Meals at the House are usually fun. Get a group and it can be a quiet library with only crunching munching heard. Or it can be a political and sexual and angst-ridden broil pit. Usually, it's somewhere in between. Home sick from work, I happened to have a pad of paper next to me while I ate lunch today. I became the stenographer. I'm missing pics of Jan and Jason, but will remedy soonly.

Maya
Maya moved back with the rents to save money for her impending move to NYC in August with the illustrious and ever-hip Megan. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for Maya, this move has meant a quick downturn in her get-up-and-go self-motivation scheme and a noted upturn in her cable-tv addiction. Many friends will support her and say "enjoy it while you can," but not our adventurous Sir Brad, King of the Organic Salad and Siezing Ceaser of All Days.

Maya: Brad got mad at me the other day. He said,

"These are your most vital years
& you are wasting them away
in front of the tv set
at your grandparents house."

Shane, Dan, and Marya
Shane was in a fiesty mood, ready to take on anyone and everybody. He was asking for trouble. Lucky for him, good-humored Shaneyshane can get away with a lot. He only lives with us part-time and was eating his lunch quickly to get on the road and head back up to Monterey. This had to do with the IRS: Jim had to pay a lot of money in taxes.

Shane: Two thousand dollars is a lot of money to come up with when you don't have it.

Dan: I had to come up with a thousand!"

Shane: Yeah, but you have it, you money-pig."

Marya: Whoa! Hey hey hey! [pointing fork in shane's general direction] When are you leaving?

Shane: In five minutes.

Mar: Can you make it four?

Maya again
Maya: I've really been enjoying hanging out with my mom. We hang out and listen to Ani di Franco and play scrabble.

Marya: You and your mother were separated at birth! [pause while I contemplate this statement.] Quite literally.

Jan
Jan has been visiting while she bides her time, also with her parents, waiting to hear about her Peace Corps job applications. Having done two tour-of-duties already, PC has had Jan in both South and Central America. She just finished her masters in Food Science in Ireland. Her bluntness and too-the-point honesty are little jewel-gems in the communication landscape of humanity.

Jan: Do you know what I didn't bring?! [doesn't even finish the sentence] Ahh. Fuck me!

Jan: I might have lost it on it, but then it fell in --"

Marya: [interrupts Janski] Speaking of felons (and holds up polaroid just taken of Dave.)

Dave
And speaking of Dave, who is always complaining about how hard it is to score with the chickolas, he gave us this little tasty morsel to think about:

Dave: Just because I don't fuck you doesn't mean I'm not getting laid.

Everyone else: [scratching heads]

Jim
Jim, Dan, and Richard went on an extended adventure a week and a half ago through the Los Padres National Forest, which is only about two miles from our house and completely covered in poisen oak. It sounds as though it was an epic winter for oak, which is literally dripping off the bendy boughs of weaping willows. As their path turned into fallow land, our fearless threesome became bushwackers, which of course means they were evilly bathed in the sticky poisen oak residue. All three turned into head-to-toe boiling masses of itches and blisters. This had Richard and Dan begging doctors for healing help, and Jim sounding like a Planned Parenthood Poster Child.

Jim: Richard is on the pill. Dan was on the pill, but then had to opt for the shot on top of that. I'm the only one who didn't have to take the pill. Cuz I play it safe.

Jason
Jason came in late to the game, having gotten off his morning shift pushing lattes and breakfast burritos at Linnaeas, the hippest of the hip cafes. He asked Maya if she knew any of the actors in the soon-to-be-playing Sexual Pervisity in Chicago play.

Jason: I thought you were hip on the actors scene. I thought all the actors knew each other.

Marya: No. DO each other.

Jason: Ohhhhhh.

Maya: Well, you gotta pull from the pool.

Jason
Later, as Jason is walking out the door to get on his groovy Dyno Cruiser and cruise around town as his groovy dyno self.

Jason: You've gotta check out the movie Memento. It's interesting. It's more interesting than annoying. [pause] And at parts it's pretty annoying.

Maya
Finally, Maya, on a three-hour heated discussion she had with her dad.

Maya: I've been so fired up lately about globalization and workers' rights. My dad is all about the market and market value and 'you vote with your dollar.' But I think it's crap. He's got a different perspective, being an immigrant and everything. But I've got different opinions. I think it's from listening to Ani di Franco for days on end. (Motioning to me) I'm going to make you a fan. And then you'll be rioting in the streets.

m.