Florida–1983
January 7 to January 19th.
Took notes before I left: took $457.17 in cash, but didn't check when I got back. Took 19 pounds of luggage, didn't bring back much more. Checked AMTRAK versus Greyhound/Continental and AMTRAK was faster, cheaper, and "more elegant." But travel agent told me I couldn't cancel advance-reservation plane ticket even though it WAS bought in a credit-card cancelable format. Noted that I was to meet Spartacus at the General Car Rental booth at the Orlando Airport, on 7011 McCoy Road, after his TWA flight 401 arrival at 1:50PM. His car-rental confirmation number was V82002. I change train reservation from round-trip Orlando to return from Boca Raton's nearest station (5 miles south, at Deerfield Beach) when I found it was 180 miles and we'd save nothing by dropping the car off at the SAME place. Then took notes from "OLD NOTEBOOK" travel pages 3-10 for the 12/15-12/21 1982 previous trip, which was $69/day, and $121 for car for week, and $51/2 Italian dinner. EPCOT was Wednesday 4:30-9:45, dining on Food turntable; Thursday 10-10, dining in Mexico and lunching in France; Friday was Disneyworld 9-6 and Epcot 6:50-10:30 with dinner in Italy; and Saturday was 9-10:30, dining in France, for a total of 34 1/2 hours, or three full days. I summed up the trip: Spaceship Earth 3 times, Universe of Energy was INCREDIBLE, GM was good, Kodak 3D film was great; Germany, Italy, and US were poor; China film was good twice; France movie was the best twice; Britain was OK; Canada had good film; Japan was closed; "Symposium" was good in Land, and Mexico "River of Time" was good. I note that NEW from Spartacus's guide was Living Seas, Horizons, Captain EO, Norway, Morocco, Chinese Restaurants, and Movie Ride (which last turned out NOT to be).INSIDE FRONT COVER: I owe Spartacus $149 (lacking car); he owes me $197.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 7: HAD thought to be in bed by 12, but packed and thought and packed and arranged and got into bed at 12:30, setting alarm for 7:30--- only 7 hours sleep ALREADY. Can't sleep. Add things to packing list at 1AM (felt it was later). 1:15AM, still awake and tossing. 1:30, then sleep. Wake with a jolt (after fragments of benign dreams) at 6:30 and get to john at 6:50. Pack and pack and breakfast and take pills. Count money and weigh luggage (19#) and check off final items by 8:10AM. Subway at 8:20, not THAT cold, but snow-covered sidewalks at 38 degrees. Train #_5_ comes at 8:25, to Penn Station at 8:40, "tracks announced 10-15 minutes before departure." 9AM "all reserved" train to DC announced at 12 or 9. Write this to 8:51, content. All stuff in bag except full blazer pockets. Ready for anything. Announce "east track 12" at 8:58 and mill and turn back and down and get right single seat with PERFECT window at my command. No smoking, he says, and we pull out at 9:15, car about half filled, MOST people going to Orlando! 35 degrees and gray in Philadelphia at 11AM. First guy behind played radio for his mom, then "the composer" played the same rhythmic chords again and again. So THIS is Amtrak! Announcements unheard through earplugs. Lots of people on at Philadelphia. Guy behind put on Peewee Herman. Others play cards. I start reading Vonnegut. Rivers frozen solid. Train whirls through a self-made snow-tunnel. I tell them behind that their TV on Catalytic Converters is coming through my earplugs and they turn it off. Wilmington at 11:35, MORE people on. Does Ned Smyth have a "village" monument in Wilmington? Baltimore at 12:30 to "receive more passengers." Lights OUT 1:15 to 1:45 in DC, and I go into HUGE BRIGHT NEW Union Station with Xmas and skulls and butterflies and impala hide in East Hall shops, great promenades and spiral staircases, and SMOKE filling low-ceilinged annex from basement cafeteria. VERY crowded on Saturday, too. Walk 6-7 cars, get floor-cleaner to open "out only" door I exited and out at 1:45 AS lights click on, due to leave at 1:51, he told me. Chili and salad and GOOD pecan pie and 1/4 wine for $2 for $7.50 total. CUTE guys pace! Finish lunch at 2:15 as we take off and I get a partner at 2:30. Snow GONE south of DC, without MUCH transition: small scatter south of DC. 4:10 into Richmond, SAYING they'll try to get lights and circulation in this car! They never do. It gets dark about 6 and I read "Bluebeard" until 8:35 and I have $9.75 beef dinner with beer in SECOND dining car. Back to lights OUT at 9:55! Lay and lay and look and look.