A Good Influence

He raised himself from the bed, grabbed his martini, and lifted it. “To knowing what to do, and when.”
-Olen Steinhauer
THE NEXT EXIT

Twenty-five years ago today:

June 16, 1987
Tuesday

I rode my bike after my work day and happened to see a high-school classmate named John Zahn. I waved to him and he waved back.
During our recent high-school reunion the other night he had said to me, “I always see you riding your bike and you never wave back.”
I explained, “Oh…I’m ‘into’ my music on my headphones when I ride and I probably don’t see you.”
It’s funny because I was thinking about him saying those words and I happened to see him today. I’m glad I waved.

I had lunch with Mark Gebhardt (from my gym) at THE HAVEN in San Francisco today. I had a good talk with him. He made me reevaluate my career plans for the future.
“Is there anything else you’d like to do?” Mark asked.
“Well, I do have an inspiration to be in the Entertainment Industry in some way or another. I don’t mean in front of the camera but while in college I wrote a few programming story ideas for television.”
“You should look into that.”
“Yeah, maybe…it’s funny; I remember writing a story about a sort of a soap-opera for night time television. My Marketing professor was so impressed by it that she suggested I send it to ABC-TV. And you won’t believe what happened.”
“What?”
“Well, I sent it back in early 1980 and ‘sure enough’ all of these shows began to appear on prime-time TV a year later like FALCOLN CREST and DYNASTY. I almost feel like whoever received my pitch package…stole my idea.”
Mark encouraged me: “You never know. You should pursue the writing.”
“Yeah…maybe; I’ve always wondered why I never got a reply with my programming idea and stories. It’s all very suspicious.”

“Sounds like it.”

I went ahead with my visit to Eileen. She showed me a glass statuette that her Italian beau gave here.
She screamed excitedly, “And Dave gave me new speakers for my car!”
I thought, “Give me a break.”
She drove me around in her Volkswagen and we stopped for ice-cream at Double Rainbow. We had intentions of going to see the movie BEVERLY HILLS COP II. Instead, we ended up looking at the view of the San Francisco Airport. I pulled my pants down to show her the bruise I got from bumping into a machine at the gym the other night. She got a kick out of my quick ‘pull down of the pants action’ by laughing aloud. I think I wanted her to be surprised. As time passed Eileen realized that her car wouldn’t start. She had ‘juiced it out’ by playing the radio and showing off her new speakers. I ended up pushing her car a good length (luckily it was only a VW bug). It took some jumping cables and a couple of Good Samaritan “dudes” to get the car started again. I wasn’t back in Alameda until about 12:15AM.

Stacey didn’t sleep over.
She had confessed with me, “My meetings that I’m having are ‘sort of’ rehab meetings because I was really into cocaine.”
I imagine she slept with that bearded guy, Tom, again. She certainly won’t be influenced by ‘coke’ around me. I’m not into that sort of stuff. I hope this Tom character is a good influence.

“We are the result of our histories…not the result of our present.”
-Olen Steinhauer
THE NEXT EXIT