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1959 3 of 3

 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 1. Up late as usual and spend the greater part of the morning, after I eat my bacon sandwich, talking to Mom about NSC, money, Rita, work, her troubles, my trip, the Army, etc. Eat lunch and I get back to writing just a bit of this and reading more comic books and washing clothes, too (on Friday), and catching up on all the funny papers and Peanuts in the basement, and sorting through the books to find some that I want to take back with me, too. Night comes and I call Dave and Larry and we see "The Return of the Fly" and "The Alligator People," the first scary in parts. Then we go to Dave's where I play the organ and we look through his book collection. Then we're off to the "Isle of Lesbos," which I don't want to see and get just a glimpse of male and female, and that's all there is. We end up at Manner's for a Big Boy and a hot fudge and a piece of strawberry pie and home at 1:30.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 2. Up to church and read papers and eat dinner, and eventually I take bus to Larry's, where we listen to records, talk, look at his ceramic collection and talk and listen to more records and he brings me home at 10:30 and I get to bed. Oh, yes, watched end of "Mummy" picture on Saturday night.

MONDAY, AUGUST 3. Up late again, as usual, and again most of the day seems to evaporate into doing nothing in particular. I have letters to send out, but somehow the letters never seem to get sent out. After getting up late, much of the time is still spent with comic books, and after those give out there's always coming and McCalls and Coronet and Readers Digest. UGH. Then at 3 Marion comes to pick us up and with Henry later we all go to Duncanside to enjoy swimming and sliding and diving and then an almost wienerless picnic supper until they drive us back at 7, when they come in and fiddle with candle. They leave and I slap Rita for some reason good at the time and she glowers at me and I slap her again and we all get riled and I flounce into bedroom and get to bed early, at 10:30.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 4. Up at 10 and iron a bit before breakfast and try rather unsuccessfully to get something done on this. Day slips lazily by until supper and I call Larry to get to a drive-in. Meet him downtown and go out to Northfield to see "The World, the Flesh, and the Devil," and fog sets in for "Green Mansions." We're back at 1:30 and another day in the vacation is through.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5. Up with Mom for toast and drive to work to re-see old acquaintances and get told myriad times that I'm looking good. Laugh and gab until 11, and down to listen to much Bruchner at O'Neil's and buy Seaver's gift and get to Akron University to look about and get over to library for Larry and tour the Student Building. Jerry someone asks us up to Cleveland and Larry and I say OK. Back to eat lunch at 3 and start mowing lawn and Danny comes and we talk and I admire. Supper, then I dress to get to town and drive to Cleveland Auditorium to hear the Pops Symphony, and then the Jazz Quartet, and then Dave Brubeck 4 as solo, jazzing through 5/4 and odd time to rather pleasant end. Out at 11 and stop at Left Bank before we hit Chinese place and eat little until 1, getting in at 1:45.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 6. Up at 11 the next AM, no wonder the day goes fast. Dampen clothes and make schedule for my time here. Eat lunch and iron shirts and take off for Grandma's for supper. We four of the three generations have a very pleasant talk and eat session and I tell about trip and everyone exchanges conversation le plus ultra. Then we leave for Larry's and the fun begins. I ask Mom in and she says no! I say that I'll come to car and ask her in and she says don't. We get there and all three Balls gather around car, and on my exit Mom says I didn't ask her in! I fume and we say goodbye and I tell Mom and embarrass her. She doesn't like that at all and ends up stopping car and demanding I get out. I say no, to accompaniment of Hell, and she berates me all the way back, though saying she knows what she said. Into house in a huff and I close door and finish this to present date and huff and debate how I can leave here without having the roof around my ears. Get to sleep at 11:15, after laying down at 10:30. Preflight jitters getting me already, and I don't sleep so well.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 7. Get up at 7 and toss till 9:15, when I come, then eat breakfast, write letter dated August 1 to IBM and go out to get a haircut drooling at noon over lovely creature in front of corner store. Back to finish lawn and eat lunch and wander around getting things accumulated to pack. Look at paperboy longingly and come again in memory of blue-jeaned blond tight shirted doll in front of Canteen. Danny comes and we talk, I expanding ego like crazy. Larry and Dave call to say so long, and after supper I call Joan and talk a while and at 7 I get started packing and actually write a single day of this. At 9 Mom suggests we go on a tour of the Akron bars, and I, eager to leave in good standing, agree and shower and dress and we take off in rain to the Jednota Club, where Beatnik Butke's drumming. We have a drink and go to Krasna's where I have two drinks, and Mom three drinks. Then to the Russian Club, which we get kicked out of, and then to Karam's, where we have drinks and a sandwich. To bed very, very tired at 1:30 am.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8. Up at 7 and dress and finish packing and Mom walks me to corner and leaves red lipstick all over me as I climb into limousine. Get to airport and check in and fly to Cleveland, where I breakfast and stand in line for plane, which takes off at 10:30. I get aisle seat and crane neck all way to NYC, at 12. Hop a bus and cross to Manhattan, cheering inwardly all the while. Cab from Bus Terminal to apartment and unpack just a bit before I go down to get mail and key from Mrs. McGeogh at 1:30. She talks and talks endlessly, saying I have to leave here Oct. 1, which crushes me, and finally I tear away to read letters, especially Bill's, at 3:30. Unpack more and read Life and get down for groceries, but I'm too busy unpacking to use them. Place is a complete shambles as I attempt to unpack, and I get Tom's nudie magazines and jerk off about three times looking at the lovelies. Completely New York-hypnotized, at 7 I take off in pouring rain and raincoat and walk down Fifth and down to 42nd St. to see if there's any movies playing. Still raining and I'm singing all the way to the Roxy and "The Big Circus" and stage show for $2. Buy paper and back at 11 to jerk off two more times and read theater section and eat strawberries and cream as dessert to frank and orange I had in Times Square. Exhausted to bed at 12:30.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 9. Up at 7 and finally get out of bed at 10, to come twice more with drawing book, and at 2 pm have a cheese omelet to quiet my stomach. Entire complete day goes by and all I do is listen to WQXR and fix closet and bathroom and wash all the dirty dishes and fix the bookcases and get sorted all the stuff I accumulated at camp. Dave calls at 11 and I finish up the one piece of steak I finally fixed myself and watch TV until he comes at 11:30. He looks over apartment and we talk awkwardly and we're out in drizzle to look at SBC and walk down Third Avenue past all the antique stores and dozens of queens. Dave seems unimpressed and we get root beer and I leave him and get to bed at 1:30, setting the alarm for 7:15, which I anticipate.

MONDAY, AUGUST 10. Up to shine shoes and shower and eat breakfast of cereal and get to work to be greeted effusively by everyone, and particularly Harriett, who has a job for me, and I'd better get busy and review Fortran. The oil company law firm problem begins! I review all day that I'm not chatting with my co-workers and getting an hour lunch hour to write Bill in my apartment. Out at 5 and on impulse (what else) soak ALL my stamps, getting them all off the paper by 8. Supper quickly and back to stamps, working straight through till 11:30, when my eyes simply close and I got to bed at 11:45. WOW, but these last three days would make a fabulous character study of my New York Madness.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 11. Up at 7:45 to wash dishes, naturally, and hunt up a toasted Danish for breakfast. Get to work and get explained my job, report 4 of Sullivan and Cromwell, and I get to work on it, drawing flow chart and actually coding quite a bit of it in fairly decent Fortran. Leave work quite content and get out to Health Food shop, 10 cent store, hardware shop, hobby shop and supermarket to come home loaded with purchases and almost broke. $2 till payday. True to form, I start off at 6, when I get back, by pasting the last of my stamps in the album with my newly acquired hinges. Then I root this out and get caught up to date by 8. NOW I can start living, which I do by eating a good supper and tackling my letter box, reading many of them and then get at dishes, loading sink, and set apartment to rights and get to bed fairly early. (Radio City---"North by Northwest?---is noted at the top of the date?!)