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 8: About 1AM there are STARS. Light above is annoying, as is light from outside (no one pulls curtains), as we stop for long periods. Doze and wake, ass sore, changing positions. Some few sexy bodies pass. Fog in AM. Start looking outside at pelicans and fog and Clyde Beatty Circus in Deland at 7:42; we're obviously late. Lights on at 6:55, off for 9 hours. Finish "Bluebeard." Write this to 7:46AM. Off at Winter Park at 8:25, hoping, and Midge is NOT there. Page Orlando, nothing, nothing. Phone at 8:35 and 9, page again at 9, nothing. Start reading Updike's "Trust Me." 9:10 I get her home! She picks me up, fairly annoyed, and she says _I_ take her car for Spartacus in PM. To her place for cereal and toast and juice for breakfast, papers, and lots of talk to turkey sandwich lunch at 1:30 and leave at 1:50 to go EAST then west on I-4, to General Car Rental at 2:40, Spartacus there for five minutes. Get little red car and lead him back, first wrong way to Longwood, then wrong turn to Springs. They get along fine, the drinks start at 4:10, wine and oyster crackers and cheese pieces to Omaha steaks at 7 and tomatoes and glorious asparagus in hollandaise sauce (which I goof and call butter!) and fabulous grapes for dessert, followed by brandied fruit and ice cream, and talk to Chuck Linker (who we're to meet at 11AM tomorrow) and bed at 12:30, TIRED.
MONDAY, JANUARY 9: Wake at 7:15 and up at 7:30 to shit and write two dreams: 1) directing a PLAY that's going WELL with 6-7 people who KNOW directions, now getting final instructions, and 2) humpy guy who smilingly leaves his flaccid huge cock in my HANDS as he say we better move to another room for sex! Shower at 7:45 and breakfast and leave at 9:30. To Comfort Inn and to Contemporary Hotel at 11. Meet Chuck, Monorail to Victoria and Albert $80 menu at Grand Floridian at 11:30, then to MGM/Disney preview at 12, and Flight to Mars at 1 (disappointed that Space Mountain is CLOSED). American Journeys at 1:10. Onto Skyway line at 1:35. On at 1:55. Lunch 2 to 2:30 on hamburger. Magic Journeys 3D movie at 3PM, after 2:50PM "Working for Peanuts" 3D cartoon. Onto "20,000 Leagues" line at 3:20, on at 3:35. Out at 3:50. Haunted Castle 4:10, out at 4:20. Onto Mountain Railroad at 4:25. On at 4:40, about four minute GOOD ride. To Pirates of Caribbean at 4:48 and walk RIGHT in, out at 5! Onto Jungle Cruise line at 5, out at 5:25. To Monorail to EPCOT at 5:35, out at 5:59, onto Spaceship Earth at 6:03!! GREAT!! Out at 6:20, reserve for 8:30 dinner in China, and into World of Energy at 6:40 for PARTLY remembered slides/movie show and into "vehicle" at 6:45. Out at 7:15! Horizons is INSTANT. World of Motion at 7:40-7:55. Walk to China by 8:10 and eat $54.12 dinner (interrupted by IllumiNations from 9-9:15, GOOD music and lights), and out at 9:30 to BOAT back to Monorail at 10. Wait til 10:15 with screaming babies, but next Monorail comes quick and we get to car at 11. Bed 12:45.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 10: Wake at 5:30 with dreams 1) I'm teaching kids English by dipping into dictionary and taking word 1, followed by next two words. Usually GET a noun, verb, and adjective. Single sentences, then add two more words and get better choices. 2) ONE word is PRISON and NEXT dream's a fantasy of springing kids from prison: teaching them and getting their gratitude and perhaps love. Not sexy, but very pleasant. To john to shit and write and back to bed at 5:40. At 7:20 ANOTHER soap-opera dream: 3) I'm at a party and someone comes up behind me and feels my back, then ALL over my head and face, and THEN he tries to FUCK me with a hard pointy erection and I shout "NO." Then he drives me "to end of island, where kids run wild" and tells me of his house "in middle, where I can get to either end in just two hours," and tries to impress me. 4) Short calculating woman tries to get money out of me so she can "support my apartment" with the new owner, a fat lazy woman who looks like a sickly Carolyn Quinn. I refuse to pay money and she gets ugly, then a woman friend, someone like Susan, pokes her in the belly and says "What about the baby?" "WHAT baby?" defensively. "YOU know." "Well, if anyone LIKES me, they like me for what I AM, and that's what I AM," she says bravely, and I wake still full from Chinese dinner ten hours ago. Breakfast. Onto longish ticket line and in at 10AM. Into