Michael Joe Armijo's Blog, page 34

Some Like It Hot

“Look at that!  Look how she moves.  That’s just like Jell-O on springs.  She must have some sort of built-in motor.  I tell you, it's a whole different sex!”--Jack Lemmon in the 1959 film, SOME LIKE IT HOT

Everyone’s talking about JURASSIC PARK.  It came out last weekend so Alan and I plan to see it.  It’s amazing to think how they can make real-life dinosaurs seem so REAL on-screen.   I’m sure it will be a fun one that will surely keep me at the edge of my seat. 
THAT’S THE WAY LOVE GOES is playing non-stop on the radio airwaves.  It’s by Janet Jackson, of course.  I’m ready for a new one.
Paloma wrote a nice letter in her very own handwriting on the Les Hauts de Balaruc Residence Club stationery:
le 16th 06 93
Dear Michael,
Thank you for the movie guide.   That was interesting to read about movies coming up.  The movie with MADONNA, Tom Hanks and Geena Davis looks interesting (A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN).  I liked “BIG”.  Have you seen it?   I found the idea pretty funny…talking about funny ideas I just saw “LOOK WHO’S TALKING”…I think that’s the English title; in French it’s ALLO MAMAN ICI BEBE.   That was pretty cute with John Travolta.  Have you seen it?  There are a lot of actors I like in this movie magazine:  Kurt Russell, Harriosn For, Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn…and they talk about some of my favorite movies (SOME LIKE IT HOT; TOOTSIE, VICTOR/VICTORIA).   Some Like It Hot is for me one of the funniest movies ever made.  I am not really interested in BATMAN.  I saw the firs one.  That was entertaining but not unforgettable.  I will probably watch it on TV next year or in two years (on our local Showtime called CANAL+, they produce a lot of movies…even American ones.  I saw their name as an example on BASIC INSTINCT.

David Lynch’s movie, TWIN PEAKS, was produced by a French producer too:  Francis Bouygues (he is a house builder and the owner of the main TV Channel TF1).   He should be one of your customers.  He’s got a few bucks.  They’ve been talking about COLUMBUS over here as Gerard Deperdieu is a big actor here.  Ridley Scott has made pretty good movies.  I really liked BLADE RUNNER with Harrison Ford.  This movie magazine you sent also reminded me of how much I used to like RAISINETTES.  You know, the milk chocolate covered raisins you usually eat while watching a movie.  We don’t have that in France.  See…maybe that could be the way for us to become millionaires.  You should find new American things that would be really original and that we would have over here yet.  I would sell them here.  What do you think about that?  
I don’t know if I would give you my money.  You are coming from nowhere and in three weeks you are already a Registered Account Executive.  How scary!  Just kidding, Michael.  I am sure you know what you are doing.  I’m sure you are the best! 
Have you seen in the brochure you sent me thter is a picture of a MONT BLANC pen.  That’s the pen I told you about in one of my letters.  It looks like you have them in the States too.  It would not be interesting for me to put my money in your Schwab’s whatever.  Can you imagine how difficult it would be being so far?  It would take forever and you only want US dollars. I would lose money everytime I change my Francs.   Also, I don’t have enough English vocabulary to explain what I want and to understand everything. 
You told me about Jonathan.  He already has a bank account (with a pretty low interest rate, in fact).  I am thinking about something else; it’s some kind of account where it is better not to touch the money for eight years.  He would get a better interest and I would get about 1,250 French Francs of my taxes.  We don’t touch that money anyway.  It’s Jonathan’s so that he will be able to buy a car or whatever when he will be eighteen.
I agree we don’t have as cure Registered Account Executives as they do at CHARLES SCHWAB & CO.  I am of course talking about Michael Armijo especially.  I don’t think it would be interesting either for SCHWAB or for me to work together especially since we are going to be brok again.  In July we are going to buy our new car (the one I told you about), an OPEL VECTRA.  I am not that excited about Alexandre is.  I really liked our red PEUGEOT but we are going to sell it in 2-weeks (about $5000 dollars).  It looks brand new but it’s a 1986 car.
When you talk about the FRENCH OPEN I guess you are talking about Roland-Garros tennis in Paris.  My school was very close to that place.  In fact, the guys who pick pu the tennis balls come from my school…pretty interesting, right?  Well, I guess the guy you are talking about is Henri Leconte since he is the only French one who played a little bit.  Once in a while he surprises everybody (when he is not hurt; he always has something wrong).  He won the DAVIS CUP with Guy Fouget agains the American team (with Agassi…I don’t know how to write his name).   Leconte is pretty handsome but not very smart (it seems like at least—I don’t know him but they always make fun of him on TV). 
I can’t write anymore.  Too many people are talking around me.  So I’ll stop for now.
Write me and explain to me why I should choose you as my US stockbroker.  Do you work?
Love and Miss You,  Paloma
Here is my FAX number = 67 43 17 72
Summer begins on June 21st.  I'm happy because it will be hot.  Some like it hot, including me.  The day before is Father's Day.  Gloria sent Alan a Father’s Day card using a Henri Mattisse graphique that I liked.   She wrote the following to Alan:

6/20/93
Hi Son,  I have never been so proud as I am now.  You are the best daddy around! 
You know…you have a child and you pray for the BEST and you’re lucky if they turn out to be a responsible citizen.   I have been ‘doubly’ blessed because “MY SON” has all of the above plus being the BEST daddy and son I know of.
Happy Father’s Day.
Love Always and Forever,  Mommy and Jack
The reading of her card makes me miss my dad, Joe Nelson.  I know Alan misses his dad, Lenny, too.  I was age ‘28’ when my dad passed-away; yet, Alan was only ‘16’ when he lost his father.   Enjoy your parents—as much as possible--while you have them.   
My philosophy teacher in college…once said that raising children was just TAMING THE BEAST.
--Samantha Lucero
LET THE DEVIL WEAR BLACK, a novel

Music For Every Moment, Every Mood

The secret agent fantasy is marked by being totally portable.  Any fantasy in which the subject is saying, in effect, I am not as other men are, is obviously very powerful.
--The James Bond Dossier by Kingsley Amis

Alan had a cool MALIBU postcard saved for me and left it on the dining table when I arrived home from work.   Sweet.6/12/93,  Lover Boy---
How would you like to go to Brunch to GEOFFREY's tomorrow before Carrie's recital at 2:50pm?  
Love,
Alan





Now, that Brunch sounds inviting.   Carrie has a piano teacher by the name of Mr. Bond.  While at the recital I saw a couple of celebrities that I’ve always liked (who apparently had kids doing recitals also).  The celebrities were ROBERT CONRAD of my old favorite show THE WILD WILD WEST (he's not so young anymore) and LINDSAY WAGNER from another favorite show, THE BIONIC WOMAN.  Of course, the best part (besides Carrie’s piano playing) was eating at GEOFFREY’s.  I love that place, feeling the Malibu ocean breeze.Dorothy wrote me on a cool card that depicted a painting by Guy Buffet of THE BUENA VISTA in San Francisco:6-15-93
Dear Michael,
Just when I was getting ready to write and call you a rascal for catching me off guard with your letter from New York I opened my mailbox and find another card with the promised musical tape.  How can I scold you for not telling me you were headed to NC?   When I first read through the NYC card I was a pit puzzled (Broadway, Central Park…wait a minute?) until I looked at the postmark.  I thought ‘How can he be there? I want to be there and have fun too!’  Aside from being jealous I am glad you had fun and were thinking of me.  I love the MONET and the Black and White of the couple in Paris.

Now, about the tape, it is truly wonderful and you are wonderful for taking the time.  You’ve made me feel many things, listening to your songs—but most of all you’ve made me feel special!  I’ve heard only a few of the songs before.  Most are fresh to my ears.  I really enjoy the variety of your selection.  I can only imagine the number of CD’s you have.  Music for every moment, every mood.  I hope you realize how much I appreciate the tape, your thoughtfulness and you.  Thank you.
I’ll be looking forward to sharing the music with RoseMarie.  We’ll be getting together this Friday night.  She’ll be sharing the details of her trip to Tahiti!  She just returned after a 9-day stay.  Prior to her trip she and I celebrated with dinner and a show at KIMBALL’s EAST in Emeryville.  Both had a great time…need to do it more often.
By the way, I did see the movie SLIVER and found it very entertaining.  However, I felt they could have made it even stronger, given the storyline and actors, etc. they had to work with.  “HOT” scenes were HOT though.
I still have to hunt down THE LOVER film.  I’ll let you know when I see it.  Does it live up to the title?
Since it’s Spring/Summer weather I’ve been trying to get my winter weight off with some exercise.  New guy at work (24-year old muscle man) heard me talking about  exercise, came over and offered to be my ‘personal trainer’ for free whenever I’m ready.  Right?  Maybe when I weigh twenty pounds less and not a pound before!  Ha-ha.  