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12. Up and neglect to shower, which gives me feelings of ill-ease through day. Take keys down to 47 to let my rug in, and get to writing a good flow chart for my legal program. Call Julian and get invited over to supper. Home to write a final, harsh letter to Cesira, and to Dave and Larry and Laird and Mom and get finished in time to get to Julian's at 7:30. We drink and I tell him all about my trips and rave about his completely redecorated apartment. About 9 we finally get down to his luscious eggs a la Russe and most succulent roast chicken and peas and wine and dessert while he talks of business and new office and coming book and school-founding ideas. 11 pm comes and I make to leave and he moans caddishly and I go off into a long tirade: "I'm pretty, therefore I don't trust anyone, therefore I'm cheap for being with you, therefore, goodbye." He's hurt and I moan and we end up rather stiffly as I depart with rug over shoulder of my new jacket. I'm to call him. Get home at 1:15 and flop into bed, feeling effect of vodka, wine and Grand Marnier.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 13. Up at 7:30 to shower and take shirts and clothes off to laundry. Work industriously through day to get finished, but don't quite make it. Chance for overtime but I say no, and go get laundry and eat and when Dave calls, I persuade him out to "Grande Illusion," with von Stroheim and Jean Gabin and both of us are very disappointed with the results. Off for a snack at the corner drug store where the new counter boy is very becoming. Then to "JB" with James Daly, Basil Rathbone and Christopher Plummer, by Archibald McLeish, who succeeds in coming up with a remarkably poetic play in this day of sordidness and mediocrity. Out lively and to Wishbone for awhile of movies and beer and get back at 12 to set alarm for 5, which I get up at and get to work at 6:20.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 14. Work quite steadily until 9, when everyone starts coming in, and I finish program in good form. All morning is taken up by Harriet trying to go over it, and I end up taking it over to key punchers without her looking over it; we both assume it'll work fairly well. In concern about getting it done till 4, when I go down to 635 for a set of tests and after much ado, I finally compile. Back to the Getty Building to last out till 8, and cart things down to 635 to be left for the next day. Very tired back and call Frank and he comes down before I can get much of apartment in order. We talk, and he acts like he wants it, so I give it to him, and he comes all over and moans about his guilt and his boyfriend, and we agree that he call ME next. He leaves at 1, and I flop into bed, subsisting on juices for not drying up.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 15. Up very lazily at 9, soaking up sleep as well as I can, looking forward to another day of overtime. Over at 10 after a hasty breakfast, and call Dave and compile and test and get done, almost, by 11, when Dave comes. Try to explain the system to him and we go to lunch at 12:30 and my test comes out wrong and Harriett and I get to it and finally find error about 4. We agree to set up test for next Monday and I leave at 5, content with work. Home and fiddle with Dave and we finally get started to Coney Island at 7:30, there at 8, and we ride rides and eat eats and look at sights till he gets sick and 12 comes and we get home and I fall exhausted into bed at 1:30 am.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 16. Up lazily at 11, and a day without cares stretches quietly in front of me. I eat breakfast and come and then get started on my top drawer, which leads to all sorts of lists, like the largest cities I've seen in the US, the number of states I've been in, the places to see in NYC, the addresses of famous people, and I slowly sort things out, looking at Encyclopedias and calling library for Academy Awards, and spend the day harmlessly and peacefully, doing nothing, but getting things done. Eat lunch and listen to QXR and at 6 call Bill. He calls from Arno's, and I eat supper and wash many dishes and he comes over at 8. We grasp and decide to take a shower but still manage to feel uneasy and he says I'm getting fat, which is true. We get to bed at 9 and such self-consciously and talk and come and at 10:30 we decide to dress and cab to store and his place for my briefcase for trip. Uneasy evening, pleasant, but not spectacularly good, and I leave at 12:15 and get back to set alarm for 6:30. I sleep poorly.

MONDAY, AUGUST 17. Get up at 6:15 to shower and pack and eat and clean apartment and get to office to jam stuff into briefcase and cab up to a still-sleeping Toby. To airport and she flies breathlessly in and we chatter to Boston, getting in at 9:50. Cab to wrong address and finally get to work at 11:30 and start on tests. Rent a car and have lunch in the Wursthaus and register in the Statler Hilton at 6. Relax and cool off before going down to the Terrace Room at 7 and have T-bone and Cherries Jubilee for $6.50 and sign name for a $24.73 check. Boy. Back to work at 9 and I check out OK and play a losing chess game with Irwin until 12:30. Back to write a lot of this and get to sleep at 1:30.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 18. Up at 8:30 and shower and breakfast for $1.65 and to work again at 10:30 and leave at 1 to check out of double room and into single room and call Harriet to find I have the afternoon free from 2 till 8. Dash upstairs and change clothes and grab cab to Science Park and Museum, small but good, wandering through till 5. Take MTA to fantastically crowded Park Square and walk through Boston Common to hotel at 6. Dress up and go down to Lounge Bar to cruise, but there's no one to cruise so at 6:45 I start drawing chart of things to see in Boston and at 7:45 catch cab to IBM. In at 8 and wait till 9:45 for MacFarlane to come in with test data. Sherman and I run test cases with hilarious results and fairly good ones, too. Per call from Harriet we invade PO at 2 am to mail results to her, and at 3:30 I pay cab off and got to bed.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19. Up, feeling very luxurious, at 12 and write letters, gloating over hotel and get up to date with this until 2:15, always waiting for call from Harriet. Finally, I get ready to leave and at 3:15 she calls and I get down to put a late-leaving note on my room and cab to work. Tell Sherman he can probably go. Mess around with Toby's program and at 6 go down to Wursthaus for my first meal of the day, a succulent rib of beef morsel almost raw. Back to work and compile and test and run and duplicate things and finally at 12, after messing much on machine, Lindsay and I cab to hotel, and I dash up and right back down to the Club Napoleon, where I watch all the too-old and too-young singers and at 1:10 fold my cruising mat and steal away to bed, dejectedly setting the alarm for 8 (with the operator).

THURSDAY, AUGUST 20. Up before that and eat insipid eggs and awful ham for $1.65. Cab out for last time and laugh with Andy and talk long on phone and correct decks and squeeze on between Smithsonian on their very own machine. Andy and I walk down to the Window Shop and I have French omelet and confitures and beer and a rum dessert and am feeling great. Finish everything and pack stuff into suitcase and grab cab for hotel, where I check out without paying and get awfully expensive cab to airport. Buy New Yorker and read it until I get on 6 pm flight through waiting list. Into NYC over lovely residences at 7:10 and pay $4 and get cursed out for a low tip at 8 pm by cabby driving me to the Waverly, where I see "All About Eve," and "Matchmaker," good, until 12. Cab uptown and climb stairs, back down to get mail and back up to read it, including shocking gay-appearing card from Cesira.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 12. To bed at 1:30 and rise logily at 8 to take shower and get to work without eating, since there's nothing in the refrigerator to eat. Spend all morning figuring out expense account and what I did with all the programs. Everyone rushes around getting flustered and I manage to remain calm, thank goodness. Finally everything settles down and by the time everyone stops asking me questions, it's 5 and I dash to get advance, shirts and groceries and get back to call Dave and Mr. Feld and talk to Bill while they pick me up in a cab and we go down Second to the Phoenix where I buy tickets to "Once Upon A Mattress." Eat in GREAT restaurant Jade Mountain, and see a marvelous comedienne Carol Burnett in a good play. Home contented at 11:30 and get into bed, prepared to get up for overtime at 7 am.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 22. Actually up at 7:30 and call Bill and get to work, again sans breakfast, at 8. Machine down till 10 and all is confusion as decks are missing, write-ups are confused, and cards are dropped. Harriet comes in and things settle down and finally Bob makes his test and leaves and we get down to testing the input program on 21 boxes of cards from six products, 10 years and 94 countries. Things go wrong and no one knows why and finally Harriet leaves out 4 and a test goes through and results are gotten and at 5 everyone folds up and I leave. Back to tell Bill I have to fix up apartment and sit down to working on list of ALL the movies (329) I've seen in NYC to date. Needless to say, this awesome job takes till 9 and then I tackle ballet tally lists till 9:30, and by the time I catch up with this, it's 10 pm, and I STILL haven't had my FIRST meal of the day!! Remedy that, and Bill calls for swimming tomorrow, and sorrowfully I figure I've already decided no. At 11 I sort top drawer, bottom of little stand, catch up on sex chart, sort pins from clips in jewelry box and meticulously fuss until eyes hurt at 3 am, so I brush this off till then, already Sunday, and get to bed.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23. Up at 12 to muggy day but feeling good. Get breakfast out of way and start scrubbing bathroom till 2 and kitchen till 4, low temperature and humidity combining to produce a productive day. Bill comes over and we talk and he leaves at 5 and I clean more and take shower and without any food at all yet out at 7:15 to Madison Square Garden for a good seat at S. Hurok's Russian Festival of Song and Dance, being very good in dance and impressive in song. Out at 11 and to Wishbone for 1/2 hour and see fellow outside Plaza. Talk for awhile and I ask him up and he's Claude Belanger from Montreal, with a nice body, and cuddly in bed. He falls asleep at 2 and I'm uncomfortable and cold and finally doze off at 3.

MONDAY, AUGUST 24. Alarmed at 8 and cuddle till 9, when I dash off without breakfast to work. Small riot with time cards and card to tape and I rush around like a madman trying to get everything for 2:15 Electra flight. Pack in frenzy and have coffee break for only food and grab cab and load it with three boxes of tape, briefcase of cards and suitcase and dash to airport for a $2 porter and fly to Boston and get headache reading Esquire. Porter to cab and get to work at 3:30. To supper at 5 and eat well and back to set up runs for a very nice Louie DeFonzo and leave with things going well at 9. To hotel and read magazines and get to bed at 10, getting rung at 8.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 25. Up finally at 9 and breakfast charged and cab to work at 10. Get dirty packing results out in eight cartons and call Harriet and Emery and finally get them out at 1. To lunch at 3 and fool with trying to get output tapes stacked until 5, when Dick and I get out for brief snack and get back to find we've lost a tape and are using outputs like crazy. I leave at 10 pm and change and out to look for a place to eat, but enter Punch Bowl and stand amazed as Jerry comes in and makes my evening miserable. I talk discouragedly and try to get cutie next to me walk out with me, but he doesn't believe me, and at 1:30 I get back to hotel and that's the end of that. Now I'll expect to see Jerry around every corner.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26. Up at 9 to call Harriet and get to work on letters, writing five of them, many certainly about time, and at 12 I finish this, ready to get some food into me and start a new day. Finally a shower and cleaning up takes till 1:30, when I go down to the Cafe Rouge and have fruit compote, braised baby calf's livers Meuniere, snowflake potatoes and apricot-peach pie, coming to "only" $4.20. Quite a meal. Get a cab and get to IBM at 3. Investigate everything and find that I can leave tonight, so I grab cab and get to Boston for an advance and then to the hotel to check out, and with luggage back to Cambridge at 6. Call for planes and get on machine to find that most of work is wrong and then play chess on 704 (messing it up) while I pack boxes. Reserve for 10 pm flight and break neck to get there, annoying IBM, sweeper, cab driver, and everyone concerned, but I get on flight just before it takes off at 10:30. Boston and the Connecticut Turnpike and towns make beautiful colored pictures, not half as brilliant as the Bronx, and I land and get porter to cab and deliver packages to SBC at midnight. Home to bed.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 27. Up to take out laundry and get to work, breakfastless, at 9:15. Day is spent finishing up Sullivan and Cromwell, and the evening finds Harriet and me cabbing down to 61 Broadway and cabbing back, when I get off at laundries and pick up washing. Decide to go to a show, so without eating I put on white shirt, black tie, black belt and socks, white shoes and tight tan trousers and go off to buy tickets for a play, ending up at "Sweet Bird of Youth." Get looked at thoroughly, but nothing happens. Out at 11:30 and get a supper of waffles and walk home to fall into bed.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28. Next day I try to clear up odds and ends of Sullivan and Cromwell, and trade stamps with Irwin and his daughter, and say "no" to Toby to watch TV chez moi. Back to fix place up and spend evening doing nothing in particular, perhaps reading the article on Rugs and Carpets in EB and getting my smaller Isfahan rug out of the case and putting it on the floor. To bed fairly late, probably.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 29. Up at noon to go out shopping for a belt and showerhead and mail folder, and it starts raining to wreck my day, so I stroll into the Baronet, dripping water from Tom's jeans and my soggy shoes, and sit through Jacques Tati's "My Uncle," and Charlie Chaplin's "Tillie's Punctured Romance." Back to mope around some more. These days are almost completely fruitless, since I don't go anywhere to cruise, I never see Bill, but spend much time talking on the phone with him, get next to no writing done, though I sit around very much thinking about it, and in general fret and worry about how I'm frittering away my life fretting and worrying. Ballet tonight.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 30. Many of the days in here are hardly worth looking at, since I've seen nothing to add to my movie list, met nobody to add to my list of acquaintances, and gotten no ticket stubs to add to my mobile. It must be said that I read quite a bit in the encyclopedia and I do manage to get enough sleep, though I usually get enough involved in something to postpone going to bed until 1 or 1:30.