Living Seas 10:01 and out at 11:30! Into Land, with"Symbiosis" to 12. Out at 12:10. Off Imagination ride at 12:55. Take bus to Mexico for snacks, then to River of Imagination, out at 2:40. Onto Norway Maelstrom line. Off boat---GOOD---at 2:55. LOUD movie, out of Norway at 3:13. Glimpse of Chinese dragon performance at 3:20. Into China film at 3:25. VERY tired, WEARY! To bus to France, and we go through shops until 4:35 film. Spartacus SLEEPS through it, which BUGS me! Out at 5:20, to boat, but it's not coming, so to Morocco and to boat at 5:35. I'm out to car, around circles, pay NOTHING to Grand Floridian. Change and wash, and get PRETENTIOUS service at "Victoria and Albert" that Mark, the Maitre d', confesses is "show." Salmon, lobster/scallops appetizer with veal farci main course, salad, stilton and pear and port, and chocolate souffle. Out at 8PM for $91, back to Epcot at 8:30, and back RIGHT UP Spaceship Earth to a soused, delighted 8:45, and wander up to see IllumiNations and meet Spartacus! Watch GREAT show, out in CROWD to see Spaceship Earth as rotating laser-earth til 9:30, beamed from USA Pavilion! To car, he drives back, and I wash and clean and get to bed at 10:45, talking at "forgoing" (?) him, looking at tomorrow, and earplugs in at 11:02.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11: Wake at 7:45, and shower and get to read "Trust Me" by 8:30. Spartacus is STILL in bed. Breakfast 9-9:45! Into Epcot at 10:05, to Journey to Imagination at 10:10-10:25, Captain EO 10:30-10:50, but it's not that good nor is it (from the side) that convincing a production in 3D. To Communicore West at 10:55, playing "Taxi to the Stadium", taking "Energy Survey Opinions" to 11:10. Leave Energy at 11:15. To Unisys to build flags, fill jets, identify pavilions (and win the quickest time!) to 11:35. Design roller coaster to 11:40, FUN. Play "Smart One" robot-quiz and it BLUNDERS to 11:45. To Futurcom, ONLY exhibit in Communicore West? Geography to 11:50 on the "Intelligent Network." Then "Reorganize your Face," and memorize bits and play "Four Balls in a Row," and treasure ship game, and others before "top-spinning automated arms" show and walk to French kiosk to meet Spartacus at 2 (he'd gone to "Symbiosis" again and "Kitchen Kabaret" before and USA after), and go to Morocco 2:15-3:10 for brochette and meshoui and tea and hot chocolate and bellydancer, all not so great. Out to France for no-movie start, to England for a play, to "O Canada," and LOTS of shops to 6:05 to walk right into Captain EO. In Germany you couldn't have ONLY beer in the Biergarten, only in a small outside space. Spartacus got into shop-looking, like the German "bookshop" with only two books and lots of junk. Shop large Pringles, Canadian Trading Post, and others to 6:50. Walk to Norway and RIGHT INTO Maelstrom from 7:09 to 7:21; try restaurant early, no chance; to Chinese shop to 7:40. Seated in Norway at 7:50. Good buffet dinner (with $5.50 half-carafe of red wine) to 9PM. Out for still-great fireworks, sit til 9:30, watching people pass, and out and to hotel by 10:04. Wash and bed at 10:30 to read. To sleep at 11:10PM.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 12. Wake at 5 to shit. Then at 8:30 to lay to 8:50. Shower and pack and get to breakfast at 9:40. To Boardwalk and Baseball at 11, see "The Eternal Game" to 11:30. Paratrooper SLOW and tame. Hurricane 2x: the back is the best ride, the front the best view. Lippizzaner horses from 12-12:25, then GOOD LONG DOUBLE Flume with Spartacus to 12:35. Then "Double O" (Lightning Loops). OK, but it's TOO fast to experience. 1001 Nights (the table that rotates like a huge ferris wheel) is closed: "Needs a mechanic; won't go all the way around." So I go on the Enterprise at 12:49, getting slightly nauseous. To IMAX for "Speed" 1-1:30, lunch on Salerno Express, then Pirate Ship does me in and we leave at 3:20PM. Really tired, so I nap in car (which reclines nicely) on way back to 4:30. Refreshing vodka tonics wake me up and we talk and laugh before dressing by 7PM to go to elegant Maison et Jardin for DOLL of waiter (like Todd Baron of "Style") and vodka gimlets with Midge, and bottle of Merlot with Spartacus and adequate venison and pheasant (which is toughish) and chicken and HEAVY cream mushroom soup to start, and sharing two good cakes and an ORDER of raspberries to 10PM. Home EXHAUSTED and bed about 10:30, Spartacus staying awake to watch TV as he's done many of these nights, making up for his sleep during the best exhibits during the daytime!
