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• I turn 26

  Monday, Dec 10, 2007 8:05AM / Standard Entry / Members only
  

  I bailed out of my weekend of celebration because my lungs rattle when I cough.
  I have a robot necklace that I've been trying to give to the last three girls that I liked or whatever.  However, everytime I was sure of the signs (like touching naughty parts or planned getaways) and tried to give it to one, she'll somehow turn cold on the night of the planned gift-giving.  Thursday night was no exception, I asked this girl to see Jonathan Richman with me, she said yes but then got caught up in finals (yeah I'm kinda seeing someone IN COLLEGE).  It was a bummer 'cause I thought I'd be able to spend my birth weekend with her but I ended up not seeing her at all except for a barely glimpse.
  
  Friday night my friends and I went to The Red Elvises.  It was super crowded and we were all sick, so we went out for a breather during the intermission.  My buddy Jimi bailed.  My two other friends offered to buy me a birthday donut at this donut joint down the street.  We asked the lady for a birthday candle, then one guy turned and said "did you say birthday?"  I said, well, technically it's the 9th, but I usually celebrate on the 8th because I was born in Taipei.  He said "I'm on the 8th too!"  And then, this other dude at the bar with his girlfriend turned and said "hey, it's my birthday too!"  He was 36, so I says to him, "that means you can smoke pot now", which is a thing I say to anyone with any birthday.  We gathered around my birthday donut, three of us and all of our friends and the old Chinese guy and his daughter who run the donut shop, made our wishes and blew out the candle.  I was pretty happy so I bought the first birthday guy and his girl their donuts, they gave me two sparklers in exchange.
  
  I came back to my neighborhood, I was supposed to go back out dancing but I was just feeling ill.  I thought maybe I'd get a late dinner and soldier on.  I went to one of the 30 million taquerias in my 'hood and hung out with my buddy Javier.  He's a good guy and I'm basing my next short film on him, so everytime we hang it's like research.  He was telling me this story about how his train got stuck in the underwater tunnel for 40 minutes and everyone thought everyone was doomed for sure. 
  
  Then my good friend whom I've known almost all my life called me.  He's the most calm and calculated man I've ever known, very intelligent and level-headed about everything.  He was going crazy on the phone because he and his girl took an unofficial break and she was spending the night at some dude's place.  When he talked to me he'd already tracked down the dude's apartment and made a slight scene outside.  I was a little freaked 'cause I'd never seen him like that.  I tried to talk to him but really it seemed like sometimes a man just needs to go crazy.  He said he didn't know what else he could do, and said he was coming back to the city.  I said hey, come hang at my place, I'm sick I can't go out, lets just talk it out.  So he came and he was crashing at my place, the adrenaline wore off and he was sleeping.  But at 4 am he left and went waiting outside the apartment again.
  
  Yesterday my friends Apollo Sunshine was in town and they put me and my friends on the guest list.  I was out in the touristy part of San Fran shooting a fight scene, a paid gig for some website or something small time.  It was fun, we did cool stunts, but my body really wasn't handling it well.  I was coughing all over the place.  I came back and my lungs started rattling with each cough.  That was when I realized I wasn't gonna go anywhere.  I stayed in and took calls from friends.
  
  At around 12 my buddy Jimi called.  He said he was in the neighborhood and was gonna buy me a late dinner.  I wasn't hungry and didn't feel like submitting to the cold weather.  He came over instead.  He looked a little bit out of it.  Turned out there was this old sketchy looking dude with a pitbull that lived in the basement next door to him.  Sketchy people were always coming in and out of his basement with big wads of bills.  We both work with the homeless community in the neglected part of the town but for some reason he's just been unwilling to admit that the junkie-looking folks that come in and out of his apartment might be junkies.  I totally respect that 'cause cops often mistake me for a non-tax payer.  Well, yesterday his suspicion came to a boil and he called his sister who also works in the similar sector and asked for her advice.  The pitbull nearly bit his roommate's face off the other day and the old man was being aggressive and weird (like the old man from Sandlot weird).  She said it's not hard to suspect whats going from the symptoms.  He thought there might be a methlab in his basement, which I doubted, but it sounded sketchy alright.  Anyhow, he somehow failed to realize that the phone chat on his front porch might get picked up by his friendly neighbors.  He was in his room last night, beautiful place four stories up that overlooked a bunch of other quirky backyards.  He heard banging on the stairs and looked down the fire escape.  The old man was walking up and looking right at him.  He kept on shouting "hey, whats going on?"  Before the old man disappeared again.  He got a little freaked and came over to my place.  I didn't feel like, on top of staying in on my own birthday party, letting a dude friend sleeping in my bed (he always claims the bed), good thing ladies like him and he found a lady friend with a bed.
  
  This morning my old girlfriend and her sisters woke me up with a birthday song in Spanish.  I coughed really hard and could barely talk to them.  Then my stunt buddies came over to pick up some costumes for today's shoot, and hooked me up with wal-borne.  That shit is keeping me from coughing right now and I'm about to go drink some tea with a psychic girl who is a little bit older.  That's how you feel young at 26 - you hang out with 30 year olds.