. We agree that story about the Donners a very effective way taboo against cannibalism. I bet--the Leg Model says--if we poked around in what we were taught in fourth we could find the taboo against incest too. This a good point. We attempt to do so. The Leg Model remembers that she had to brush her teeth and then chew pink tablets that stained the teeth where she'd forgotten to brush. I counter with memory of plastic recorders (though not recorders--actually called something phones. Readers?) which got dragged out of a closet and passed around the classroom for extremely uninspiring unit on Music. After week of playing with the recorders, recorders got put into their thin cardboard boxes and then back into the closet, waiting for the next year. Loop back to issue of the Donner Party and the article. The Leg Model says that her new friend--the writer of the article--extremely nice and also very pretty. She pauses. And we are all on different paths. So it doesn't matter that the article writer is only thirty. This revelation comes as a bit comes as a bit of a shock. Thirty-year-old secretary does not have the same ring to it as Thirty-year-old New Yorker Staff Writer. Suffer extremely painful moment. The Leg Model, thankfully, changes the subject. Says, our movie is coming out. Ask, It is? I haven't seen it advertised anywhere. Not coming out, coming out, but it is being sent around to festivals. She's seen a cut. Wish to ask how I look in the movie but don't want to seem vain so instead as how she looks in the movie. She reminds me that it was just her legs in the movie and those seemed fine--though not likely to win any acting awards.