When in doubt, go to the notebooks.

"Free-writing can be useful. Any writing can be useful, but free-writing is more like a brain stamp. Hack off a slice of frontal lobe, dip it into a pan of ink, and press it firmly against the page."

* * * * *

"Walking down Mill Avenue at 3 am. It's something a haven for transients. Yesterday, Alan and I were walking to one of the bars and I a shirtless kid with a mohawk had asked us for change. I tell him that I will not help him. 'Thanks for laughing at my pain," he says. Alan and I continue on our way.

Now, at 3 am, the street is almost deserted. A huddle of local pan-handlers are talking and laughing on the corner. My path leads me towards them.

'Hey man, let me see your belt!' one calls out. It is the sarcastic mohawk kid. He doesn't seem to recognize me from the day before. I'm not in a hurry, so I walk towards them.

He wants to see the Bruce Lee belt buckle my brother Miguel got for me. He is impressed. 'Where did you get that?'

'It was a present. From my brother.'

'Dude, how much?'

'I don't know how much it cost. It was a present.'

'I'll buy it off you man! I can hook you up!'

'No way. It was a present.'

'But I can hook you up! Imagine how fat I can hook you up!'

I nod. 'I'll imagine.'

His friends laugh, he looks confused, and I continue on my way."

* * * * *

(Written while observing freeway signs in North Carolina:)

"It's sad that my knowledge of historical geography is derived solely from 'Oregon Trail'."

* * * * * *

(Written after someone was talking about how it is easy to write science fiction but more difficult to write realistic fiction.)

"Difficult to write realistic fiction? It's difficult not to write realistic fiction. When you write, you're bound to run into reality at some point."

* * * * * *

I guess that's it for the notes.

My birthday party went very well. I even got some presents. They made me laugh, because, without exception, I was given a book or some type of alcohol.

No, I'm wrong. Lauren H. got me a really cool picture and Mai got me a balloon and Amy got me a ribbon that says "I dress myself" with a picture of a penguin on it. The guys made me this great LOTR card that managed to be artistic and more than a little unsettling (who's hot-pink lipstick was that?)

Everyone ate heartily. The elder Lopezes achieved various states of inebriation and the littlest Lopez achieved new pinnacles of caffeination.

There was much laughter.

Perhaps there are worse things than growing old...

* * * * * *

Maybe a few more notes.

"Music is a kind of geometry, but one of inner space."

"There once was a child so tall
All assumed he would play basketball
But the boy felt jipped
'Cause whenever he tripped
He had so much further to fall"

"I can afford to be wrong."