P.S. Can you see us in the painting (of this card), having an Irish Coffee at the old “Buena Vista”? 
As always…thinking of you.
Love, Dorothy
He tries to fall back asleep, his jacket as a pillow;  his mind plays a movie of his present life.
--Andrew Sean Greer, LESS, a novel

Erase My Day

A life without work would have struck her as pointless.  What made her happiest was having the whole shop full of customers.  –Hans Fallada (aka Rudolf Wilhelm Frederich Ditzen) in his book, EVERY MAN DIES ALONEI’m keeping busy with work again at CHARLES SCHWAB and COMPANY.   Frankly, I love it when I have a stream of customers.  The time goes by so quickly and my day is done.  My evenings after work are the best.  I sometimes take a shower after work as a sort of ritual in order to ‘erase my day’.   June 3, 1993:  Well, Alan and I had a fun-filled ‘Dinner Party’ night of entertainment benefitting Aids Project L.A., honoring Calvin Klein with special performance by Tina Turner that included cocktails and an auction.   It was a cool surprise to see MARKY MARK come out during the fashion show.  He dropped his jeans to show off his Calvin Klein underwear.  It was too funny (and as you can imagine it got quite the applause).  That was one famous ad campaign.  It was a phenomenal night; however, I’m feeling a bit of overplay amidst these nights.  Sometimes it’s fine to simply ‘stay home’.
I sent Paloma a card from Butterfield’s (West Hollywood) Restaurant on Saturday, June 4th: Dear Paloma,
Just a note to tell you that I really like the WOULD I LIE TO YOU song (by Charles & Eddie). 
Alan’s daughter, Lauren (she is 13) has heard the song before—but I never have until now.


My NEW YORK trip is over.  Now I am back home in L.A.  I went to an Aids Project L.A. benefit at the HOLLYWOOD BOWL on Thursday, honoring Calvin Klein.  I saw Jacqueline Bissett, Penny Marshall, Valerie Harper, Connie Stevens, Warren Beatty, his wife, Annette Bening.  There was a FASHION SHOW with about 300 male and female models (quite amazing).  Then TINA TURNER performed.  It was great.


Miss you,  Love, MichaelPerhaps one of my highlights this week was opening my mail to find a letter from my 9-year old niece, Ashley:Dear Uncle Mike,I got this card with Grandma.I miss you!  Happy very, very late Birthday!   

My mom forgot her white T-shirt in your room.  Is there by any chance that you can send it back? 
Here are some freaky facts:  Shortest man was 23.2 inches and at age 19 weighed 9 lbs.Earthworms in Australia can reach up to 10 feet.
Grandma said, “Hi!”
Grandma got a card for Dad that said, “You probably think you’re somebody special just because it’s your Birthday.   Well, young man here’s some news for you---You’d be someone special even if you weren’t having a Birthday. 
I love you, Uncle Mike!Love,Ashley, XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
I need to write Ashley and ask her, “What book are you reading right now?”A book is more than the sum of its materials.  It is an artifact of the human mind and hand.--Geraldine Brooks, PEOPLE OF THE BOOK

