A Visit to the Alameda County Fairgrounds

“The universe is winding down.  Why shouldn’t we?”
-Woody Allen,
as heard in his 2009 film WHATEVER WORKS

Diary Notes/Photos June 29, 1988

The day was planned for a visit to the Alameda County Fairgrounds.   I went over to mom’s house.   She was waiting for John and Sherri to appear with the baby (Holly).   I asked her to snap a photo of me but it came out blurry because she failed to press the shutter button lightly for the lens to focus.   I became impatient and she got a bit upset with me.   I know…it was silly.   I was saved by the bell as her trim line phone rang to save the day.

Ashley was already at mom’s house, having spent the night.   She was being a very cooperative model for my camera today.   She was overly excited about going to the County Fair, too.   She was acting like ‘goody two shoes’.

Holly was looking a little surprised at all of the commotion.  I don’t believe she knew what was happening.   She was just going along for the ride.   Of course she was very observant with me taking pictures of her.   She needs to grow some hair.

John and Sherri arrived and they allowed me to document their arrival with a Polaroid photo as well.

I was excited about going to the Fairgrounds with them.   It made for a fun family outing.   Mom took another photo of me on her couch.   Her new family room furniture had just arrived yesterday and I was taking advantage of the new comforts.

We arrived in Pleasanton quickly.   John did the driving and the first thing Ashley wanted to do was ride the pony.   The pony’s name was MARY LEGS.   I couldn’t figure out how someone would come up with a name like that one.   Ashley seemed to enjoy the ride.   I only wish they had big horses for an adult to ride.   I felt a little jealous.   I wanted to go horseback riding.


I did manage to go down one of the slides with Ashley and my mom was holding my camera and snapped me at the bottom of the slide.  
“How embarrassing is that? No one can EVER see that picture.   I’ll have to hide it in a book that no one would ever open.”
Mom laughed.  

I took a couple more snap shots of Ashley on some of the rides.   She was definitely getting all of the enjoyment of the day.   Sherri looked exhausted.  Holly didn’t know what was going on.   She was too young to go on any rides.  She wasn’t even 3-months old yet.

I think John was starting to feel tired too.   He seemed to snap out of it after a while.

Once we returned back at mom’s house in Alameda we found comfort once again on her new family room furniture.   John was relieved to be home.   It’s not easy with a baby and a very active, fun-loving little girl that has an endless amount of energy.

I sometimes wondered what Holly might be thinking at this infant stage when I would take her picture.  Her eyes always had that look of ‘alarm’.  

Ashley, on the other hand, was happy to continue to allow me to take photos of her.   When she had her Grandma’s night shirt she allowed me to take a smashingly good one of her.  I think that was my favorite.  Earth tones seem to be her color.

It was a fun-filled day.   I know I had a good time.  Family time keeps my mind away from this non-relationship phase and the doldrums of my Pacific Bell work week.  Ugh…

“When all else fails…we don’t.”
-as heard while watching the 2009 film
GI JOE: The Rise of Cobra

 

 

 

 

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Searching for Reality

“In your 20’s you have to pursue your LIFE’s goals.”
-as heard in the 2010 film THE DEBT

Diary Notes/Photos June 22-28, 1988

I’m still enjoying frequent telephone chatter with Amy L Platt.   She seems a bit bored in the Contra Costa Valley area and always seems ‘chipper and cheery’ whenever I happen to call.    We’ve gone out dancing a couple of times to Bobby McGee’s in Concord and Baxter’s in San Ramon. 

She gave me a few modeling photos that she had taken for some local boutique clothing store.   I liked them.   After I spend time with her I have fun but she gets a little bossy, argumentative and opinionated.   I’m not so sure I like that.   It must be from her New York upbringing.  Most California girls don’t act so headstrong.   A part of me likes it but then I find that I need a breather from her. 

PHOTO:  Amy Louise Platt, June 21, 1988

I promised mom I would help paint the exterior of her house.  It has been an elf green (with white trim) for the longest time.

“I agree, Mom, it’s time for a change.”
I suggested white with black trim.   She liked the idea.   I explained how I would accentuate the door with the black trim and she’s all FOR my creative plan.   I’m looking forward to doing the work for her.  It will be done by the end of this month.