FRIDAY, JANUARY 13: I'm up at 9 to shower, and Midge says Spartacus MUST be ready by 9:45 to go with her for haircut for him to see the mall. He is just in time and I read papers and they're back at 10:55. They talk while I look through Polly's gift of National Geographic "China" and they talk and we're out at 12:45 to the Bubble Room, for which we wait a bit in junk and toys of earlier era, and get served by "scouts" in wacky hats. Have GOOD sausages in Three Little Pigs and Midge has salad and gimlet and we just have water and ENORMOUS Clark-bar ice-cream pie that we must finish and chocolate cake that Spartacus wheelbarrows home in a bag. Out at 3 to Winterhaven's Canal Tour, but 3:30 tour waits til 4:10. Loud motor and nice canals connecting three lakes and anhingas and coots and cormorants and scullers and few swimmers and boaters and a waterskier. Out by 5 in traffic and I drive slowly home by 6 to look over darkening Springs' springs and home to look at news and papers and out about 7:30 to the Wekiva Camp for Midge's shrimp cocktail and fried zucchini and my gatortail (tough! and pork/fishy) and good chicken wings and ONE catfish nuggets that fill us up without desserts. Back about 10 and fall into bed, Spartacus again staying up to watch TV.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14: Up about 8 and breakfast on cereal ONLY and pack and hope to leave early but finally out at 10AM to go down to Beeline and across to coast and get lost few times and turn back to South Patrick Road and to Rita's at 11:40, Denny taking TV pictures and Paul well-mannered and Mom behaving! Get to video games of Dark Castle, Pinball, and great Shanghai-matching Mahjongg tiles, and out to pick huge bag of oranges and grapefruit to laughs and filming and lunch at 2:15 of toasted Velveeta sandwiches and great Denny's aunt's pickled yellow peppers for topping, and lots and lots of orange juice. Play another Shanghai and they search their TV tapes for Christmas and the Turtle Cowpie races in Canada as two kids (one a doll!) come over and Rita shows me Macpaint, impressive even on black and white TV, and Denny is making battery DISCHARGERS, so they can be effectively RECHARGED, and his GREAT idea for Practical Pursuit that Spartacus and I agree should be QUERIED to Milton Bradley. Denny seems sad. Spartacus back at 6:05 and we all dress and leave by 6:40 for Phoenix, great place with fun waiters and my kir is only pre-drink and get bottle of Chandon Blanc de Noirs for $25 and good mushroom soup and everyone gets veal or lamb medaillons but my sweetbreads, all quite good, but LONG waits and wine by the glass is OK and desserts slow in coming and bill is $92 for Mom for meals and $50 from me for drinks and tip (they take my "20" for "20%" and I pay $26!). Out after 10 and Spartacus calls Gladys and Neal and says we'll be about 1AM, leave key, and Denny begs us to stay and we drive away and I say we can get motel, but Spartacus feels like driving and we pass lighted towns and dark-to-lit highways and 65 mph traffic and get to elegant Boca Pointe at 1:20AM and they're AWAKE! We toddle up to bed and sleep at 2AM.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 15: Up at 9:30 and Spartacus is DOWN already, and comes up to say we're WALKING before repairman comes (for window they figure the alarm people broke into, taking only one of her rings, the night before the alarm worked) at 11AM. Out at 10:10 with drying hair and "I byte" shirt and walk "villages" and hear about Vieille Maison and fish buffet at Country Club and Art Deco in Miami and their friends and memories. Back at 11 to find she's forgotten her KEY! To neighbors to call Neal at tennis (we didn't have our car keys), and he storms over and leaves key and we're onto back porch for Sunday Times and toasted bagels and cream cheese and butter and peach jam to 12, and we're into car for Spartacus to drive down to Miami to 1:40 to Ross Museum for $2 admission that we avoid by walking from 22nd Street to 960 Ocean for what we think is 2PM lecture and only JAZZ duet. GREAT bodies on Ocean and streets and we take WALKING tour with good historical Richard to 3:50 and then minitram tour through wider section (and crotch-grabbing honkies) and lots of hotels and deco decorations and more bodies and off tram at 5:30 and walk up Ocean and beach to car at 6 and down through Causeway-blocked