MONDAY, AUGUST 31. During all this time my apartment is quite clean, the air conditioning I suppose removing much of the dirt, and weekly moppings and sweepings keeping the floor clean. Toby goes in to watch TV and remarks about the cleanliness of my place. And I have very little sex anymore, even with myself. At one period I hadn't come for five or six days and I jerked myself just to stay in trim. Bill and I have been talking long, and somewhere in here we had a very long conversation where he said he liked me, but he felt so good in not coming, and that he felt so triumphantly adult in not feeling obliged to "sit down and masturbate after supper, or in the middle of the day," that he was starting to get a masochistic pleasure out of not masturbating. I remarked to a somewhat similar chain of feelings, and that was that. In the month we've been in NYC, I've only come together with him once, and even that seemed phony and forced.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1. Somewhere around tonight I got tired of reading and sorting things out and crossing things off lists and having no social activities, so out I went to the Plaza and a very posh and interesting audience to watch "Anatomy of a Murder," like the book, good in parts, but knowing the ending didn't help the suspense. Back at 1, very tired, and get to bed.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2. I sure hope the very hot and humid weather we've been having has something to do with my listlessness. I've written only the letters I have to, and otherwise only kept body and spirit together by eating only as much as I wanted to, but not as great a quantity or as often as I physically desired to. How awful it is to debate about doing something you want to, or must, do. Due to this debate, which has extended even to eating, I've had some very odd suppers, such as none at all, a container of yogurt, a glass of malted milk and a swig of orange juice, or two ears of corn and a quarter pound of butter.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3. Tonight, after a lengthy correspondence, Laird called and came with me at 1 am when I went to IBM to run some things that had been mistaken in Boston. Laird watched me goof for an hour and a half, and after he left, I carried on for one hour more, until I finally found what was wrong. By the time everything's finished, I'd talked back and forth with the programmers and it was 8 am.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4. I get everything printed and cabbed down in khakis to give over the results, and then back to shock everyone and then home to talk to Laird and change and get back to set up the last run for Curtis-Wright and home at 3 to undress and nap till 5, when Laird came in and we went out to buy $8 worth of groceries and back to cook tuna, and soup and corn and eat and talk until we go down to the East Side Terminal for Frank and Noel, who finally get in on their delayed flight at 11 pm. Cab to Y and they change while I cruise the mob, and then subway up to Bill's to talk just a bit and get to sleep, since I hadn't slept in 42 hours, which is too many.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5. Up at 10:30 and lounge till 12, then eat breakfast, lounge around for a while more, listening to records, and then off to change my pants and down to Cortlandt Street while Bill looks for lamps and I buy a Wollensack tape recorder for $133.90. Carry it home and we joke and tussle into it, and then Laird calls to say he's busy for the evening, and Bill and I have supper and then catch 11 pm bus to his place, where we try to tussle, but we're both down and so we talk, and come very close that way. We sat together until 3 and then fell asleep, and it's about time.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6. Up and eat breakfast and meet Laird and Frank and Noel and bus up to the Cloisters, where the tapestries and relics put on their best show. Then we bus down to Grant's Tomb and delight in climbing Riverside Tower, where they're shown the sights of the city. Down to cross Columbia and enter St. John the Divine and back on a bus for the Metropolitan, where I look around and meet Bill and we're all on our separate ways. Bill and I get down to the Village Art Show and look all around, and then I drop into Lenny's for supper and the three others join me. After they leave I start to cruise, but Bill calls to help him out with Conrad Pitten, who turns out to be young, cute and sexy, especially on slides, and he cries and crushes pear, and fondles Bill and discusses opera. Quite a guy. Bill and I have fallout over what I was expected to do and we're back to his place. Dave gets in town, too, and I buy cot from Bill for him and after I read Gibran. I get back here to relax and read and everyone comes in to let Dave and me talk and go out to supper at the Chinese place, and even though I'm starved, the meal is too much and we leave at 12, he off to the baths and me to bed, after recording what it sounds like to masturbate---not successful at all.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8. Work on Curtiss-Wright and get told by Irwin that I forget and am negligent about too many details, and get it sent out and that's that for work. Talk to Poley between 6 and 7:30 about my bitty part of his piping problem, and then back to curl up with an awful supper and call a couple people and Harvey and talk to Bill lengthily, and Chuck calls and comes over and we talk for two solid hours about places and Virginia Woolf and everything in general. Finally he leaves and I get to bed at 12:30.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9. Up to shower, which seems so necessary on the hot steamy days, and to work to plan Stan's job, getting into BOL1 and then meet Harvey at 12:45 and go to the Colony for lunch, paying 80¢ for bread and butter, 60¢ for coffee, $1.50 for strawberry tart, $4.25 for kebab a l'Agneau and rice, and $1.00 for consommé with green cheese, talk and leave enough tip so whole bit cost $10. Back to work at 2 and talk about that all day and home to disgust and settle down with "Les Amities Particulaires" and a dictionary from 6 to 10, gulping a broiled steak at 11 and getting to bed after having come four times in excitement over my drawings covering the figures in the figure drawing book. Very tired.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10. Get a shower and to work, feeling rather drab, and finish flow chart in rather good order, getting corrections from Poley. On impulse after work I go down to the Museum of Modern Art to talk to Sylvia and see "Set-Up," a unified, dreary film of amateur boxing. At 6:45 we're out and I grab a 5 bus and cruise up to the Thalia to get touched for $2.10 by a Jersey couple for bus back, and see "Days of Our Years," a French documentary of 1900-1950, and "Diary of a Country Priest," a sad and mystifying picture of death and faith. Wait for a bus from 11 to 1:30, and cruise back through park, seeing nothing, to get a subway back, getting in to yogurt and juice and to bed at 12:30, very hungry.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11. Get to work quite late (9:15) and fix up Sullivan and Cromwell and get to coding Poley's problem. Finish and get a good assembly at 5. Home to fix up apartment after the 15 had come up at noon to see Toby on "Tic Tac Dough." Talk to Bill and read New Yorker and Life until 7, when I cook corn and have a large hunk of cheese cake and tackle two weeks of this. We leave at 9 to Washington Square and walk down 4th St. to Avenue C and then down C and streets there to Fulton Fish Market, stopping at the Journal-American lobby for an omelet and Coke and then to view the new buildings and back, very tired, to flop into bed at 1 am.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12. The night is cool for the first time in ages and I wake at 11 and lounge till 11:30, getting up to come, record a bit on the recorder, dress, eat breakfast and get stuff sorted out and this written till 2. Work a bit, pleasantly, on stamps, and then---heaven knows what I did, since I'm writing all this on Oct. 2, which is three weeks later, and I'll just have to let it go at that. Probably settled down to read, or maybe wound up by calling Bill and going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the coffee hour. Probably worried about having to move, and go out to get paper at 12:30, and end up going down to the 316. Stand around looking at everyone, and finally leave in a huff at 3:30, having wasted my time at $1.50 for minimum. Out to see Nye walking down the street and strike up conversation and we get home. Toss and turn and we get to sleep at 5.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13. Up at 10 to Bill's knock and I very embarrassedly admit that I have someone here. We get up and tussle a bit and get dressed and eat breakfast and he leaves at 3. The rest of the day is shot---nothing much could have happened after that. Probably worked the double-acrostic and the crossword and ended at 9 for a motley supper and then to bed.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14. Get paper for no particular reason and see ad to see supt for apt. Get down there at 8:30 and talk to Mrs. Cannito and see Apt 304, 320 East 70th St. Like it and brush other tenants-to-be aside and run down to 61st to get money for lease, and then grab cab down 5th, taking twenty minutes to get from 60th to 34th, where everyone's running around about Khrushchev. Bus back up after giving out $190 and signing lease and set to work. Out and rush uptown, stopping on Park Avenue to see people pushed off to the side for a flying wedge of motorcyclemen heralding Khrushchev up Park, he waving mechanically out window at crowd. Back up to 70th and get keys and look at apartment and get back down to mine and wonder how on earth I'll move.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15. Tuesday passes and I work on Poley's problem and meet Mr. Ong. One of these nights, too, Sylvia had invited me to an opening at the Condon Riley and I called Bill to see it, and we went into hot rooms and drank champagne and laughed at people and then left and walked through park, singing baldly and holding hands along paths and standing on dark bridge, darker waters rushing by below, leaves silent on black trees and passersby giving us the eye in our togetherness.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15. Work was fun along here, too, too enjoyable to bother to write in here. Along here I went up again to see the apartment and tell the super that I wanted everything in apartment painted white. Get out and pass "Wild Strawberries," and walk in and see it. Out at 9 and back to sit and stare at apartment and actually get movers over moving everything out of apartment.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16. Figure I've finished Poley off by this time. Debate time after time whether I can swing things out my front window. One of these days I have a long talk with Mrs. McGeogh and get down to look at a lot of awful books of hers and listen to tales---all different tales---but strangely the same---about her son and husband and I manage to push most of them aside and take four, along with a wrought lamp which I cart up to move, and again end up wondering how to move everything.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17. After work it suddenly strikes me I have to get tickets for Larry's parents, and I pass the Museum of Modern Art and I enter and see "Great Adventure," about dogs and foxes and kids, with Sylvia. Out and buy tickets to "My Fair Lady," but find that Saturday tickets for almost any Broadway show are almost impossible to get.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18. Back to dress in tight tan pants and get to the 316, where I talk longly to Tom Sweitzer and when he says he must go, I leave and revisit the Annex and the Lodge and meet Bob Brown and get home at 4 am and fall asleep, to get up at 12.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19. Do nothing all day, as I recall, I probably read and wrote letters. Get out again to the 316 and talk to Ben and Laird and try to avoid them and a number of other unpleasant personages, and talk to Dale, who's impressed by IBM and we chatter for awhile until I find he has to get back with his roommate and I bid goodbye.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20. Up late the next day and Bill insists I get to Metropolitan for coffee and as luck would have it I get started on a dialogue type story and get involved when suddenly it's 4 and I dash off in old blue suit to the Museum. Talk to Bill and he likes story a bit, and we go to park and talk, I holding bag and then he leaves and I spot Red by fountain and follow him into Ramble, sitting and watching squirrels and nuts, and then talk to Rick and get back home at 7. Turn TV on first time in ages to watch "The Champion," and leave it on for nothing to watch "Rebecca" with Joan Fontaine and Lawrence Olivier, a good movie. To bed at 2.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21. Up late and scurry to work tired. Work pleasantly and then write letters and one of these evenings watch "Last Days of Pompeii," and get to bed early to try and catch up on sleep. Call movers and he puts me off until the next day and the next day again and I get groceries and fear I've missed him, etc.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22. Sullivan and Cromwell gets productive again, and only by a hair's breadth do I escape getting sent up to Boston again. After work I again go up to apartment, to find everything's painted, and that new furniture has been moved in, just waiting for me. Wander back and since I have no food in 61st St, I stop at drug store for an omelet and pick up "Around the World with Auntie Mame," and get engrossed in reading it at 9 and finish at about 11:30 and go to bed---too many nights are finished that way.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23. Next day I work and find that I'll have to finish what Sherm couldn't finish, and Irwin gets me started on a job for ARMA which he wants me to plan, supervise, etc. He builds me up but good, and I don't mind it at all. Home to do nothing in particular, one of these nights getting very engrossed in the physique books and KY and coming five or six times and effectively soring up my cock so that I can't touch it. To work and make reservations for Boston and find that machine's down and I must call them. Write letters and dress for Tim's dinner, which I get to at 7. We talk for an hour and I call Brian and he says machine is up, so I say goodbye, take rain check on supper, and hop off in a cab to 635, where I find they haven't done the card to tape. Back in cab and back to Tim's. He's surprised to see me and I call Harriet and Brian and say it's all off. We eat steak supper on pleasant patio and then Gino and I cab off to Thalia for last half of "Eternal Return," Cocteau wierdie, and "The Awakening" with Anna Magnani as a prideful nun. Cab back to 57th and I get to sleep at 1:30.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24. Get up at 5 to dress and get to work at 5:30 as I have to run production on Sullivan and Cromwell until 8 and then put tapes in place and get to 660 to send things off and quit at 11:30, eating breakfast and lunch out, and get back to apartment to sleep. Call mover and he says no, and recommends me to others and finally at 3 pm I get two men up who say they'll move me. The next three hours a horror of lugging things down and up stairs and tossing things into boxes and suitcases and getting drapes and shutters and rods off walls and lights out of sockets and dishes and clothes and rugs and everything.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25. Look in amazement at incredible stuffed mess at apartment and drop everything and call Bill and meet him at 9 and get a hot dog and an orange drink and see "It Happened in the Park" and "The Facts of Love," both fairly good. I ask him over, but no, and get bus to dress quickly at 11:30 and hail a cab for work at 12. From 12 until 4:30 is comedy of errors as card to tape is put on output, I wreck tapes, and machine doesn't work properly for a hilarious morning.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26. I ALSO get tapes catalogued. Leave work to be done and leave at 4:30 and sleep till 9:30, taking an hour to get down to my bed. Find they haven't done what I told them and eat breakfast and work till 2 and go to dinner at Schrafft's and work on till 4:30. Back to eat not at all and Bill comes over at 6:30 and we talk and laugh at awful mess. Leave at 8 and I take off for the last showing of "I am a Camera" for which I stand, after having had a cheeseburger and milkshake for supper, and "Pot Bouille," which I walk out on, as I'm falling asleep. Subway back and buy paper and flop into bed.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27. Up at 12 and eat a good breakfast and work both the crossword and the double-acrostic, and this time without any help from a dictionary or the EB. This takes all afternoon and I take off for "Carmen" and "Il Trovatore" at Thalia. Back and get to bed fairly early, catching up on all the sleep lost during the awful hectic process of moving.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28. Walk the fifteen minutes to work and find that it's a pleasant walk, indeed. Hear no more from Sullivan and Cromwell, and since I told Mr. Ong off on Thursday, I hear no more from him. Poley pops up with a mistake and I stay late trying to figure a way of doing it, and leave at 7 for Mrs. McGeogh, who bends my ear until 10, but I finally get what I went to see her for: a storage place for Tom's weights. I walk back home and devour a half can of grapefruit and some milk to still my hunger pangs. And get to bed after talking with Bill and Mr. Pook during day to get my $200 moving fee quickly.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29. I'm poverty ridden, and when the check comes in the morning, I dash off to Ed Greene to pay off the $150 advance which had been on the books for over a month, and about which I was berated. Now with money in my pocket I eat a hearty lunch, of a cheeseburger and a hot fudge sundae, and plunge into ARMA, which gets quite interesting, between drawing flow charts, and talking to Irwin and Mozelle. Eat supper here for the first time, grilling sausages within an inch of their lives, and fix up a bit around here and bus (a pleasant bus ride, too) to "School for Husbands," and "Club de Femmes," surprisingly Lesbian. Back late to get to bed.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30. Up at 7:30, but decide to wait for telephone man and get up at 10 and fix place up a bit and he comes to connect number and I get to work, after breakfast, at 11 am. Work for a bit and then at 1 four of us go uptown to 73rd and 71st for a Bohemian lunch, and get all riled up just talking to each other. We talk an hour and a half, and I get back to work some more, not getting too awfully much done. Back to work some more on apartment, and put rugs down and get to bed at a fairly reasonable hour.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1. Get a letter from Frank, who announced he'll be over for the weekend, and others which I read. Work rolls merrily along, and making up for the days when I hadn't eaten any lunch at all to speed up getting work out, we go to the Boulevard de Paris and take just under an hour to eat in pleasant, humor-filled tables. Get Mozelle started in her work, and I get going on getting the subroutines working. Back to move things around a bit more, and end up by making a floor plan and furniture layout of my apartment, which I measure high and low. Set up a fairly decent plan, eat supper, and get to bed at 12.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2. Up very early, not eating breakfast, and get clothes and rugs out to the laundry, and punch in ten minutes early and THEN go out for breakfast. Tests run well during the day, when reading in the card decks doesn't put the machine down, and end the week fairly successfully. Buy rug base and pants at Bloomingdales and get home to fix place up and eat supper, which is interrupted by Frank and Tom, who have my supper themselves, and we all shower and I write last of this till 11, when we take off for West Side and at 12 we get off to the Lion, the Old Colony, Lenny's, the New Colony, many closed places, and the empty Regent's Row and Barrister, the Big Dollar, the hideously crowded (with Ric and Marc, though) Tic Toc and we end up at the Wishbone, where Jesse teaches me the Flamenco and we get to bed at 4:20.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3. Wake up at 11:20, a rather decent sleep, and lounge till 1 pm, rather indecent. I get up and completely finish this TO DATE at 2 pm, and they're STILL in bed. Get them up finally and get to 35 E. 61st for last time and get paint and dishes and trunk and sign over keys. Then we see the Guggenheim and the UN and drive up Harlem Parkway through Harlem and across bridge and back across Harlem Bridge and down all of Riverside Drive to South Ferry and drive around Wall Street and then up Roosevelt Parkway to 60th, and then we decide to go down to Jade Palace for food and back up here to dress for party. Get delayed showering and waiting for people and fixing tire, and finally get there, in Queens, after getting lost, at 11 pm. Party is wild and I talk with Millicent and Clara and everyone, but demand, rather unpleasantly, that we leave at 12:30, moan back to Manhattan and pay $1.50 to get into 316. Tom gets picked up by old crone and I meet Marc and talk and get lost in Tic Toc and meet Al and he asks and I say no, but he asks again and I say OK. We leave at 3 and get to his place in Village in Impala convertible, after having snack at Pam Pam. Go at it heavy and get to sleep.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4. Wake up to find someone's parents coming in, so we leave at noon for breakfast of pancakes and he drives me here and comes up and we talk about cocktail party at 5. He leaves and I shower and change and dress and at 5 I'm out, waving goodbye to Frank and Tom, to Fred's for beer and a great gab fest, in which I wish I could take a bigger part, and Fred hypnotizes Al, who asks about me, and we're out at 8 to Cafe Brittany, where we drink and I have chops and we camp it up over Tony Perkins across the way. At 10 Al drives us to the Club, Lenny's and we have drinks and talk and I get in at 12 and fall fast asleep.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5. Up to work, giving reports to Irwin and having much fun in general, doing my work, talking with Harriet, talking with Irwin and getting things done for myself and for Mozelle. Call Nye and don't get him till 8 and we talk and decide to see a movie together, and at 8:15 I decide to take off, sans supper, and see "La Parisienne" and "Sweet Smell of Success," last making up for first, and eat popcorn and get out at 1 and subway up home, flopping into bed with a banana to ease my hunger.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6. Tuesday was another fun day at work, coding and debugging ARMA, putting all time in on one job for first time in ages. Get home to find rug base there and take doors off kitchen and bathroom and studs off door, and finish all this in time to grab a bus for the Thalia, having snack in store to hit hunger, and see "Dybbuk," ghostly thing about lost souls, and part of "Green Fields," with mostly Jewish jokes, which I walk out on. Back in time to catch "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," after which I can't figure why I'm so tired at 1:30.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7. Up and get to work in time, the first cool day in ages making no shower a pleasure. Work through day and back to fix supper and start watching TV and watch through Ford Showcase with Perry Como and Roz Russell---how's that for getting confused, and more TV and finally "Lost Horizons" about Shangri-La, comes on, and again I'm caught until 1:30, scouring all the paint off the tub with a razor blade in the intermissions.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8. Thursday I work OK and call Nye and say I'll meet him after I see the show, since he can't go. After I hang up it's 6 pm, so I grab a cab to the Thalia to see the end of "Most Dangerous Sin" [now listed as "Crime and Punishment"] and all of "Bitter Rice." I get out and catch subway down to the Village and dash down to Nedick's for a dog and a drink and lope to the Waverly for the last and first spectacular scenes of "Citizen Kane," and all of "Stagedoor," which, to my chagrin, I'd seen before. Out at 10:30 and call Nye, to hear that his phone's out of order. Walk in rain to subway station and hear they're working on Nye's phone, but when I get to Grand Central I find they've disconnected it. Get here to find I have his address, so I put on raincoat and walk down there, to find his name isn't anywhere around. Eat a hamburger in Riker's and go down to a crowded 316 for a drink and ogle the crowd, but get sick of the petty clannishness of the pretty people and get home and to bed at 2.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9. Friday I work and afterwards get downtown for tickets to "Cheri," and try to call Nye, but he just can't be reached. Friday night I mope about list of things to do, make phone calls, and watch TV until 11, when I go to bed and sleep till 9.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10. Take all my clothes out to cleaners and launders and washers and get back for breakfast and a tiny bit of work around here before I dash out for my clean suit and shower and grab a cab to the Museum of Modern Art, to meet Mr. and Mrs. Wagman and Sylvia and look at exhibits and gasp over "Potemkin." Walk over to Nye's at 5 and find where he lives and put note in door. No sooner do I get to my place when he calls. I take shower and get all slicked up and go to his place at 6:45 and we talk for a bit and get to Original Joe's for a quick supper, and a slow cab to the theater, getting off and paying him at 49th, and dodging through crowd to 45th, getting into our box A just in time for "Cheri," for a so-so Buchholtz and a fantastically ageing Kim Stanley. Pleasant evening and we stand fifteen minutes for a cab to his place. I take a sip of sherry and we start necking and rolling around and get quite excited and the bed comes out and the clothes come off and an exciting session ensues, ending reluctantly at 3.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11. Up at noon and roll around much the same way, ending rather weary. Back home at 1 and eat lunch and watch the "Spiral Staircase" and then shower and dress and down to subway down to 18th St at 6 to meet Al and go to a campy party with mothers and children and aunts from Gloversville and leave at 7 after being rather ogled and offered a choice of materials. Grab subway up to Thalia and see "Russian Ballerina" and "Gilbert and Sullivan" and enjoy music till 11 and then get home to get to bed at 1.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 12. Work all day Monday, as usual, and talk to Al and Nye and everyone, and get checks from Riker's from Bill, and end up the evening in a very typical way by going off to Thalia to see "Proud and Beautiful" and "Too Bad She's Bad," a rather cute double, and back home at 11:30 to make supper of sandwiches and soup while watching TV, nothing in particular, except possibly wrestling, which is quite funny.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13. Tuesday passes busily, and I sniffle a bit, which has me only slightly worried. Home at 6 and paint door and in no time it's 7:30 and I walk through interesting and sexy territory to get up to the YMHA at 92nd and Lexington to listen to a 45-minute lecture to a crowded hall waiting for a badly chopped "Potemkin" and a good "Mother." Talk with Mozelle and get good and soaked waiting for a bus afterward. Crowd could be interesting, too. Show leaves out at 11:45, and I get home at 12:15 to snack and get to bed.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14. At work I'm flabbergasted the next day to find that Jeannie has no left hand, and the day is busy clearing up other things, and get to final stages of coding ARMA. Back to call Bill and catch bus down to the Coronet to see "The Great God Brown," by O'Neil, and we both camp it up at the intermission, and everyone stares at us agreeably. Talk after and then we both take off, and I catch bus back home and to bed at a fairly decent hour, for the first time in ages.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15. Pack junk in closet away the next day, and feel bad all around as the cold catches up with me. I threaten not to come in the next day, but go to Bloomingdales to look at screen and come back to mess around and watch "Medea" with Judith Anderson, in quite an excellent performance. Wash dishes and get to work on oven, scrubbing away with Comet and finally getting to encrusted burners, finishing with things fairly nice at 12, and I flop quite exhausted into bed, piling on blankets in half-hearted hopes of sweating out cold.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16. Next morning up to an awareness that the days are getting shorter and the mornings darker. Dash out to get shirts to wear to work and then get there just in time to sniffle way through day. Toward end I feel awful and even find myself ignoring Irwin's request to come into his office for another ghastly lecture about debugging. Day ends in a blue funk, and I get out of work to creep downtown to meet Tom 1/2 hour late at NYU. Wander through building, climbing on roofs and patios and nosing into club and meeting rooms, and getting into dances and auditoriums and games and having a ball. Get down to the cafeteria to a shoddy supper and then up to the "Magician," looking around in the Japanese shop both before and after the show, which is pretty good. We wander around Village till 12 and, feeling he wants to stay in Manhattan, I ask him over. We go to sleep separately and he's surprised and I finally go to him and try unsuccessfully to make love as I can't kiss, and won't let him brown, and it ends with him jerking me and I can't do him so he leaves at 2. I fall asleep.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17. Get up at 11 to breakfast and defrost and scrub refrigerator until 3:30, and then out to buy art paper and glue and radio tubes and groceries and then go up First Avenue to get watch fixed, a haircut and look into curious shops. Eat supper at 6 and get started on my colored door screen and that goes on and on and finally I finish and experiment with lighting and closing doors and coming and looking at Physique books and finally at 3 am I take a hot shower and close a long hard day.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18. Get awakened at 9:30 by Mrs. Canito hollering about shutters, and I creep back to bed and get up at 2. Eat lunch and watch "Cass Timberlane" and moan about my life and listen to radio and take about an hour to paint-remove and wash and clean one dresser drawer to see how it looks. Then finish a week of this up to date at 6:30 and get involved in watching TV and get to bed at 1:30 am.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 19. Get up at 7:30 and convince myself that I can't possibly go to work, so I don't, and call in at 9 to say so. Sleep again until 2:30 and get up to mope. Start cleaning at 5 and eat my first meal at 10, and get to sleep early.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20. Up to work and work on many jobs, talking and making an extrovert of myself. Home to fiddle with junk again, and off to YMHA to see "End of St. Petersburg" (big buildup and then nothing much) and "Ghost that Never Returns" good film of love and jail life and a release for one day with a cretin jail-keeper, a hair-breadth escape from shooting, dousing in jail and such. Home and to bed.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21. Work and get out and measure for suit and to "Nun's Story," where I lose my tie. Out and home at 8 and grab cab to show to see "Doctor at Sea" and "Doctor in the House" (for second time) and home after stopping in Hamburg House for doll and Gourmet burger with luscious mushrooms and coffee and to bed, TIRED.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22. Work again and back to incredibly messy apartment. Roaches keep crawling under door, and I shove dressers and bookcases and books around and newspapers and all are scattered all over place. Tonight I made out shopping list and shopped myself blue in the face, spending much money and seeing many people. TV and to bed. Walk down to House of Hamburg for wineburger and hot chocolate, good.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23. At work I find I go to 709 school, but job is getting through nicely, even though I mess up and Irwin says I'm "sloppy." Get wholly to work on drawers and work until 10:30 and walk over to talk to Balls and find they don't want tickets, and I walk back and to bed at 12. Watch "Cover Girl."

