I got a lot of really sweet notes and DMs and comments about my black history piece.

but the most surprising thing was when one of my high school friends wrote this

TP – thank you for posting this. I still remember you not coming inside my house for my graduation party 😞. I’ve told that story many times and it makes me sad. You played it “cool”, of course. You were the coolest person I know!

I had no idea what she was talking about. Why wouldn’t I have come inside her house? We didn’t live close enough for me to walk to or even bike to, so I must have borrowed my moms car to get there.

Had I not been invited in by some uptight dad? So I asked her. And she said

not invited in…you and I hung out on the driveway. I’m glad you didn’t remember it.

How could I not have remembered that?

sure I had been called the n word from time to time but seriously who hasn’t.

but to have an adult tell a high school kid he can’t come inside a pretty girl’s graduation party? you’d think that’d stick.

I was so focused on coming to LA when I was wrapping up school. my head was not in that Midwest world at all.

some of the best things happened that spring before I came here but I didn’t even notice those things either.

I went to prom with a junior who the next year would be the rose queen of roselle. a totally different girl kissed me after we went to the movies. these cheerleaders got me drunk and said the nicest things.

it was all like a dream and maybe I just didn’t let it in because I was laser focused to go West young man. so some racist dad? whatever. I had shit to do.

I had been in that house since I was tiny.

it was such a good childhood. three channels on tv, no internet, no cell phones and somehow I felt like I had everything.

other than permission to party it seems.

LOL

Then I wrote another.

But now I feel sick. I hope it’s allergies. It might be the Corona Virus.

So I took amber to Hot & Slutty which is a shrimp and crawfish place where most of the diners are black.

Really messy delicious spicy food.

So good.

Then I got my car detailed so I could drive Uber again.

That was fine.

Then I held ambers hand and said if I go everything’s yours.

She said put that on paper! I said I have a blog.

Then we got home and I got on Facebook and saw this girl I always thought was amazing wrote that her BF is in the hospital and he truly is dying of kidney failure and I felt terrible for making death jokes.

Her nickname in college was Death because she was super goth.

In the most beautiful way.

Today in corporate tweeting:

During a rally yesterday in Colorado, Vladimir Putin’s choice for U.S. President delivered a two-hour rambling monologue

where when he wasn’t insulting a teen trying to save the planet from climate change,

he ripped into the thousands of members of The Academy of Motion Pictures who awarded “Parasite” with several Oscars including Best Picture.

“Can we get, like, ‘Gone With the Wind’ back please?” he asked,

referring to the 71 year-old Best Picture epic set on a slave plantation

during the Civil War.

Can we have more four-hour-long movies about the good old days

when black people knew their place, had no freedom,

worked for free,

were bought and sold as property

during a violent time when the nation was tragically divided

over the abhorrent racist centuries-old American practice

of human bondage,

asked the recently impeached president.

His audience, unsurprisingly, cheered.

Trump acknowledged that he hadn’t seen the Korean film about a poor family’s relationship with a rich one.

The film’s studio tweeted that it was because “he can’t read.”

referring to the fact that the widely lauded movie has subtitles.

But the subtweet of the day came from Rotten Tomatoes, the film review aggregator,

who merely listed how overwhelmingly well-received Bong Joon-ho’s film was among critics

and the worldwide film community.

That tweet was a master class in shade.

I guess there’s so many people who stream through there at CityWalk that people think they can put anything in there

next will be a steam punk designed chocolate store

but when that fails I know exactly what would fit there and be amazing

an in n out on the top

and a video game arcade below.

sure I’m handsome and debonair and stylish and worldly but for the last two years I’ve worked at home

imagine living with someone who is always home? It’s annoying. Never having the place to yourself? Torture.

so since today is Amber’s birthday I treated her to a nice long drive and a picnic on the beach.

With me. The man she’s probs sick of.

Yesterday I tried to get out of the house and let her have it for herself but as soon as I finished ironing my tux and tails she hid my top hat and stated she would not reveal its whereabouts unless she could join me in my errands.

I told her I was planning to detail the car, see the new Margot Robbie movie and take a long nap in a booth at the Glendale library.

Instead we got passport photos and drive through the valley.

Today we drive through pacific palisades where they had erected this poor but meaningful statue of me. Danke.

While buying vegetable juice amber made friends with a fellow diabetic who told her so much great info. Poor girl had had it since she was 12.

we had a beautiful time and had some deep conversations which is probably the best thing you can have with me.

probably.

the grass everywhere was so green even though we only had a little rain the other night.

People shouldn’t throw food.