June 27, 1988
I have some new postcards from Paloma.   She finds great cards for me.   This photo of three young stewardesses must have really caught her eye, knowing that she has wanted to be a flight-attendant for AIR FRANCE for so long.   On this card she wrote with encouragement about my doing more original painting on canvas.  I do enjoy the calm, creativity while I am holding a paint brush.  Paloma wrote:

...I’ve seen CHER has a perfume in the American COSMOPOLITAN magazine.  

You can do some more paintings.  They look really good.   You’ve always had such great taste (that’s why you liked me!).   Aren’t you glad we have each other to tell the other one once in a while how beautiful, smart and EVERYTHING we are?

You didn’t tell me how and where you got the perfume samples.   Did you have to pay with your body?  I’m really happy.   That proves you think about me.   I miss you very much.  
Well, I have to go to bed.   I get up at 6:30AM now but I’ll write again soon.  You know that!   Write me a long, long letter.  
Love You, Paloma

Everyone is talking about Mike Tyson, the fighter who knocked out Michael Spink in ninety-one seconds in Atlantic City, NJ.  Ouch…I imagine Spink didn’t know what hit him.  

I also found an older letter from Paloma that I re-read.    She wrote it at the time that she initially met her husband, Alexandre, while they were working at CLUB MED.   She wrote:

….this is NOT the worse part.   Before that I’ve got to stand up on Alexandre’s shoulders with my arms up in the air.   Let me tell you that it’s pretty scary.   Alexandre is—I guess---about six feet two inches tall, plus we’re on a pretty high stage and we’ve got about one-thousand people watching us.   That’s a nightmare.   I’ve got to do it every two weeks.

I knew you’d like the third photo I sent you.   I took it especially for you.

You’ve got no idea the things they make me do here.   My image is in bad shape!   My favorite part is when I do Donna Summer’s playback to MACARTHUR PARK:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV1oafB3grM  That’s pretty funny.

Talking about your last picture…was that an underwear commercial?  I thought that was a wrist watch commercial.
PHOTO:  Michael Joe Armijo

What happened with that girl named JOYCE?  Did you go out with her?  You start a story and then you don’t finish it.   Now you’re telling me about Sue…pretty confusing!   Take a break sometimes!

I won’t go to the States with CLUB MED since for the moment there is only one there in Copper Mountain, Colorado and I’m not very attracted by a mountain village.   I’d rather go to a beach but I could go to a village in what we call the American zone like Mexico, the Bahamas or places like that.   We (European staff) have to speak English very well to go to the American zone.   No problem for me, right?   DON’T YOU LAUGH!   The problem is that Alexandre doesn’t speak English, so I don’t think I’ll go for a while.   When he is Chief of SPORTS then maybe we’ll get to go.  CLUB MED already asked me if I wanted to go to Playa Blanca, Mexico next winter but I won’t without him.  

My family is fine.   Thank you.   Except I heard my brother (Luis) and Bernadette are NOT together anymore.   I don’t exactly know what happened.   After ten years that’s pretty sad!

I think Reggie, Coco and ZonZon are in SPAIN these days and it is not very far from here.   I’m afraid they might show up one of these days with their Mohawk haircuts and stuff!   How do you think my boss is going to like it?  (HuH?  …as you would say).

You said you’ve got no real ties.  You’ve got to be kidding.  What about the millions of dollars you owe your bank because of your credit cards?   Those are called chains.   Come on, Michael, I’m just kidding.

I showed your last picture to some of my friends who happened to be around when I got it.   They asked when you were coming.

I would have loved to see you running the marathon with your ‘too small’ tennis shoes.   I bet that was something!   Michael, you are just too FUNNY…just thinking about you makes me smile!

How is your family?  I guess your niece is pretty big now.   You’re going to be able to date her pretty soon.   Are you still putting bows with glue on her head?

Well, I better stop this letter now.   Keep sending me pictures.   I love it.  I will too.  I promise.  Hope to read you soon.   Love You, Paloma

After I read that I asked myself, "Who in the hell is JOYCE?"   I guess she was one of those quick introductions at a dance club that never amounted to much of anything.   Now fast-forward to recent times as I have received a scenic postcard from Paloma’s town of AGDE in the South of France with these latest words:

…a big hug from Jonathan to his Uncle Michael   I don’t think I could get along with a 22-year old boy.   My brother in law is twenty-one.   That IS really young!   I think he is really a lot of fun and he reminds me of lots of good memories but I couldn’t imagine having a date with him (even if I think he is really cute).  Maybe it’s different with him though.   They mature earlier.   I don’t know. 