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24. Up at 10 and come a couple times and finally get down to theater and sell tickets and walk down to Macy's to buy paint remover and walk off without it and go back down to buy another $2.74 combo and get back to use most of it. Work hard until 10 and eat supper and call Al, to tell him no party, and then take off to 947 First Avenue and Jack's party and end when police come. I get blueburger and home to bed.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25. Up at 10:30 and get out to Cinema 16 and the Argentinean film "End of Innocence" and "Blue Jeans." Back to paint and eat and watch "Great John L" and the New York Philharmonic and Dinah Shore Show and Loretta Young Show and "Key Largo" and "Story of Louis Pasteur." To bed at 3 am. Feel LOW as hell, about writing this anyway, It seems there's so much ELSE to do.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 26. First day of 709-7090 class with Helga Sharesian, a good teacher. Back to 660 at 4:30 and work till 6:30 on ARMA. Call Bill to borrow money and go up there to get $15 and get into a hectic session, good at start but bad at finish as he has to jerk like crazy to get me off, and I smell, too. Leave after eggs and juice and catch bus home in time for Maxwell Anderson's "Winterset," quite a play, and Don Murray's quite an actor. Ready for bed and Mom calls and we talk about her trip here and I get to bed at 11:30 and have hard time getting to sleep, toss and turn and get up at 1:15 to come and fall back into bed and eventually sleep.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27. Up tired and doze off, almost, during class and back to work overtime till 7:10. Grab a cab to my place, change clothes quickly and walk up to YMHA, grabbing a hot dog and orange at Nedicks for supper. Re-see "The Old and the New (or the Country Line)" and "Earth," not as good as the first. Walk down to House of Hamburg for a cheddarburger, not so hot and a hot chocolate. Home and bed at 12:30.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28. Last cay of class goes well as 709 astounds with debugging routines. Back to check the first part of mine and get talking with Ted and eventually sign out at 8 pm. Walk home and get supper ready and watch an unsatisfactory "Escapade" with Alastair Sim and then "Marked Woman" with a young Bette Davis and Bogart. This lasts till 12 and I pick my way through rubble to bed, after washing socks.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29. Take laundry out finally and get to full day's work on ARMA, getting a lot done, and getting ready to finish up. No money at all, hardly, and walk home to buy groceries and get laundry with all but 90¢. Watch "Godzilla" while eating supper, and at 7:20 call NYU to see how much movie is. Finally find it's only 50¢ at 7:50, and grab bus and run across town to 27 Waverly for "Day of Wrath," a beautiful film by Dreyer about witches. Check movies available and find I've seen all the good ones. Subway back and get to bed fairly early for a change.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30. Work and finally set deck up for a final compilation, just before I leave. Home to find blinds and awful ash tray waiting for me. Put one blind together yesterday, and eat supper now while I watch a fascinating star-studded "Moon and Sixpence." Get paint out and do my door and bookcases and another swipe on my "window," listening to fading radio. At 12 pm I fix all sorts of things up and get to bed tired at 1 am.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31. Up at 11 am after good sleep to see an exercise madman on a 1/2 hour show, and then get mail and have breakfast at 12:30. Get busy on one window and two hours later watch "Man from Planet X" and eat lunch, and by that time it's raining and dark, so the windows are through. Work on bamboo blind through "Glass Tomb," and then watch Dean Stockwell act like a young James Dean and put blinds up and get scrubbing done on chests while watching "Tom, Dick and Harry" with Ginger Rogers and a CUTE Burgess Meredith, and eat supper just before "The Third Man," good show, and get to bed at 1 am, after talking awhile with Bill.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1. Up at 10 and lounge till 12 when I get up and come all over the place. Radio on and tackle second window, taking time out to watch an excellent "David Copperfield," and getting done with window just before dark at 5. Get lunch and read New Yorker and then get to painting again for almost the last time and at 8 stop for "Martin Luther," a good show for TV and at 10 take paint remover to chests and bathroom floor and start sanding last bit of varnish off when Bill calls at 11. Talk till 11:30 and then decide to write this, finishing at 12:15. And then to bed.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2. All this following written on November 18. Just to show how very little I've been doing, though it's been pleasant---doing JUST what I want to do. From work I go to Bill's for supper, then to Columbia for "Grand Hotel" and home to watch "The Mikado" and "Here Comes Mr. Jordan," terrific.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3. Just to break every single solitary standing record, let's note that all THIS following is written on November 29. Things have really been rough---which means that they've been quite pleasant and I've been so quietly harried that I just haven't written.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4. Tuesday I bought tickets for Mom's vacation and walked to the Sheraton Atlantic for an Akron U alumni party. Meet old faces and leave after chicken to grab cab for YMHA for "Strike"---tremendously tremendous. Then late up for "Mrs. Miniver" until 3 on Wednesday AM.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5. Next day I get to bed at 10 pm, which would make any day of mine stand out in a crowd. All this time I'm working, mainly on ARMA, which has a deadline at month's end. After work, Tom Schweitzer calls and we take off at 8 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a preview of a collection of Imperial Japanese robes. We watch crowd till 10 and then I'm home, probably to watch TV, and to bed.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7. Some weekend about now I get busy with the rugs and scrubbing the floors and finally get everything down. Put things in one way and get bed covered up and books into bookcases and things in good shape. It's remarkable how long such simple undertakings take.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8. Course I watch TV between this and look at Science Fiction and THE Play of the Week, and then on Sundays have a habit of not eating at all (and feeling hungry) but working the puzzle for hours on end and coming every hour or so. To bed late. Sunday I took off uptown to YMHA to laugh-filled child-audience for "Nanook of the North."

