Found a neat little word -- "wonder-full"!...I'd like to start keeping a list of books that I read on my own...GW -- the Custodial Pigeon Park, K Building, "bathtub flinch"...Say, remember my Shirley Temple Storybook?
For some reason I still think about the tale of the "Land of Green Ginger", in which Aladdin's son wins the hand of the princess after capturing 3 tail-feathers of the fiery phoenix on the island of Green Ginger. It would really be great to have your own private, magical little plot of land (complete with grass and palm trees) that could fly you anywhere at your wish. Hmmnn...
Well, gang, some powerful changes have taken place since my last report on the room situation. As Jo put it, "the mouse has finally roared". It began, to be precise, the Thursday nite before the March on Washington. I was in a goofy sort of mood and I was knocking Terry to her face for the first time, and with quite a flair! It was still subtle, of course, but Jo was applauding my success. Since that time, I haven't hesitated to speak my feelings with Terry and as a result, I feel a lot more free.
Correspondingly, Jo and I have grown much closer in our common dislike(?) for her. Terry's shrill profusion of "honeys", constant eating and lack of concern or compassion in the Robert/Paul situation finally disgusted Jo to the point where she enjoys her vacations from the room as much as I do. She and I enjoy working on our little projects for the boys together, and talking about personal problems, ambitions, etc. It's great. My early feelings of paranoia and rejection have unobtrusively dropped out the window. (Yay!)
From Room #631, we move outward to the 6th floor in general. Wow. An honest-to-goodness den of psychos! We could put on a cute little play with just the characters on our little hall alone. We can wing our way down from the elevator to our resident Social Butterfly Andee, Kleptomaniac (?) Judy, Pick-Up Peggy -- daughter of the rabbi of the Virgin Islands, the Food Supply Factory next door with built-in gourmet cook, Insomnia Susan, Kathy -- champion "groover" of them all, Horse Mouth Joan and her jolly crew, Loud Mouth Laurie, Ol' Mama Marilyn, our diabetic bed-hopper Pattie, and we musn't forget the nude performers of 910. What a group!
Saw "Midnight Cowboy" and it has to be one of the greatest pictures I've ever seen. The acting by Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight was absolutely superb (I love when "John" is spelled "Jon"), and the movie itself was tightly structured with well-developed imagery. The theme was simple and haunting and of course I love Nilsson singing, "Everybody's Talkin'". The flashback sequence and emphasis on contrasts was especially good. It's hard to believe that Hoffman is the same guy who starred in "The Graduate". He had some tuff competition from Voight this time (who, incidentally, has quite a body!) Excellent movie.
December 16th
It's unbelievable how much can happen in the brief (BRIEF?) period of just 2 weeks. To jump right in -- I almost moved out of 631 last week! Things came to a head one night with a combination of Terry's usual secretive bitchiness and a surprising coolness on Jo's part. I was fed up with seeing them with their heads together and suddenly decided to take Amy up on her invitation to spend the night in her room.
And what a night! Room 610, next door, is positively unreal. I'll have to go into greater detail about Beth, but she's well...kind of uninhibited, to say the least. And as for Sandy, who doesn't happen to believe in clothes, and little what-her-name, the head -- what a pair. Beth had something really pretty in her room though. It was a little gold stand, holding 4 candles which, when lit, rotated 4 little angels at the top. Each angel struck a tiny bell as it went around, making sweet tinkling sounds. I'd like to have one of those.
Anyway, back to our story of morbid suspense and intrigue (I can make jokes now, but then -- whew!). Amy's bed was a bit cramped for two. I curled up in a ball near the top but I'm not sure that I slept a wink. I had Cindy wake me at 7:30 so I could go back to the room and study for my French test. I went back, tip-toed in, and was met with a shocking sight. While I was gone they had switched Joann's things with the refrigerator and the food, down to her last taped-up cut-out.
I raced back to Amy's room where I sobbed everything out to her, and then to Mom on the phone. I then went back to the room and demanded to hear the story. Startled by my outburst at that hour, Terry jumped up like a wounded buffalo and we proceeded to holler it out with each other. The scene ended with her sugggesting that I move out, and my tearful retreat to 609.
I wrote Jo a letter and put it in the mailbox on my way to tell my French teacher that I would be unable to take the test because of a death in the family. As the day turned out, Jo and I had a long talk in the stairwell where she explained the many causes of her silence, among them Bert, her sister, and her general unhappiness with the people and workload here. She then expressed a real desire for me to remain in the room. I was seriously considering leaving because I didn't know whether I could fight Terry any longer, or live with tension so thick you could cut it with a knife.
I looked at Amy and Cindy and their whole gang and I saw how I had been deluding myself about my happiness. It was one of those situations where what do you do when you don't want to leave but you don't want to stay where you are? Well, things somehow cooled off and returned to relative normalcy. After 2 trips to Eleanor [R.A.] and one to Mrs. Wittstruck, I decided against moving, or at least to wait until after vacation to reach a final decision. So 'til then!...
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