traffic and lovely-color sunset to Joe's Stone Crab for 2-3 hour wait! Avoid Miami and drive up colorful A1A through new condos and old hotels and private homes and beach areas and Bal Harbor Mall at 7PM for Cafe Ambiance for good $21.95 filet mignons and glass of red wine & mushroom soup & carrot cake and cute/beautiful newlyweds and out at 8:45 up to I95 and back to Boca quickly at 9:30 to chat and they start watching TV in series and I'd phoned Dolphins Plus to leave message and Shirley is going with us IF we can go, and I do anagram puzzle to 11 and read magazines, and Spartacus is NOT up and I'm to bed at 11:30, tired and vaguely dreading rest of trip. I'm glad NOT to be flying, that's SURE!!
MONDAY, JANUARY 16: Wake at 2AM and piss, then at 8:05 and shit and shower and catch up to DATE with this (from THURSDAY---FIVE days!) at 8:50, Spartacus waking and going back to sleep in light. I get dressed and go down at 8:55. They GOT a call: THREE today or two tomorrow. Arnie (they prefer this) AGAIN refuses so I say two at 3:30 tomorrow. Shirley's line is busy. Breakfast of Gladys's cooked cereal and lots of juice, then read Campbell's book as she washes a white then a blue load with EVERYTHING and my shirts and pants come out fine. She's born 11AM 3/30/33!! Has moon in Gemini for three years off. Talk of Glastonbury and the "West" of England and tours and China photos and music and places. She unpacks her books and we talk and at 1PM I say "lunch" and she gets out turkey and Arnie toasts rolls for me and she squeezes MY grapefruit juice and starts to put away a two-quart container that she DROPS and shatters on the kitchen tiles. We wipe and pick up and mop and dry. I phone Chauveron and get two reserved for 7:30 TONIGHT and then La Vieille Maison for myself for 9:30 on Wednesday. She WILL take me to train station BEFORE 6PM on Thursday; we must be PACKED by 9AM Thursday so maid can CLEAN all. Talk MORE and leave at 2PM for A1A south to GREAT Fort Lauderdale beach and cute bodies AGAIN, and then to the end of I95 to Coral Gables' "Miracle Mile" and drive to 8th Street for Supermarket Espresso for Arnie and then north (leaving by an exit that's closed one hour later by the riots in Miami that day) to Bay Harbor to Chauveron JUST at 7:30PM, putting on jackets and having Vol au Vent au Riz de Veau with Truffles for $12.50, sweet onion soup for $5, and split Duck Bigarade for $46, good but NO MORE, and Chauveron Souffle of Grand Marnier and CHESTNUTS for $12, and $15 for DECENT Alexis Lichine House Red, for $119 total, which I GIVE to Arnie but really can't SAY yet. Out at 9:15 and drive north in traffic to house at 10:15 and brush teeth and catch up with this to 10:55; they go to bed and Arnie is down to watch TV, and she DID look in to see me in shorts on bed, GLAD I'd not YET put up spread to black out sun from not-totally-blinded windows, feeling good ANOTHER day is over: 4 left!
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17: 5AM: Dream of Limbo---sort of cut-rate heaven: people standing around, vaguely clean, vaguely dead, staring at bugs on stick, selling pieces of paper, trying to be happy, and I go to visit someone like Gladys who says anyone who's interested in HER would say they're coming to see her at 2PM, not "sometime in afternoon," as I did, but of course I'm DIFFERENT because I had things to DO in town and didn't know EXACTLY when subway would get over to her place. Everyone seems ALIVE, but only barely---sort of a MENTAL graveyard before or after a PHYSICAL one. Like Florida?? Piss and write this to 5:06AM. Shit at 7:30 and write THESE dreams: 1) Interviewing a guy, not looking at him, and I become aware he wants to say something VERY personal, and I fantasize he's in love with me. 2) Doing bodywork on Bernice Cousins, and she slowly walks upstairs to the third floor, then takes off to Ladies Room without TELLING me. I go to look and find new agencies taking over third-floor Men's Room, so there's only the Men's Rooms on 1 and 5, when it had started with Men's Rooms on EACH of the five floors! Also, office doors have plaques reading 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, with "percentage complete" that department is each year, either really or in projection, and I wonder about accuracy of projections. Down in empty rooms to microwave bagel, slice and toast it, butter and olive cream cheese it, while reading New Yorker and drinking fresh orange juice. Neal