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9. Today I shop until 7 and get haircut and then call Bill and we take off to Great Shanghai for supper until 10 and then I take bus here and get to bed.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10. After work, which is grueling because I'm keeping Mozelle busy, too, and keeping Irwin happy. Off to Cinema 16 to see an awful "Pull My Daisy" by Kerouac and a masterful "Shadows" by Cassavetes. Perfect contrast of bad and good in new movie making.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11. After work take great pains and dress neatly and catch a cab down to the Lunt-Fontanne Theater for a preview of "Sound of Music," a delightful song hit play with kids harping away on beautiful melodies. Wait at stage door for a bit and catch cab home at 12.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12. Next day I talk about "Sound of Music," debug ARMA, and probably get started on the University of Michigan job with Jack Miller and Barbara Cope. Walk quickly home from work and dress in my new suit and grab cab to Delmonico's for a festive, luxurious dinner and speeches and an after-dinner film and dance with Mozelle, and then home.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13. Work on something forgotten now (this written on December 10) and home to do something forgotten. One of these nights Bill came over and practically refused to stay the night as we tussled about and tickled and wrestled and I didn't get up at all and we hardly kissed. Things have gotten to a pretty pass with us.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14. Many of these Saturdays I covered the neighborhood shopping, spending money lavishly on books at Bloomingdales, drinks at same, glasses, lamp fixtures and shades, towels, clothes, shoes, and scads and scads of stuff that go into drawers and become forgotten as bought objects, but remembered whenever I wanted something special.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15. Many of these nights spent in mooning over pictures, and somewhere along here I made a two hour's work of burning every bit of pornography I ever owned and putting all the safe stuff into bags and carting it out to a trash box on my way to one or another destination.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16. Many of the nights spent watching TV, though on this in particular I bought a rebuilt Electrolux for $20 and spent two hours filling its bag with one fell swoop through my apartment with its full corners and its deep pile rugs. Felt great after it was done, but still too happy, paradoxically too ill at ease.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17. Days spent possibly in large part joking with Mozelle. Along in here I opened a checking account at the Morgan Guarantee Trust bank and enjoyed the ease of money by mail for the first time since the army. All during this time my mail is almost at a standstill, being composed mainly of notes scribbled during intermissions in the "Late Late Show."