I Loved to Wander

If something can be known, I can’t stand NOT knowing it. –Geraldine Brooks, PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
It’s my Birthday.  I am now thirty-four years young.  How did that happen?  I was just reminiscing with Alan about how we were visiting the HEARST CASTLE approximately a year ago during a Cambria weekend escape together.  That seems like yesterday.    
Well, the Birthday Cards are few but ‘very special’ in my humble opinion.  They’re from Paloma, Birda, Alan, Lauren and Carrie, Reed Campbell, Gloria and Jack, and mom. 
From Paloma:
Happy Birthday Michael!
I wish you a great birthday.  Sorry I didn’t write for a while but I’m very busy at this time of the year (as usual) when visits start.  Next weekend my mom is coming with my two brothers (Luis and Edouard).  Edouard is the one who lives in Albuquerque.  His girlfriend, Golda, will also come to visit for one week.  I am also very busy with my new job.  I have been in a bad luck period since October with my dentist. 
Have you seen the movie called “DEAD AGAIN”?  I’ve been told it was good.  They’re playing it in June on our local HBO called CANAL +. 
The CANNES Film Festival is happening right now.  Do you hear about it?  Lots of American stars are there.  Clint Eastwood is the President this year.  I’ll write again soon.
Happy Birthday.  Miss you.  Love, Paloma
From Birda:
The imprint on her card made me laugh.   It went like this:
We are NOT…I repeat…NOT getting old and fat!   We are developing POWERFUL MUSCLES that enable us to sit for long periods of time without tiring!  Happy Birthday!
In her own words, Birda wrote:
Michael,
I couldn’t find a card with a bike but this reminded me of bike riding.  Hope you have a wonderful Birthday, developing your powerful muscles and don’t get too tired blowing out all of those candles.
Love,  B
From Alan:
Life is an adventure with you.  Happy Anniversary.
May 26, 1993
Michael,
…and Happy Birthday.  Enjoy…Enjoy…to my best-friend.  You are the BEST!
Love, Alan
From Lauren and Carrie:
Can I fetch you anything?















It’s your Birthday and you deserve the best of anything.  You mean so much to us and you’re very special.  You’ve put up with everything from us and you’re really great.  Happy Birthday.  We love you a lot and we always will.
Love,
Lauren and Carrie Freiman
P.S. My titties will always get bigger.  Ohhhhh….Lauren.
From Reed Campbell:
May 26, 1993
So it’s your Birthday and you’ve pissed away another year.  You’ll have to grin and bear it.
Happy Birthday.
Dear Michael,

I may be a little early…I know, but I hope your Birthday is a great one.  Enjoy Key West.  I did and Florida in general.  Drop a card or not if you have a spare moment between social and sexual engagements.
Best Always,
Reed
From Gloria and Jack:
Happy Birthday Michael,
Jack and I want to wish you the best birthday ever and know that your dreams will come true for you.  Knowing you has made our life richer and fuller and hope our friendship continues to eternity.  You’re such a “nice guy” and it’s a pleasure to be in your company! 
Have a great birthday weekend in New York.  It’s a great place to spend a birthday and you’ll have a terrible tour guide with you!
Love Always,  Gloria and Jack
From mom:
My son, Michael, as I celebrate the day you were born, I wish there were words that could fully express the happiness you’ve given me.  I wish you could know how proud I am of your accomplishments and successes and especially of the person you are…
I hope you know how much I love you and how much richer you’ve made my life just by being my son.

I’m sending you a little something and your Social Security card and a picture of the girls (the one you wanted).  Have a dinner with this…
I hope you like the chess set.  It’s not that expensive but it’s the thought.
Love You.  Happy Birthday, Mom
A few days later it was catch-up time.  Alan and I left for New York on May 28thand it all happened so fast…talk about a whirlwind weekend.   A part of me wants to stay in New York City forever.  There is so much to do there.  It’s simply endless.   I really love roaming around the museums.  On the last day of the month (while in New York) I wrote to mom using a card I purchased from the Metropolitan Museum of Art of THE GRAND CANAL in Venice, Italy by Edouard Manet, a French painter.
May 31, 1993
Dear Mom, By the time you receive this I will be back in Southern California.

We are having a fantastic time here in New York…as we always do.  We are even thinking of returning over Labor Day so we can do lots of things we haven’t done!  We were almost going to drive to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to see WHARTON COLLEGE where Alan went to school.  It’s one of the very best Business Schools in the country.
I still can’t believe how lucky you are over the Solomon Lane house situation.
I sent Grandma a postcard from New York.
I can’t wait until we go to New Mexico.  I bought you a gift and I also got Holly a graduation present.
Later,  Love, Michael
I found a cute card for Paloma, so I wrote her from New York also:
May 31, 1993
Greetings from New York City!
Hi Paloma… Your recent letters tell me that you are quite the busy one.