comes in and we chat and Gladys enters at 9:10 and Shirley and Joan scream in at 9:20 and Shirley's AWFUL. Can't swim, can't snorkel,scared stiff, but wants to go. Arnie down and breakfasts and talks and window man comes and we chat about Ngorongoro and we're off at 10 to go south on I-95 to Miami at 11:10 to find Joe's opens at 11:30. Up Ocean Drive and Arnie makes up Art Deco tour for Shirley and I crawl walls. Into Joe's at 11:55 and three JUMBO crab legs for $30 and I pack remains of mine and LOVE fish (red snapper?) but not clams and crabs and scallops. Key lime pie and ice cream eclair and cake slow (not in that order), and coffee and out at 1:10. South through town (blazing with cop-killers and riots through day that we DON'T see!) and onto A1A and Route 1 through trash to Homestead and then NOTHING to Key Largo to mile 100 and to Dolphins Plus at 3:05! Find we can't ENTER til 3:15, and 9, 11, 1ish, and 4ish are the four sessions for the day. Junky place and Sugar the Sea Lion and two pairs of dolphins in front and 8 in back (= 13, he laughs) and LONG boring orientation by Jeff-Daniels-like Terry til 4:50! Then to four girls in back (yeah!) and into salty sandy sun-lacking water (boo) for mediocre time seeing and not touching til 5:30, out and shower (and guy's coral-raked back and no-see-um bites) and out at 6 to get gas and home on DARK Florida Turnpike at 8:15 and in to 2377 code and out to check corners for Shirley- recommended places and end at Olive Gardens at 9:30 for OK Italian dinner and good 1/2 carafe burgundy for $3 and out at 11:10 to find them AWAKE and I have NICE talk with Gladys about travel and brush teeth and catch up with this after glass of orange juice at 12:20 and to sleep VERY tired, Arnie promising to shut bathroom door later, having it open for circulation & closing it against light.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18: 6:35AM to john (door open) (with STIFF hardon) with VISA card dream: Mr. Lemmee is explaining that only seven card-digits need to be checked: three for originating office (about digit numbers 6-8), three for personal ID (about numbers 10-12), and the billing office code (about #14). I write this data at the top of my "record," which looks like an Actualism receipt, for future reference. I think I'd better get a new card since all "correct" impressions are VERY light, even unreadable, on two digits, about #9 and #13, really UNNEEDED, but where "binding on billing machines must have exerted extra pressure to wear them down." [I now figure 26 pages in 11 days = 2 1/2 pages per day, 3 days left, +8, ONLY takes me to page 34 or 35 of my 40 pre-marked pages.] Until 7:25 my mind races in fugue: 1) Actualism classes coming up. 2) Smoke grass with Carr to get SENSUAL with him. 3) Check Sherryl's computer for index programs. 4) Check 8" vs 5 3/4" vs 3 1/2" disk conversions/diskette-slots. 5) Slide-talks recorded on videotape. 6) Page-type converters for ALL my writing. 7) Buy MICROFILM of Beynon Harris and Alan Watts' last two books on want-list. 8) Record-list as "MY" list of records 9) Reel-to-reel list as "MY" list of music.10) ALL lists onto Optical Character Reader/VHS/Uniform Format.11) Get ALL my "books" printed in "ONE" format.12) Keep writing, keep PERMANENTIZING! And I'm COMFORTABLE with "Boca Wednesday; Train Thursday, NYC Friday," still GLAD not to be flying, but EAGER to return to NYC! Record THIS page by 7:30, satisfied. Laze til 8, shower, and down at 8:30 for Neal and papers and breakfast and Gladys. Wait and look through "Wonders of Man" series and leave about 9:30 for drive along Atlantic north, around Palm Beach Peninsula, over and over Intercoastal Waterway, and eat in Christopher's from 12:30-1:15 and go to Norton Art Institute at 1:20. Photo #12 "Acteon" by Paul Manship. Leave Norton at 2:30 and drive to Flagler Mansion, starting with "plain" Rambler railcar. Tour starts 2:40. #13-16 at Flagler---marble giant. #17 Music Room. More BUILDING seen than I remembered, but nothing SPECIAL except fauns open- mouthed at Diana. Out at 4 and drive south along tacky route 1, getting in at 5:20 in time for Spartacus to leave with Gladys and Neal at 5:45 for the club for his dinner and their bridge game. I'd wondered if I'd be tempted to a quick jerk-off before he got back, which would disappoint me, but they seemed to agree that I'd watch "A Very British Coup" on TV that would "just work out" in time. Wash and change for dinner and