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18. Tonight in particular being an invisible Claude Rains as "The Invisible Man" while I wrote to Mom about her coming trip, thanked Larry for a truly hideous ashtray he sent me out of thanks by his parents. And to bed at 3, feeling not bad at all.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19. Days spent mostly in getting things ready for Mom's visit, including the usual search of launderers and dry cleaners and washers. Probably here I laid the rug base and taped the edges of Julian's green hand-me-down. One night along here I tried the story about the tree, but it didn't go very well, probably because I tried writing it at 1:30 am.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20. In a lazy frenzy to get things done I make elaborate trips to Woolworth's to get one item and end up by buying odds and ends that I feel I need---just so I can have everything I want (except affection) right where I can get it by reaching out in my apartment, which has become increasingly comfortable.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21. Take off in the early morning down to 4th Street looking for magazines and ending up buying six Verne books for Larry (if he'll have them) and then meeting Bill and bussing up to 42nd St. for Scientific Americans for Don O'Schea. Find none but surprisingly expensive back copies. Home to sort treasures and try to get together with Nye, but to no avail. He says he's been out of town, and when I call he's working, or with his boss, or brother, or has a date with a girl. In a fury, I traipse off, forgetting glasses, to buy a first row second balcony center seat to the Polish Folk Opera "Slask`" and spend ten minutes in Wishbone before I go home to a lonely bed.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24. Home quickly and get to work on my rugs with my sweeper, as the airport reports the 9 pm plane delayed to 10:10. Finally I get the drapes up and the curtains down and everything set and grab a cab off to La Guardia airport, where the plane is half an hour later, giving me a chance to eat. Mom gets in at 11, and we get together here and talk and she liked the apartment.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25. I'm up at 8 for shower and tell Mom how to get to my office by cab. She comes in at 10:30 and I compile with a bug in front of her and she's impressed by 704 and my office, and then we get to cafeteria for good dinner and I walk her to Tiffany's and she takes off for "Redhead" while I work. I work overtime until 7 and she cooks own supper and I get home to freshen up and we take bus to "My Fair Lady," quite a show, after all four years of its run. Out to get groceries and I eat supper and watch "Sergeant York" and get to bed late.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26. We get up for breakfast and talk and get out at noon for the Guggenheim, where Mom is dizzied and I am dizzied by snaky spirals. She buys booklet and we catch bus down to RCA, where we have turkey dinner in the Automat and then ride to the top of Rockefeller Center to gape down over the city. Down to the depths for the show "The Miracle" and completely pooped, catch a cab back here for the shocking discovery that she's lost her glasses. I call cops, Automat and RCA, and go to bed after seeing "How Green Was My Valley."

