December 18, 1994

It should be said, I suppose, that the Dec 12 entry¹ was copied over a span of two or three days and I only now finished it so I could write tonight, hence the hurried-looking handwriting. Here I am again, past midnight on an eventful Saturday night outing, when I should really be deep in sleep, resting. It's not like I don't have any free time for the next 2 weeks. It's just I don't want the feeling to dissipate. Because it was a good night. Generally speaking. What happened was that Jason, Ka+ie Szum, Kris+in Sanders and I ended up eating at our brand-new Chili's restaurant here in Bolingbrook, the hotbed of retail & fine eateries. It just seems weird, I guess. I don't hang around with those girls. But what really happened, how it started was when we were at Oak Brook and there was Stacie & Jesaida & Karen Krueger², because we sang for about a half an hour, then she had an appointment of some sort, we will never know. But the singing was secondary to good times & the Christmas spirit. It is a truly wonderful time of the year. We were shopping, well mostly just looking, in a fascinating little shop called Sharper Image for quite a bit, a quirky little business of $4000 rubber monsters and talking language translators and gumball machines and vibrating chairs. Katie apparently gave some 33-year-old guy named Al her phone number when he asked, so that was the big controversy of the evening, producing a ten-minute argument with the guy & Kristin about what was he doing talking to her in the first place. But then, of course, our little eight-member group had to part ways, and Stacie³ went home with her mom, who I have negative feelings about, just because she got lost on the way there and I knew where to go, and I didn't like the fact that she was going anyway. But I understand Stacie not wanting to drive on 355. It's just awkward being in the car with someone's mom, I guess. So anyway, Jason & I attempted to get to Chili's because hey, it was something to do afterward, and wasn't it funny that we were a perfect SATB⁴ quartet (Jason: "Suck this quartet")? And wasn't it an interesting quartet anyway? And plus, Katie & Kristin were really hungry. So the two of us got lost & had to call up Sid⁵ around Westchester, at some little gas station. So many highways, it just gets really confusing. But we're having a good time. That's the main point. But we finally get there, though. Now this, I just find fascinating, the four of us. It's like, who are we? It felt like some double date or something, kind of awkward, kind of enjoyable. Of course, I liked it, but when Katie started sliding down the seat and pushing her stomach up and down and giggling about it, what are you to do? It wasn't as if we were just friends because I don't consider them really to be friends, per se, but it wasn't anything else, either. It was just a random grouping. I think the fact that Katie's just so damn attractive throws a wrench into the system (I think that's the right idiom). She's just ... mmmm ... I don't know. Interpret that however you want (some people "mmm" when they're thinking and it sounds kind of like a delighted yawn, but the letters also have other lovely connotations). How else do I say it? Anyway, that was my evening. A thought just crossed my mind, which was that if I were to write a book or something, I would certainly include detail & personality & physical characteristics, which I don't always do here, such as the fact that Katie has brown hair & wishes she was 5'3". That is, of course, that she's shorter. Thus my attraction. But in this journal here, that's not my purpose. Maybe it would make for better reading, though. I like to think I have several good images, but I don't have to go so far as to describe Kristin as having a face too wide for her features, rosy apple cheeks, etc. It's not important. That should be the key: importance. Because maybe Katie's sparkling eyes and little-girl voice are important. -JMC 12:50 AM

1 I'd written my entry for Dec. 12, 1994, outside of my official journal and thus had to transcribe its contents into the official journal over the past couple of days.

2 My inept, goody-two-shoes choir instructor.

3 My best friend, from sophomore to senior year.

4 Soprano (Katie), alto (Kristin), tenor (Jason), bass (yours truly).

5 Jason's dad. We often spoke fondly of "Sid and Betty."