Only My Mom Knows

Then all at once he smiled to himself. The assignment had given him an unexpected opportunity to realize an ambition that neither of them knew anything about.
-Stieg Larsson
"The Girl Who Played With Fire"

Twenty-five years ago today:

July 24, 1985
Wednesday

Okay…I woke up and Jim’s twin bed wasn’t very comfortable. It was early morning and Jim drove me to the Town House Motel.
Just as Jim unlocked my passenger door he said, “Call me this evening so we can get together. I want to meet Dale, too.”
“Okay, I’m not sure of our schedule but I’ll definitely try to do that!”
Jim added, “I may be going to San Francisco in early September, too.”
“That’ll be great,” I said.
Little does he know that I’ll be in Paris (France). Only my mom knows that I’ll be in Paris.

PHOTO: "Mom", 
Virginia Marie Lucero-Armijo

When I walked inside the motel room I found the door to our room ajar. I walked in and Dale jumped with a startle. He was being an ignorant asshole. I could tell he was planning to leave for San Diego without me. I almost didn’t go with him because of that fact. I figured out his likely plan to leave without me because he took his blow dryer and other accessories out of my GUCCI bag. I could have easily taken a taxicab to the LAX Airport and been back in Alameda in one and a half hours.

Anyway, I went with Dale after all. We left for San Diego, hitting the traffic along the way. It took us about three hours to get there.

Our first stop was Dale’s step-mother’s house. Her name is Barbara and she was nice and very pretty for her age (45). Her house was very messy and unclean. I also met Dale’s step-brother and step-sister.

We continued on to Downtown San Diego and visited the SDC Office (the equivalent of our San Francisco Pac Bell Office). Gail Cadman showed us around. We had lunch with her and a co-worker of hers. Gail is one of the gals we met earlier this year in Oakland. Dale was at a special XEROX training course for three days with her. She’s a sweetie.

After lunch I bought a T-shirt and shorts at some gift shop. Dale bought lots, too. He’s going to have one big American Express bill next month. Dale is having money problems but he’ll have to work that out. I took in the views of San Diego. It looks really clean around there. That’s one thing I liked about San Diego---but I still like Alameda better. After lunch, Dale and I went to visit his step-sister at her workplace, an Antique shop.

We debated on the beach or a visit to Tijuana. We chose Tijuana. And so, we drove in to Mexico. It was really fun. We drove through the Ciudad Industrial and ended up on some unpaved roads that had some rundown shacks and barefoot poverty-stricken kids roaming around. I saw one dog that had what seemed to be one layer of skin next to its ribs, a starving dog! Yikes! I felt bad for a lot of those people. And every problem everyone has in the United States is nothing compared to what they must deal with here. We didn’t even get out of our car. We found the Downtown (El Centro) area of Tijuana but it didn’t look all that appealing. I was reading all of the street signs to Dale as he navigated the tour.

From Tijuana we returned to San Diego again en route to the STARDUST Hotel where Barbara (Dale’s step-mother) worked as a head waitress. We had a few drinks and we left a five dollar tip. Yesterday, Dale left a sixteen dollar tip on his American Express card! What a jerk! Well, we finally left the “dead” STARDUST lounge atmosphere.
Dale asked, “Why don’t you drive now?”
“How about if I drive when we head back home?”

We arrived in Los Angeles, at the BONAVENTURE Hotel by 10PM; whereby, I felt it was too late to call on Jim Koran. I ordered food from the Hotel Room Service. We lounged in the wonderful room, watching the movie FLASH GORDON.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-zHUSSzV9o

We went to bed—even though I wanted Dale to see RISKY BUSINESS but that movie didn’t start until 12:55AM.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2UVsyVLLcE

We were too tired, so it was time for Dreamland.

"I hope they've given you a good room, the place is half empty, so if you are uncomfortable mind you make a fuss."
-Daphne du Maurier, "Rebecca"