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27. Up and I'm to work. Try to find bug and Mom says she's off to RCA to get found glasses. I say I meet her at noon, but can't so I grab a cab and then take another to put her in Bloomingdales and me back to work until 2. Arrange to meet in B's, but we miss after waiting an hour and I grab hamburger and get home to find Mom laughing there. Supper at the Village Barn of great sole and potatoes and try to get in plays, to no avail. Into Bizarre for jazz and pastry and smut and smoke and exotic drinks. After I "take care of" the waiter, we grab Fifth Avenue bus up to 72nd, transfer across, and get home late and tired.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28. Up late and I drag her off to the Modern, getting tickets for "Ivan the Terrible, Part 1," and we eat in Museum restaurant and see pictures and show, and I'm back home and we eat steak and then I'm back down to Murray Hill for "Ivan the Terrible, Part 2."

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29. We get up at 10 am and get to 11 mass and out to pack and we leave at 1 and have a snack and she takes off on her Viscount into the wintery west blasts. I grab cab home and see "Elizabeth and Essex," and a couple other shows, and relax in general, grabbing a bit of supper, and seeing "It Happened One Night" after talking to Bill for about an hour. To bed relieved that Mom had a good time.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30. Work hard and convince Mozelle she should see "Strike" and call Sylvia and invite her along. She leaves partway through and Mozelle and I gasp at film! We leave and I grab cab up to "Crucible" and "Spice of Life" at Thalia and get to Bill's at 10:30 to pick up tape recorder. We talk and have sundae and I get home at 12:30, and life has again begun on a routine.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1. Work goes well, Cathy starts working on U. of Mich and we have fun going over it all, and I get feeling of how immense a job it is. Home to clean up remains of Mom's visit, and just about get done when it's time that I grab subway down to C16, for a rather dull Polish film about "Eroica," the hero-film, and a couple cute shorts. Back to eat supper and watch unknown TV, and get to bed much too late.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2. Al Wallach comes in on the problem about now, and now I have time to oversee, not to mention my sitting in on interviews, to add another duty. Call Bill about tickets and watch "Scarlet Pimpernel" and grab Second Avenue bus at 7 down to Jade Mountain and Bill at 7:30 for supper and at 8:30 for a loud, raucous, dizzily costumed production of "Lysistrata." We laugh back and I do myself and fall asleep.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3. After work I get into Bloomingdales and hunt for Rita's gift and buy shockingly expensive high black shoes and tie pins (silver, not high black) and finish getting measured for glasses in time to get bus down to NYU for "Metropolis" by Fritz Lang, a beautifully filmed, though thoroughly confusing film of the masses of the future. Mozelle and I laughed through it, and get out at 10:30, and I probably get to sleep early for the first time in ages, in preparation for Laird's arrival in the next PM.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4. Most of time now given over to U of Mich---let Don McInnes worry about ARMA, I think it's OK. Home to sweep place up and eat supper and receive Laird at 7, talk till 8 and watch "Oliver Twist" while he goes down to pick up Niall. They decide to stay and we talk till 11 and then out to the Bizarre, where we have a Schizophrenic Hangup, a Creeping Cannibal and a Mish Mash. We listen to music and cruise and sundae slurp and wander around empty Village and subway back at 3 after an awful farce with the subways.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5. They're off at 11 to buy tickets and I read and loaf and tape record until they call and say to meet them for Carnegie Hall. I get there---all-Vivaldi concert from 5:30 to 7, and then we eat in a cafeteria and get into the Upstairs at the Downstairs for "Pieces of 8" between 9 and 10. Out and soused from two doubles and I'm off to the 316 to stand and mope and talk to absolutely no one and wander in at 2, being rude to Laird, and mentally block myself to sleep.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6. Up at 10:30 and I dress for C16 and see a lovely "Autre Monde" of crystals, a cute "Fable for Friendship" and an awesome, TOO lovely-lonely "Last Day of Summer," which just TEARS me apart. I pass them on walk and watch Paul Sartre's "Crime of Passion" on The Play of the Week, and they're back and we have a large supper of sausage, spuds, beans and dessert and then down to "Tonight We Improvise" with a heckler sitting next to us. Back late.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 7. I wake early for work and in haste forget my collar stud, which makes an embarrassing day. Arrange with Mozelle (this is getting to be a habit) and go down to Living Theater to cheat way to all four showings of "Images in the Snow," "Mechanics of Love," "Geography of the Body," and a Noguchi short AND "Narcissus," quite gay. Met Chuck, too.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8. Spend most of AM asking Barbara questions and getting things straightened out. Then talk to Bill and do a bit of shopping until 6:30. Read papers and Cue and eat supper while watching Play of the Week "Simply Heavenly" until 10, when I settle down to letters and write Joan and Larry and Mom and Don and Jerry and set things to rights around here. By then I've washed socks, too, and looked through Bill's EB brochure and it's 1:30 and I start the single day-fill-this-out business and get to bed.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9. Up at 8:10, mysteriously, and breakfast and get to work 20 minutes late. Work on U of Mich almost all day and get quite a bit done. Out at 5:20 after trying to get a formula and get typewriter ribbon and drop in to Beekman to see a good "The Cousins" and out at 8. Home to call Nye and talk for a half hour and eat while reading Modify and Load and Debugging, when Chuck calls and talks for one hour to 9:30. Finish and write Laird and come and to bed at 11:30.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10. Work is entering its final stages and I'm just about ready for Poughkeepsie. Sit in on my last interview and leave at 5:15 for grocery getting and call Nye, as he said I should, but get no answer at all. Watch a fun TV evening during supper, and drag myself away at 9:30 to record "Appassionata" and play it back and wash dishes and decide to go to bed, after reading Capote, when this grabs me and I finish it UP TO DATE for the first time in TWO MONTHS, at the awful hour of 1 am. But it was worth it (even though you can't read it).