start watching at 6. Good. Spartacus comes in at 7 JUST where he wanted to start Part II, and I see end as triumph of power OVER the people. He later calls the shadows "tanks," which goes too far. It's over at 8:40 and I'm out to La Veielle Maison at 9:05. Park not knowing the valet was waiting and I'm instantly to nice corner table set for two. They bring out the SWEETEST DARKEST kir EVER, and a lovely smoked salmon mousse and round toasted breads. Select $9.50 appetizers and $24 entrees and $6 cheese tray and $8 dessert and "free" salad on the $44 fixed-price dinner! FABULOUS raw beef filets marinated in (can't taste it) soy and over snappy tiny green beans and under sliced mushrooms and brown sauce on too-tart purple lettuce. COULD have chosen MANY of each course. Good appetizing selections. Then comes the half-duck Cyrille, leg as confit on SWEET red onions, breast sliced in strong duck sauce and garlic and tender turnips, carrots, and peapods. The glass of red Bordeaux is AWFULLY dry and tart, but it's the only one they have. Finish neatly and ask for port with the Stilton, Explorateur, and Chaume cheeses, and with a whole pear and good port (only $4.50) and lots of bread and butter I'm really filling up. Have them take salad away after I sample an acidic-dressed lettuce-leaf. Decaf with lemon souffle, recommended by next table, and a HUGE portion comes out, REAL souffle, and I can HARDLY get through HALF with good raspberry sauce. Waiters are affable, place is great, whole thing $69 and change. Leave at 11 and back at 11:20 to crow about it to everyone in kitchen. Up still groaning from too much food, and I didn't even FINISH dessert! Brush sensitive teeth and get into bed last time JUST at midnight. Fall RIGHT to sleep, leaving pensive thinking til the morning.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 19: 4:35AM jolt awake from dream with acid-covered burp into left nasal passage. Dream 1) climax of some production is a waterfall (last night's Boca Pointe waterfalls at Palomar entrance?) flowing over a stage-set of a placid slope down to an efficient gutter at the footlights. 2) I'm watching an acrobat below me balance a LOG on his forehead, and I look DIRECTLY down at him. Then he climbs to my balcony and swings across to a cohort on a trapeze, hooks on his own two foot-connectors, and swings by his heels from there, just grazing the floor. 3) Fragment from BEFORE of TINY MEN (34 cleaners of Nara Buddha from the Norton---they WERE about that size!) in BIZARRE dream: they dipped their cocks into grease that solidified around them like candles, then tried to run a race. These one millimeter-tall men in the race were then STEPPED on by me like honey-filled ANTS under my ridged SNEAKERS, which were then held up to an unsuspecting onlooker who was asked, "What's THAT?" only I get a shock when someone like Gladys Blackmarr RECOGNIZES all those fatty white spots AS the cock-casings of tiny racing men! WEIRDEST dream in AGES. I pee and back to bed at 4:45. Wake again to shit at 7:30 and out of bed at 8:05 after idly fretting for 35 minutes. Shower and take dop kit out and frighten naked Spartacus by walking back in for toothbrushes. Pack and sort papers and compare VISA receipts (inside front cover of this notebook) and down at 9:25 to put stuff in closet as cleaning girl cleans upstairs, two men pull off and reglue wallpaper in kitchen, and no one answers local Amtrak and the 800-number is in Chicago and can't tell us how to get from here to the station. Gladys volunteers juice and muffins for breakfast and we three men eat and then Spartacus jokes, "Will you fly back with me if I tell you Shirley's coming over at 10?" Then she DOES!! He leaves at 10:15; "girls" leave at 10:30 as I sit and continue on the long list of "Wonders of Man" books on the shelf. Then Neal leaves for tennis and Gladys chats over papers and shoves me out onto porch as cleaning comes downstairs. I use downstairs john. SHE leaves at 2:30 and I finish books: Newsweek-published "Wonders of Man" Series. Machu Picchu page 86 remarks: "Chan-Chan...may have ranked as one of the world's largest cities in its day---as large as 15th-Century Paris or Milan." "Lima's Larco Museum...room full of pornographic Chimu pots." Looked at Colosseum, Tower of London, Forbidden City, Teotihuacan, Hagia Sophia, Machu Picchu, Florence, Mecca, Chateaux of Loire, Dome of the Rock, Kremlin, Notre Dame de Paris, Taj Mahal, Vienna, and