New School Year Madness and Al Capone

My classes are beginning to fill up, slowly but surely. I had 5 students this morning in Period 1, compared to one on Thursday. I seem to be going at a rate of one per period.

This weekend was an interesting experience. I hauled myself out of bed to take the metro downtown to volunteer for the Los Angeles Triathalon Registration pick - up. It was quick and easy... except for the stupid rule regarding no eating or drinking.

Mapquest said the Hyatt Regency was a 1/4 mile from the downtown metro stop... it was actually across the street. After changing into our pale green t-shirts, we proceeded to verify their name, distance, age, what wave they were in, start time (all participants needed to be in T1 before 6:30), color swim cap which they could get from the table behind them, luggage tags for T1 and T2, sticker for their helmet, sticker for their bike post, bib that must be pinned in all four corners (don't pin or pull the tab) or wear a race belt. I gave them a neon orange snap bracelet to get them in and out of all transition areas and told them to have a good race. I must have said that info at least a hundred times. Yup. It'll probably be etched permanantly in my head for all time.

We walked over to CPK on Fig and 7th and both ordered our usual. I also took the server up on his offered Strawberry Margarita. It was cold and yummy. We went our separate ways as Lizzie walked to USC and I went back to Long Beach. Ken had dropped out of the game on Rob so he had an extra ticket at the last minute. Liz told me he felt guilty, but hey, totally understandable. Besides, I would have missed Mr. Rocker Man on the train. He was talking when I got on and didn't stop. He stood at the front of the train with an overly large set of headphones around his neck and a pair of drum sticks in his pocket.

At first I thought he was a busker and he was going to ask everyone for spare change. Then I realized he was more the born again type. He told us all about the fact that rockers party to much. They drink and smoke and that he was a rocker and liked to party. He then started to give advice. "You ladies out there, if your man goes to jail and asks you for something, don't give it to him. Drop him. If he asks you to pass him some money in a book, or something, don't go to visit him. I went to prison, and it wasn't good. They're all dirty. They have dirty asses. HIV and syphilus. Yes. Al Capone died of syphilus in West Palm Beach Florida. In Florida. Yeah, he died of a dirty ass."

Keep in mind that he kept repeating himself, as new people got on the train. Finally someone less timid and amused as myself got on. "Hey, shut up. Don't use words like that in front of kids. Some people have their kids on this train." After a bit of word bandying, he got off the train. I turned around and mentioned he'd been talking since downtown. The girl across from me gave a sympathetic stare.

The ladies behind me started up a conversation. "Al Capone ain't my daddy. He ain't the daddy of anyone on the train, so why does he think we need to be told. Besides, Al Capone didn't die in no Florida either. He died in prison cuz he was too suspicious of the doctors to treat him. He died cuz he refused treatment. That's why the stupid ass died."

Right.

After the train, I drove to Wally world to pick up some notebooks, and got distracted by the yarn dept. Bought some to make a blanket. Couldn't find cheap notebooks so headed over to Big Lots and bought theirs. Decided to go to the rents for air conditioning and USC football game. Mom was watching the race so I went upstairs. About 5 minutes into the first quarter, I close my eyes for a minute. When I opened them again, the score was 21 to zip.

The game really wasn't all that exciting... we creamed them. It didn't help that I was dead tired. Mom called me down for pizza and I got a second wind. I started to work on my blanket and got hooked on some celebrity poker. Finally left around 1 am.

While Liz was off to her marathon practice and dinner party, I stayed home and caught some Z's. I watched Girl With a Pearl Earring and House of Sand and Fog. Girl was beautiful (especially with Colin Firth doing a lot of his specialty - brooding looks.) House was good, but depressing.

At about 8 Lizzie called and while I only caught every other word, I figured out she wanted me to go pick up the pottery. So much for my entirely pajama day. I got our napkin holder and spoon rest from Color Me Mine then headed over In N' Out for dinner. Yum.

Liz got home in the middle of Jack and Bobby, and afterwards she put on a movie about a Mormon Missionary meeting a group of gay neighbors. It was good - for what I saw of it. I couldn't keep awake so I headed off to bed before the gay guy managed to seduce the Mormon.