And…you know I live in Marina Del Rey now.  I live in a large house that is three stories with a roof deck that is ideal for sunbathing.  I guess that makes it four stories.  It is Alan’s house (remember him?).   You took us to that fantastic French Restaurant in Agde:  Emilie’s…was that the name?  Oh well, I love where I live because it’s an easy walk to the beach.  In a matter of minutes you and I could be doing what this couple is doing on this enclosed card.
I’m into playing QUEEN music lately.
My most recent movie seen was SNIPER.  It was good. 
Till Next Time, Love, Michael
I loved to wander around in the museum because you never knew what you’d find.  It was like a cabinet of curiosities.  –Geraldine Brooks, PEOPLE OF THE BOOK

FREAK ME

“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” ― Mark Twain (young portrait of Mark Twain).
Barbara sent me an ‘oil on canvas’ card of a painting that was painted in 1915 by Edward Potthast.  The title of the card is “A HOLIDAY”.   We all look forward to our holidays, don’t we?   I get the holiday feeling just from receiving a handwritten card.  Of course, this one made me take a step back.  Life is precious and it’s is so easy to forget this fact.  One never knows when it will be ‘your turn’.  I had a ‘Freak Me’ out sort of feeling.  Barbara wrote:
20 May 1993
Dear Mike,
This IS a Birthday greeting, so Happy Birthday…so guess you will be off to New York soon…exciting! Yes!
Well, I am keeping my chin up during this “hard” time and grieving process.  The story is my mom is now 85 ½ and had a major stroke on 5/3 and also 5/6, leaving her paralyzed.  She could not even eat or talk.  She was saddened she could not smile, only cry.  Early yesterday morning she passed peacefully.  We are all so grateful she didn’t suffer any longer.  She was too spunky to stay in bed.
Enjoy Life—With Love, Barbara
P.S. Thanks for the card.
The top song playing on the airwaves this week is a sexy sounding one by a group called SILK called FREAK ME.   I guess it’s easy to be freaked out.  That’s the feeling I get when I see a rodent unexpectedly while in New York City. 
Alan says, “You look for them.  That’s why.”
“Yeah, right…I’m just being cautious.”
I just hope I don’t get that Freak Me feeling when we go to New York at the end of this month.  It’s the worst thing.  I think it stems for when I was a boy at 1447 16th Avenue in Oakland.  The first house my mom and dad owned.  They had put a mouse trap in the kitchen.  I had to see it…dead on the trap.  As a child it’s a lifelong unforgettable vision of terror.   I also have nightmares from seeing that movie WILLARD (from 1971).  Why on earth did I go to see it?  Grrrr….
 “Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”  ― Rumi

He Needed To See The World

“No one can develop every side of themselves.  Life is so rich.”  --Hans Fallada aka Rudolf Wilhelm Frederich Ditzen, EVERY MAN DIES ALONE
I was surprised when Lottie Powell called me a while back to inform me that she was living in Alaska.  I guess her firefighter husband got an offer he couldn’t refuse.  She wrote me a self-created postcard.  I loved the images she pieced together.  Lottie wrote the following words:
May 12, 1993
Hi Michael!
We are still in Fairbanks, Alaska!  Since I spoke to you on the telephone things have improved.  The weather has taken an upswing.  It should be near 70 degrees this weekend.  One of my sisters is coming to visit in June…and I have a couple of people to visit with.  We may head out to Denali National Park this weekend.  It is approximately three hours from here and we hope to see Grizzly Bears, Caribou, Moose, etc.  Reida will love it.  She is finally feeling better.  A month of being sick and three trips to the doctor she is my little happy camper again. 
I hope you have a wonderful trip to New York.  Don’t forget to send a postcard.  I need wall art here. 
Thank you for listening to me on a down day. 
Say hello to Alan for us.  Take care.  Always,  Lottie.
I was excited to see the movie LOST IN YONKERS.  I saw the play On-Broadway a couple of years ago and the actress, Mercedes Ruehl, won the TONY Award for the play.  She is also playing the lead role in the movie.  Alan and I saw it together.  
It was funny (an ideal comedy-drama written by Neil Simon).  The story is set in 1942 in the Bronx area of New York City.   Alan attended the Bronx High School of Science, so the story meant more to me.   The story starts off as Evelyn Kurnitz has just died following a lengthy illness.  Her husband, Eddie Kurnitz, needs to take a job as a traveling salesman to pay off the medical bills incurred.  Eddie decides to ask his stern and forbidding mother, from whom he is slightly estranged, if his two early-teen sons, Jay and Arty (whom their Grandma calls by their full given names, Yakob and Arthur), can live with her and their Aunt Bella Kurnitz in Yonkers.  His mother refuses at first but reluctantly agrees after Bella threatens to leave her if the boys aren't allowed to stay…
Dorothy Rua wrote to me once again using a country life setting photo card which looked ideal for ‘tea for two’.  The other card depicted a young boy relaxing on the railroad tracks with an umbrella and a globe which clearly seemed to imply that ‘he needed to see the world’. 