I saw Didier in Paris.  He is getting a divorce.   That’s really too bad for their little boy.
Here is a view of my town.   I like it around here but not right now.   It is so crowded.  You can’t even imagine people from all over Europe and even the States come here.   Well, Michael, hope to read you soon!  Love Paloma
By the way…you look really good on your picture.  I know you were expecting that!

And so…reading old letters or new letters always make me homesick for the fun and laughter of Paloma and the feeling of France.  

I suppose I can pick up the phone now and call Amy Platt; however, it’s not as exciting.   She has issues.  Or is it me that has them?  A part of me tends to see all of life’s experiences as a dream; however, there is more to life than just dreams.   I’m still searching for reality in everything.

“Should we be mindful of dreams?   Can we interpret them?”

The Master looked into his eyes and said tersely, “We should be mindful of EVERYTHING, for we can interpret EVERTHING.”
-THE GLASS BEAD GAME, a novel by Hermann Hesse
(A General Introduction)

 

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You Always Want What You Can't Have

'You didn't fall out of love with somebody just because of difficulties, life was complicated under any circumstances, but maybe they were fated to love each other and live apart, there were people like that...'
A WAY OF LIFE, LIKE ANY OTHER
by Darcy O’Brien

Diary Notes/Photos June 15-20, 1988

If I hear that song by Rick Astley again I think I’ll stop listening to my station for a month.  It’s called TOGETHER FOREVER:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPYZpwSpKmA

June 15, 1988

On a brighter note I am having fun again with the welcoming receipt of my ‘letters from Paloma’.   I love when she includes French magazine clipping inserts.   In her most recent letter she included a clip of Nastassja Kinski from a 1978 film called LA FILLE (also starring Marcello Mastroianni).   In Italy the title of the film is COSI COME SEI.   The American title is STAY AS YOU ARE.   I must see it ‘at some point’.  I always enjoy her recommendations in film.  This one is about a May-December romance (a much younger woman and an older man, then he learns that she might be his daughter!).  Now that sounds intriguing.   Paloma knows how to capture my attention.  I've always been so infatuated with Nastassja Kinski.   With this film I wonder if she’s warning me that I could someday find my daughter and ‘fall in love’ years from now and run into this situation.   I suppose anything is possible—but I honestly doubt it.   Most women aren’t after much older men…or are they?

It’s ironic but now that Paloma is not around she is someone I’d rather be with right now.   It’s like that term ‘you always want what you can't have’.    There seems to be so much truth to this term.

June 18, 1988

Mom was in Castro Valley at Tony’s house doing the grandmother babysitting duties.   I decided to ride my bike from Alameda to Castro Valley for a visit there.   It was a warm day and the non-stop pedaling would do me good.   Upon my arrival I laughed aloud when I saw Leigh in her crib.   She was surrounded by an overwhelming amount of stuffed animals.   It was super cute.

I managed to get my niece, Lauren, to laugh hysterically when I posed the Pee Wee Herman doll in the group photo.   It looked rather amusing. 

Soon Helen and Tony returned and I set off for my return bike ride to Alameda.   It feels so good to do the long-excursion cycling routine.

Upon my return home I began re-reading parts of one of Paloma’s recent letters while drinking a tall glass of lemonade.   She wrote the following:

…there are two movies with CHER that come out over here about a month ago.   I remember them because I like that actress very much.   I find her really gorgeous.   Mostly, I watch TV now.   It’s kind of hard to go to a theater with a baby.   My parents are not around to babysit.   Alexandre’s parents sometimes do.   I told you they have a holiday house around here.   It is where we lived last year, so they would sometimes come for weekends and, of course, during the summertime.

This month on our local SHOWTIME they’re playing a movie with Nastassja Kinski.   It’s my favorite one.   I don’t know if you’ve seen it.   I don’t even know how it is called in the States.  It’s an Italian movie with Marcello Mastroianni called in French LA FILLE.   This might even be Nastassja’s first movie.   The story is about her falling in love with her father (she doesn’t know he is her father).   She is really sexy in this movie. 

I like Jamie Lee Curtis a lot, too.

I’ve never heard about the groups you are telling me about.   What kind of music is that?   I could pop into the Bay Area for a while like you mentioned.   In fact, I think about it very often.   I’m sure I could now go back to the States with no problem.  My problem now is the same you have…$$$$...if you know what I mean!   We are two and a half now…maybe someday though.