Versailles. I change into winter clothes and Neal returns at 4:05, saying nothing. At 4:30 he's downstairs and I say I'll call taxi and he says he was just about to take me. Station really IS at tracks on Hillsboro Drive, so I thank him and set bags down on bench at 4:45, checking inside that train is (for now) on time at 6:36 and she'll announce when it leaves Fort Lauderdale. Breeze is cool and I'm glad for long-sleeved pink pullover. Stare into space and write this til 5:25. May stretch it to 40 pages YET. Only 27 hours left. What an ORDEAL I put myself THROUGH. No more trips till I'm PUBLISHED! Take out Updike to read. Notes from 5:35 to 9:20 in the back of that book: 5:35 Station lights switch on. Tri-Rail trains pass in both directions. Cold and darkish by 6:10. 6:28 sign: 5:25 southbound hit car, delayed to 7:47. Doesn't bother me at all! It's BLACK outside by 6:30. 6:36 I'm told "seat 7" on left, TAKE seat 29, on right, OK! 9:20 lights out. Have greasy red snapper for dinner across from quick-talking guy from Queens. Pecan pie still good. At lights out I decide to take advantage of my double seat to lie down to sleep. Girls two seats behind chatter with their mother. Crazy black woman in rear exchanges loud insults with a white man trying to sleep. Toss and change positions from 10:30-11:30. Doze on and off.FRIDAY, JANUARY 20: Awake at 1 and 2:30 as center light makes known to me that I have the SAME seat as coming down. Black in front of me leaves his light on ALL the time, even when he leaves. I'm relieved when we obviously aren't getting filled with people from Orlando, then remember: this is a DIFFERENT line: MUCH more rocking and moving, it turns out. Wake at 4:30 to piss and get a drink: nose and throat dry. Try feet curled up, but knees too stiff and stomach too big. Feet in aisle get bumped. Sleep at right angle, feet on footrest covered by jacket after I get sweater on for warmth. Sexy muscleman across finally pulls shirt over his tanned deltoids by 7AM, then jeans over his massive thighs and jutting calves. It's light about 6:30 and I look without glasses. Light enough by 7:30 for details and glasses. Lights on at 8:10. Breakfast fast at 8:40 of sausages and scrambled eggs, best meal on train. Continue to read Updike through North Carolina, making stops in Raleigh and pass 25,000-student University of North Carolina. Finish Updike's "Trust Me" at 11:05 and finish this at 11:15, sun coming over right shoulder for a shadow at last. Black woman in back of me rattled lunchbox, then rattled change, then stopped. Reagan has only 45 more minutes of presidency, breaking the long chain of "Presidents elected in years divided by 20 who end disastrously." Pity. Start reading "Quest." Sun comes out at noon as George Bush becomes President. Omen? Into North from North Carolina into Virginia, too. Scenery becomes boring so I read more; it gets dark about 5:45. The mother behind strikes up an animated conversation with the black who'd been in front of me, so I move up one car to get silence, including respite from a guy three seats in front who kept playing a Walkman WITHOUT an earpiece. Delayed in Jersey for some reason, the welcome Empire State Building hovering outside the window for about an hour. Into Penn Station at 8:20: a HORRENDOUS welcome with drunk, smelly, dirty homeless strewn over the station floor, which is littered and dirty and odorous. Onto crowded subway but get seat, home at 8:45 to get nine messages: Irwin Jacobs with $17 worth of Chinese stamps, Edgardo wishing me a Happy New Year, Joe Easter with his work number, Joyce asking me to lead a planetary session, Tom Pearsall wanting Cote Basque, Larry Vide wondering if I was the "Bob" who signed up for his porno party, Barbara Lea asking if I'm continuing with classes (?), Dennis saying he misses me, and Spartacus an hour ago welcoming me back. I note to re-record phone message, and go to Dennis's to pick up the Timeses and New Yorkers. Read papers and mail on Saturday, and on Sunday phone Pope and Mary Vilaboa and Sherryl and Susan and Vicki and Carr and Rolf and Alice and Bob G. Watch old videotapes for most of Tuesday and Wednesday after taking a lot of time to reshelve books from 4/87 to 1/89 on Monday morning. Go through piles of things to do, unpack, pick up laundry, get last pages of my only index, and type 2 pages of this on Wednesday & Thursday, and finish this at 3:20PM on Friday, ready to get on with the REST of my life.