Dear Michael,
What I didn’t realize until I found myself sitting across from you on Saturday was just how much I needed to be with you.   Throughout the past four or five months I felt myself slipping.  Slipping into one of those dreaded pods, losing touch with the real Dorothy again.  I’d been struggling to find that pilot light so I could get some of my fire back.  Then you came…
I want to THANK YOU again for lunch.  It was such a treat.  The food was really good and the wine was excellent.  I’ll always “remember my first time” at CHEZ PANISS, especially because I shared it with you.
I so enjoyed the time we were together and I’m glad it rained.  It seemed to make the day even more special.  Don’t know if I can say the same for those parking meters!
I can’t begin to tell you how much your PARIS 1953 card, your verbal explanation of it and your written words, meant to me.  I didn’t say much at the time because I was afraid I’d reveal more of my thoughts than I should.  Your thoughtfulness always brings out strong feelings in me.  How do I tell you how much I appreciate you?
Oh Monday morning a coworker looked at me and said, “You are absolutely glowing.   What did you do this weekend?”
I mentioned the different things I did throughout the weekend and then she asked, “Who or what has given you that glow?”
I met Jan for a drink that same evening after work and she asked the same questions, the answer, of course, was your company.
Anyway, I’d love to have enough time to start that book.  I’d like to have time to read “VOX”. 
By the way, I’m taking it on my weekend cruise.  That’s right, Rosemarie convinced me I HAD to go.  She found this great deal for the two of us.  Leave on the 20thof May and return Monday (her Birthday).  I asked her “How can I fly to L.A. and not see Michael?”
She knows how important you are to me, but I know a few hours with youy aren’t what I want.  We aren’t going to be there very long and when I come down to spend time with you I want the whole weekend.  As you said in your card, I can spend time walking on the beach while you’re at work, enjoying time together when you’re free.   And as you said there’s always GEOFFREY’s restaurant in Malibu to share.
My friend, Jan, just bought a second home in Pismo Beach and she wants me to go down with her for a weekend sometime.  First question I asked is “How close is it to Marina del Rey? 
Love, Dorothy
I find myself reading and trying to interpret Dorothy’s thoughts in-between her sentences.  She’s not hard to read, or is she?
Listening is an effort that ages the face, makes the neck muscles ache, and stiffens the eyelids looking fixedly at the speaker…not only listening, but interpreting.
--COLETTE
THE PURE AND THE IMPURE

Hillside Vista

“It’s good to think about such things in advance, that way nothing will surprise you.”--Hans Fallada aka Rudolf Wilhelm Frederich Ditzen, EVERY MAN DIES ALONE
Dorothy Rua had some words to share on a recent card that depicted a Hillside Vista.  I think her dream is to wake up every morning to see the views of a Hillside Vista.  Who in their right mind would not have that dream?   She wrote:
5-6-93
Dear Michael,
As always, really glad to find your card waiting in my mailbox.  I really liked the “self-portrait”.  I have a few glasses with De Grazias Art painted onto them.  I do enjoy his work.
Time continues to fly without fitting in all of the things that need to be done and the things I want to do.  Going to the movies, heading to the beach and visiting with good friends are a few of the things I want to do, actually need to do to get back into balance.
Glad to hear you’re still making time for movies and assorted fun activities.  I’ll probably get to see them in video!
This Sunday (Mother’s Day and my Birthday).  I want to have a nice breakfast/lunch and see a movie, then put my feet up with a good book before heading out for a great dinner.  That’s PLAN B.  PLAN A will have to wait because I can’t swing a week on the coast/ocean right now.  When I do get my feet on the sand I’d better be running…running all of that food off of my bottom.  Haha!