I’m going to have to stop writing pretty soon.   I could only write because Jonathan was talking a nap.  We live right next to a cathedral and the six o’clock mass plays all of the church bells that they’ve got which I really appreciate!   So Jonathan is now AWAKE, but still sleepy and in a very bad mood.   If you happen to hear that someone threw a bomb in the Agde Cathedral you’ll know who it was.

PHOTO:  Agde Cathedral

Anyway, my father came to visit last week and he bought me some stuff from my old apartment in Paris.   I found most of your letters and I read almost all of them.   That makes for a lot of reading!   I don’t know if you’ve kept all of my writing.   That was really interesting…funny and sad.   I really felt something special though.

Well Michael…I’ve got to stop writing now.  Hope to read you again soon. Love,  Paloma

CHER’s song, WE ALL SLEEP ALONE, is playing all over the Bay Area stations now.   When I hear it I think of Paloma.   They’re calling her the ‘Goddess of Pop’.   I don’t particularly like that song though.   It doesn’t really grab me.    I’m more into the groove of George Michael.

“Man is on earth to create more durable and efficient images of himself, and hence, to eliminate any justification at all for his own continued existence.”
PLAYER PIANO by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

 

 

 

 

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'The Others'

“Things become understandable if you look at them in the right light.”
--THE GLASS BEAD GAME,
a novel by HERMANN HESSE
(Chapter: PREPARATIONS)

Diary Notes/Photos from June 8-12, 1988

Now that the Kelly 'saga of love' seems to be at a close I’ve been thinking more about ‘the others’.   Who are they?   There is Anne Alberti (who is still ‘heavy into Jeff’, her aerobics instructor cohort with the tight pants and big bulge in the crotch area), Amy Louise Platt (who is still around but I’m not so sure about where we stand), Debbie Honcik (who is a former coworker when we were 411 operators—but does she ever think of me?), Judy Geniella (she’s divorced and has a pre-teen son and there’s the long-distance issue with her living up near Citrus Heights), Paloma (married and another long-distance situation in another country), etc.   Who knows who could be next?

PHOTO:  Michael J Armijo, Amy L Platt Shreve, Michael G Miller

Of course, I could also go out to one of my favorite dance clubs and hopefully meet someone new.   It’s hard to be a male wall flower in a nightclub.   It never seems to work out as a significant relationship.   I find that the ones I meet in different circumstances (other than a bar or nightclub) turn out to me much more meaningful.

And so, I decided to call Amy Louise Platt in Lafayette.   She’ s still working as a nanny/registered nurse for that wealthy family.  She always goes 'on and on' about Nantucket and her upbringing in the Hudson Valley area (somewhere in the Pocantico Hills area of New York).   It sounds like a nice place to visit and experience. 
PHOTO:  Princess Diana, 1988

Amy made me think of a former pen pal, Diane Spencer that I would write to religiously when I was age sixteen because there was a maturity about Diane that I sincerely liked.    Diane was twenty-three and I was sixteen.    Diane lived in Greenwich, Connecticut.  Whatever happened to her?   It’s funny because Princess of Wales was named ‘Diana Spencer’ before she married Prince Charles in England at age twenty-two on July 29 1981.  I screwed up my relationship with Diane Spencer when I wrote her during an evil Gemini twin moment and asked her, “Why on earth are you writing to me when you’re twenty-three and I’m only sixteen?”   I believe that hurt her feelings and our correspondence came to a sudden halt. 

Amy invited me over to Lafayette for a BBQ on this lazy summer Saturday, June 11, 1988.  “Is it okay if I invite my roommate, Mike Miller?”  I asked.

“Sure, why not?”
PHOTO:  Amy Louise Platt and Mike Miller

I knew Mike wasn’t doing anything and I figured it would be a kindness gesture to invite him as well.   I didn’t want her to think I was solely focused on the idea of just “us” yet.   I wanted to feel her out.   I mean, I think she likes me but I am still uncertain about her because she acts so much older—not that it’s a bad thing.  She simply likes to be the guiding force and I'm not so sure I like that very much.

“Hey Mike, do you want to go to a BBQ today with my friend Amy?”