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11. Up and oversleep till 8:15 and get to work and eat breakfast with Mozelle at 9:30. Told to stop work on ARMA, and U of Mich gets slated for either Poughkeepsie or Time-Life Building. Out at 5 and get to Bloomingdales for glasses and pick up groceries. Try to get both Chuck and Nye, whom I finally end up saying I'll let him call me. Finish Columbia Teachers exam and check it, watch TV for an hour and then finish "Five Weeks in a Balloon," sort of worthless, by Verne. Bed at 1 am, exhausted.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12. Up at 11 and down to get "American Heritage" subscription from Dave for Xmas. Breakfast at 12:30 and I read "The Underground City" by Verne until 1:30. Take paint off bathroom floor and hammer down the door to make it shut properly, then, leaving a mess, watch Alec Guinness in "Kind Hearts and Coronets," during which I eat lunch from 4:30-6. Then read Verne's "Dr. Ox's Experiment" and lay for an hour listening to tape. Start a letter to Bernie at 10:30 and stop at 11 to watch Tallulah in "Lifeboat." Out at 1 for Times and read it through, seeing ad for 1½ room apartment on E. 61st St. for $65. Walk down to see it, find it belongs to Chillay, and call him to find it rented. Despite my not having supper, I read part of New Yorker and give up the ghost at 3:30 am, after washing face and teeth for first time in two whole days.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13. Up at 12:30, call Bill for half hour and Chuck for about the same, and eat at 2, scrambled eggs. Then get working on letters, and actually finish! Get busy during "Wizard of Oz" and catch up on movies, plays, and acquaintances---many movies (many TV), few plays and too darn few new "friends." Do a bit of recording and soak stamps and eat supper to 6 to other TV shows. At 11:30 go to bed to recorded songs and I play everything back and finally get to sleep at 1:15.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 14. Up to shower and get a quick breakfast and get to work just on time. Spend much of the day talking to Mozelle about religion and changing ARMA around. Back to sweep place up in preparation for Chuck. At 7 start on newspaper and at 8 eat supper and start watching "World of Scholom Aliechem" on POTW and Chuck comes at 8:30 and watches TV and takes test, which we correct and we talk of poetry and books and intelligence and art and the apartment and he gives encouragement for my glasses and my decorative scheme and finally leaves at 1:15, and I quickly hop into bed.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15. Up to a second shower and get to work late. Try (not really) to get to Poughkeepsie, but the lords are unwilling. Have my first interview, and it looks (as far as I can tell) like Mr. Vassalotti may be in. Home via 45th St. for extremely cheap tapes and then buy Grandma candy and Dave comical books: "Dear Dead Days," "Playboy Annual," and "More Max." Home at 8 to theme music for "Scholom Aliechem," and supper and get busy recording "The Bills," "The Raven," Gilbert and Sullivan, coming and other things. To bed fairly early at 12:15.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16. Up to record and fiddle until it's too late for much breakfast, so I'm late to work. Get to grocery store and stock up, and get toaster from Mom and perfectly awful gift belt from Rita for Christmas. Record the Bolero and Nutcracker and try to get to bed at 11:30, but I can't sleep, so I jerk off with KY and the Bolero. Fall asleep finally.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17. Up feeling still sleepy and extremely tired since I only had half dish of strawberries and cream for supper, which is topped by breakfast, two pieces of wheat toast and butter in my new toaster. Dash to work (late again) and enamored of my Cornell passerby. Spend day coding and questioning and find I don't go to Poughkeepsie at all. Spend last hour figuring I should get Rita a camera and Mom perfume, which I finally do, along with Greg and Gary THEIR gifts and lovely 25¢ cards (25) and stamps. Home at 7:45 to read New Yorker for movies and grab cab to get to Waverly at 8 for "Love in the Afternoon" and "Me and the Colonel," until 12:20. See that Lenny's is still closed, suffer the cold of the starved, and subway home, looking all the way. To bed at 2.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18. Groggy and glad it's Friday. I joke like crazy all day at work and leave relievedly at 5 sharp to get subway to Waverly to "The Roof" and "Lady Chatterley's Lover," out at 9 and subway back here at 9:30, to write many cards, eat a decent supper, paint a bit, read a bit, wash dishes, record a bit, write this a bit, for an all around pleasant evening. To bed at 2 am.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19. Wake at 10 and lay until 12. Up to take books off shelves and eat lovely breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast. Listen to WNEW and record music and paint bit of bookcases and shelf and record from radio onto tape. Fix kitchen doors to close and listen to radio and record some more and at 5:30 I eat lunch, while reading New Yorker. Start on math in EB and go until I start on rest of Christmas cards, sending out 48 of them and bills and write letter to Mom. Mail cards at 11:30 and buy paper and back for steak at 12:30. Read paper and work double-acrostic and put last coat of paint on everything and even write this, and go to bed, after picking a ton of stuff from my nose, at 3 am. Later and later.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20. Up at 10:30 and lounge till 12, when I get up and have another gorgeous breakfast of toast, eggs and bacon. Get through and put books in their proper place, which takes quite a while. Work on top cabinet and then work for one hour on kitchen cabinet, finally getting through at 5:30. Eat lunch in awful mess, and then start to clean up the mess, fixing everything up properly and finally at 9:30 I take sweeper to the floor and sort out souvenirs and get all the last things where they belong. Listen to radio and record and play back tapes and finally at 1 am, all is through, and I settle down to "Boy's Town," until 3:15, and then fall into bed.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 21. Yawn my way through the day and feel pretty bad and poor taste in mouth as lack of sleep tells on me. Home to watch "The Man Who Came to Dinner," and delight in the snow falling down fast. Call Bill and record "Scheherazade" and get out, warmly dressed indeed, at 8:50 and meet Bill at 9:50 and we wander through park and talk and I delight in lighting and snow and rocks and get back at 11:30 after really covering all of the park with many of my rambles (what was WRONG with the other page??). Toss clothes every which way to drop and fall into bed.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22. Up to shower and am VERY late for work as Xmas cards come pouring in. Ted calls me in and tells me I'm exempt (hurray!) and have a $50 raise, so I'm SET! Stay till 6 looking at OUTRAN and home to watch "Thieves' Carnival" on Play of the Week and eat supper and get to bed fairly early---10:30, though I recall I had to come to get myself properly ready for sleep.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23. Packages arrive for my Christmas and aside from the wanted toaster and the absurd from Mom and Rita, I get too-big slipper socks from Greg and Gary, too-big pajamas from Grandma and too-big sweater form Larry---great. Record more and spend much time reading Math articles in EB, so much so that I don't have supper and go to bed bemoaning my lack of food, lack of love, and my desire to write---which I guess I really don't want to. Such a life.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24.  Just don't feel like getting up in the morning, but I do, and I'm back trying to figure what's wrong with ARMA, and we all stop work at noon to get over to 635 to munch on sandwiches and cookies and ice cream, then subway down to 53 Carmine and chip in money for good wine at Gio's party. Everyone talks and laughs and feels the alcohol and the cats give me sneezes and asthmatic wheezes and at 6 we've all taken home by Gus. I get out Tom's books and go gaw-gaw over the magnificent hunks of men depicted there and come about four times and then get ready for midnight services at St. John the Divine. I meet Bill and follow photographer to the clarion trumpet balcony of the cathedral for a spectacular view of the place. Down the spiral stairs for the sermon and say goodbye to Bill at 12:30. Catch a bus back that makes such an impression on me that I get home and proceed to type it out. This is over at 3 am and I fall into bed.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25. Get up at 1:30, which should have rested me greatly. Breakfast mightily and get to EB and math, and work on U.S. College and University statistics until 5, when I see "Going My Way" and have supper till 7. Back to EB until 9, watching TV and recording an hour of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. Through at 10:30 and revise that paper from last night and re-type it and snack while reading New Yorker and then get this caught up for the week and hit the sack at 1 am.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26. All this following written on January 5. All day Saturday I flop around the house, eating breakfast and reading and coming, and moaning about myself and listening to records and such. Do absolutely nothing that I can remember, but I get to bed late after going out and getting the paper and reading it all through and working the "Puns and Anagrams" crossword.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27. Then at 3, all the announcements of the Top Ten films of the year inspire me to cut clippings from paper and fly out. Get to "The Lovers" at 3:15, missing 15 minutes from a rather humorous and not sexy attempt at sex in a bathtub and bed and canoe. Then dash across to sit in the Plaza tearoom and see "Black Orpheus," a terrifying colorful rendition of Orpheus and Eurydice. Out and get in just at the beginning of "The 400 Blows," and now it's 8 pm and it ends on an awfully negative note, and I fly out at 10 to a last little bit of "Four Fast Guns," and a cruisy balcony at the RKO 58th theater and their "Pillow Talk," a fast, pictorial and funny comedy, and out at 12 to catch the end of Tallulah in "A Royal Scandal," and get to bed understandably eye-weary.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 28. Monday is cold and rainy and about the only useful thing I accomplish is getting Larry's Verne books wrapped and then I dig into my jottings and single out the few readable pieces from the lot. Bed at an undetermined hour, but not early enough to get me to work on time---I was late all week.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29. University of Michigan comes thundering down the home stretch, and it's a tossup who'll be ready first, the 709 or our test programs. Home in snow and call Bill and he says I can record so I bundle recorder up in plastic bag and grab cab through snow. Get there at 7:30 and get Wagner and all six Bach Brandenburg Concerti while Bill pans my author's pains, I grade his papers, and we talk about sex. This all ends at 12 and I walk to bus stop and wait for ages and bus comes and I'm in bed at 1:30.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30. Bounce through work and camp it up with Al, and home to supposedly fix things up for Laird, but it's all I can do to eat supper and come and get to bed after jamming all my stuff into dresser drawers and washing dishes. The place is a mess, but I trust I'll finish before he comes and fall asleep.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31. Day passes slowly and we get out early at 3:30, so I dash home and don't even change clothes, but grab sweeper and get junk off the floor, and then dust and fix things up just in time for Laird to call and arrive at 5. We talk and he gives gifts of fifth of gin and "St. Trinian's Story," and I make chili and we eat and he gets out for Noel while I say I'm going to a show at 8. Walk down to 42nd on a gay and horny Third Avenue and walk along 42nd to Times Square, playing footsy and eyesy and everything else with the gang of kids out of school and celebrating the New York in the big city. At 8:30 there's so much gaiety I decide to forgo show and tour the 42nd St. theater, which, then, looks little different from normal. At 9 I walk up Broadway to 50th and then down, to stand outside Bonds at 9:30 to watch fun. The horns blow in chorus and the crowd of cops gets thicker (telling me not to lean on the Bond's windows). At 10:45 the crowd is thick on the walks and at 11:05 they close off the street and I dash out to hug a stanchion and look over a couple million heads. The TV lights on the Astor marquee pick up the waving crowd for the world and me to see and with torn telephone books fluttering the air, giants (fellows on others' shoulders) roaming the crowds, midnight comes amid cheers and roars, and slowly dispenses into teenage cuteness to lonely homes, and at 12:30 traffic rolls again and I take subway home.

THEN, on the last calendar page in the book, I chart birth dates from Information Please, and find there's no one there with birthdates of Jan 12; Feb 23, 29; Mar 10; May 19; July 15, 24; Aug 3, 14, 24; Sep 11, 21; Oct 9, 23; Nov 27; Dec 11, 30, along with many statistics, such that Traubel finished out June, Warren finished out April, and Wynne was the last one added to the list. Also, Feb 22-24 was the last string of 3; February Saturdays were first; Aug 3-4 was the last string of 2, and August was the last month to have four untaken dates, as well as three untaken dates. March 20-23 was the last string of 4, April's Tuesdays were last, October's Mondays were the first five, October produced the first diagonal 6, and the first square of four completed. May's first week was the first full week, November was the last month to have ANY in the month, June produced the first filled diagonal of five, week of December 11 was the last for ANY in the week, and December 27-31 was the last string of five. This obviously took me hours to fill out, and serves absolutely no useful purpose except to occupy a certain number of hours of my time, does something with the last page of my 1959 diary, and permits me to finish out this page completely, so that I won't feel tempted to feel I'm cheating the system by leaving this page 122 blank when I get to the end of the Diary, and then going on to the 1958 diary, which better be finished faster than this, because it's just stupid typing, and I know it, but I keep thinking it might come in handy later, and there's always the thought that I'll drop dead and some industrious friend will find all this (HI! industrious friend!) and get it all printed verbatim, which of course is just a perfectly dreadful idea, but I'm finished with 1959 DIARY!!