Have been checking out other areas of employment and I have not had the success I want.  As usual, they all want SUPER EMPLOYEE and want to pay a big $20,000 per year.  Wow!  Hold me back!  Have to keep looking and believing a positive change/move is possible.
RoseMarie and I are planning another evening out next week (her Birthday is the following week) and I am looking forward to it.  She always asks how you are doing.   She knows how important you are to me.  Someday we’ll all get to meet, including Alan….Twenty pounds less, as far as I’m concerned (meaning my weight).
Think of you often and looking forward to those tunes when you have time.Love,  Dorothy

While listening to music I wrote mom a MOTHER's DAY card using my photo card image of me:
PHOTO:  Michael J Armijio, Amboise, France, 1990
May 9, 1993
Dear Mom,
I don't need to tell you how much 'I Love You' because you know that!
Not only are you my "mommy" but you are one of my very best friends.
I'm looking forward to seeing you over 4th of July and especially your reunion to your old stomping grounds of New Mexico.  Have a Happy Mother's Day.
You know I'll call you!
Love,
Michael Joe ArmijoHe confined himself to humming softly.  Music…sometimes made him feel strong and brave enough to endure any fate.--Hans Fallada aka Rudolf Wilhelm Frederich Ditzen, EVERY MAN DIES ALONE

My Fancy, Expensive Umbrella

Gay sex, incidentally, was something we were even more confused about.  For some reason, we called it “umbrella sex”; if you fancied someone of your own sex, you were “an umbrella”.  -Kazuo Ishiguro NEVER LET ME GO 
Mom tells me it is raining in Alameda.  I don’t miss the April showers.  The clouds don’t seem to merge here in Southern California as often.  Sometimes I do miss opening-up my fancy, expensive umbrella on my way to my San Francisco work building; however, I’d rather have a sunny day and a view of the beach. 
Barbara Reynolds sent me the most adorable postcard of a boy and a clown.  Oddly, the back of the postcard had the imprint:  A young child is lured into the circus on a lonely country road.  A photo by David H Thompson.  Of course, that added a frightening aspect to the photo but I love the image anyway.  Barbara wrote: 
28 April Hi Ya Hiya... Will you take a walk with me to Monkey Island? Like...what movie will it be in July for us?  And what will be your target in August?   Yoga was super tonight.  I’ve been the highest jumper two weeks in a row.  Well...finally! CONGRATULATIONS on your apartment.  Keep it up. Barbara 
To see the printing of a young nine-year-old girl warms my heart.  This one was from my niece, Ashley: 
May 4, 93 Dear Uncle Mike, How are you?  I’m fine.   Woodstock school in California got robbed!!!   We wrote to them cause they are our pen pals.   We get to go see the play ANNIE on May 9th for my Birthday.   I’m going to a party on May 8th.  It’s Soni’s party. Bye! Ashley P.S.  Love U 
Paloma is now taking the easy way out.  I was surprised to see a “typewritten” letter from her.  Shame shame shame...I hope it doesn’t become a habit.  She wrote: 
Sete, le 4 mai 1993 Michael, I am alone at work this morning.  It is very early (7AM) so I decided to use the word processor, maybe this way it will be easier for you to read me (but I guess by now you are used to my writing).  How nice to have a clean letter for once, isn’t it? I pretty much enjoy my new life.  I really enjoy having days off (even if I am sometimes called anyway).  I also like my new apartment.   We have just bought a new bedroom, a black modern one, we are waiting for it.  I hope it will look nice.  I hope it will last.  It is pretty scary.  We really have a lot of responsibilities.  It is hard to be the boss.  You can’t always be nice and it is funny how people don’t treat you the same way.  Well, time will tell... 
We have a couple of friends over this week, Mano and Francois and their little daughter, Jeanne (we met them in Guadeloupe).  Two days ago Sophie came over for the weekend (Regi’s wife) with her two boys (3 year old Arthur and 3 month old Jules).  I like her.  We really had a good time.  It was sunny so we took the kids on a boat.  We were talking for hours.  Regi couldn’t come.  You know he sells and repairs HARLEY DAVIDSONS (that he buys in the States by the way), so he had to go to this big HARLEY DAVIDSON reunion where he won three prizes with his bikes. 
This evening Alexandre’s sister is coming with her husband and their three kids.  They are going to take Jonathan for 2 days in Marseillan (the place where we went to leave Jonathan the evening we had dinner together, where you saw Alexandre’s parents).  It is fun for him to play with his cousins.  I kind of feel bad to leave him alone without a brother or a sister but now anyway the difference of age between them would be too big...and I am not ready to have another one for lots of reasons.  It would be too long to tell you but it is not only because of me but because I am scared for my son.  Life is not always very nice...you never know what can happen.  My friends and family with children and Alexandre try to make me change my mind but I don’t feel like it is a nice present for a baby: to give him life.  Look at all these children dying all over the world.  Anyway that is just for Jonathan that I somewhere feel bad—but who knows maybe he would not get along well wat all with his brother or sister.  
My dad is coming with my stepmother the 28th of this month and my mother is coming with my stepfather the 26th (that date reminds me of something).  My mom always comes for Jonathan’s birthday the 4th of June (he will be 6 years old).   
So in between my job and all of these visits you can imagine I don’t have much time left to watch movies. 