Mike stretched and decided to hum and haw.
“Well, you don’t have to go.   I think it’s just us—but if you’re not doing anything it might be fun for a change of pace.
“No…no…it’s not that.  I just have all of this studying.  Heck…I’ll go.  I want to.”
“Okay, great.”  
PHOTO:  Amy Louise Platt Shreve

Amy is fun.   She was talking about her accomplishments in nursing while at the BBQ.   She mentioned her investment in JOHNSON & JOHNSON and felt so strongly about it.   I liked that she owns stock in that company and it made me jealous that I don’t own any of it.

The BBQ was fun.   I will call Amy again.   Mike and I had a good time and I really like Amy and that fact that she has a brain.   After the BBQ I dropped Mike Miller at home and then escaped to visit mom for a while.

June 12, 1988, SUNDAY

It was a perfect day for a bike ride.   I swiftly went for a ride and then returned home to shower and change.   I went to mom’s house, feeling happy that I had another day off before work started again tomorrow.

While in mom’s kitchen I asked mom to take a photo of me, holding a bottle of wine.    It was nice to spend the day with mom.   We were going to watch a movie when I looked out of the kitchen window.

“Oh no, mom…Nellie and Cecelia are HERE!”

“Oh forget it.   We can forget the movie for a while.”
I laughed, “Maybe they won’t stay for very long.
My Aunt Nellie is my dad’s half-sister.   They had the same mother (Mathilde Garcia-Vigil).  My cousin Cecelia is the daughter of my dad’s other half-sister Esther Garcia.  
Cecelia said, “We were in the area, so we thought we’d stop by.”

Nellie, Cecelia and my mom talked up a storm.   They wanted to see how my mom was doing.   After all, my dad only passed away last August 1987.   It hasn’t been so long.   It was nice to see them and listen to them talk about family gossip.   Of course, I took a photo of the three of them (mom, Nellie and Cecelia) in my mom’s living room to mark the moment.

PHOTO:  Nellie Vigil, Cecelia Markus, Virginia Armijo

On Tuesday, June 14, 1988, I received a welcome and thoughtful visit from Christine Hicks of San Ramon, CA.   We spoke of Kelly, of course.  Christine seemed sad about my break-up with Kelly.  

“Is she sad?” I asked.

“Of course, Michael…It’s not easy for her either.”

“Well, I’m moving on.   She’s made her decision.”

Each of us is merely one human being, merely an experiment, a way station.   But each of us should be on the way toward perfection, should be striving to reach the center, not the periphery.
--THE GLASS BEAD GAME, a novel by HERMANN HESSE (Chapter:  THE CALL)

 

 

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A Cool Connection

He that plants a tree loves others besides himself.
-Thomas Fuller
(imprinted on a card that Barbara Louise Reynolds sent to me)

Diary Notes early June 1988

I found a way to ‘move forward’.   A new summer was about to begin and I had my bike.   The riding released any anxiety I may have had left.   I was fixated on fitness.   The burst of energy exhilarated me to reach a new horizon.

I had many interests.   I asked myself, “Who could I call?”
I chose to call Amy Louise Platt.   She was still living in Lafayette as a Registered Nurse/Nanny and was very pleased to hear from me.   We have a BBQ outing planned soon.   I thought to call Anne Alberti but she’s too ‘Heavy into Jeff’.   I see her at the gym and she is still preoccupied (or so it seems).
Photo:  Amy Louise Platt-Shreve, 1988

There is a friend I met in Los Angeles named John Tuzziano who will be visiting the Bay Area later this month with friends.  I am looking forward to showing them around.  I want to take them to Berkeley.

PHOTO:  John Tuzziano

Hanging-out with mom has been inspiring, too.   She knew that Kelly and I had broken-up.   I didn’t offer any details.  She didn’t pry and it was all so matter-of-fact.
“Yeah,” I announced suddenly, “Kelly and I broke up.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah…it’s time to move on to greener pastures.   She’s too young.”

Mom laughed.   Perhaps she saw it as wisdom.

I watched the 007 film, THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, with mom.   It came out last year and I really feel a cool connection with the new James Bond (Timothy Dalton).   I like him.

I set up a new telephone service installation at work for a modeling/acting school in San Francisco.   I may call them for an appointment.  

The girl I spoke with said, “I can make sure you get a good deal for the next session.   Come on in!   A fashion show will be held in The City in December and you could get ‘call backs’ from agencies.”

I figured…nothing ventured is nothing gained.   It could be fun.  I could meet some new people.

A young man is still a boy, and a boy sometimes has the right to be stubborn.   What he needed was a series of new projects. -Markus Zusak, THE BOOK THIEF

 

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