If we can make it because it is going to be harder next year for our holidays, Jonathan won’t be able to miss school anymore.  Maybe for our next vacation we will go to the States...first Albuquerque (so tell me if you like it there); then we would go to California to see you and I guess to San Francisco.  I would like to show Berkeley to Alexandre.  Every year before the holidays I say that next year we won’t go anywhere and just rest here (and save money) but hen after a few months I start planning again.  And after my holidays I am more tired than before!  I told you that’s a tough life! I have to stop writing now.  I have a job interview at 10, I need to hire a new girl for the reception, the one coming is called Samantha James and she is British, maybe this way I will be able to practice English. Miss you, Love, Paloma 
It was too much work to remember things you might not have again, and so one by one they opened up their hands and then let go. --Ann Patchett, BEL CANTO, a novel 

Map Of The Human Heart

How do you know you’ve made a great work of ART?  A great work of ART is something as real as reality itself, and sometimes even more real than real.  --Viet Thanh Nguyen, THE SYMPATHIZER, a novel 
Fun, random card from Alan today: 
April 24, 1993 Michael - Just a few minutes ago, I felt just like the guy in the photo.  Let’s do it again. I love that feeling!  More than 2x a year. Alan 
The following day I sent a postcard to Paloma.  I couldn’t wait to use the new SPACE AGE .29 cent stamps that I had just bought. 
4-25-93 Paloma, 
Congratulations on your exciting and busy move to Cap de la Corniche.  It sounds exciting to be all caught-up in a new work environment (and a new place to live).  Someday, I hope to visit.  I sure do miss you. Here are just a few lines to let you know I got your last letter.  I saw the ACADEMY AWARDS, of course.  There are a lot of new movies coming out, too.  I just saw INDECENT PROPOSAL starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore.  It was good.  THIS BOY’S LIFE starring Robert DeNiro and Ellen Barkin is good, too. I’ll be going on a weekend trip to New York from May 28th to May 31st.   My mom, niece Ashley and myself will go to Albuquerque, NM and Santa Fe from Aug 20th to Aug 24th. More later, Love, Michael 
Alan and I went to see an unusual love story film called MAP OF THE HUMAN HEART.  I really liked it but sometimes the ending makes me want to add an epilogue.  It was about a young Eskimo boy (played by Jason Scott Lee) and a metisse (French for half breed) girl, Anne Parillaud, set in Arctic Canada. The story begins pre-WWII with the main characters as children and the beginning of their love, continues through WWII with their love truly and fully blossoming, and ends sometime after the war with the Eskimo boy, now an old alcoholic man meeting a young woman. What sets this apart from most love stories is how it ends, rather how it doesn't end. It doesn't end with your typical "and they lived happily ever after" finale.  One quote in the film made me laugh.  It kind of reminded me of Paloma: “Women are a map.  You’ve got to understand their longtitude, and how much latitude you can take.” 
There are so many great lines in so many films it is not easy to remember them all.  A great film has a lot of dialogue in my opinion.  I love a film that ‘makes me think’ overtime.  Of course, books are best.  They offer words that cannot just be said from dialogue. 
He said, “Call me by your name and I’ll call you by mine,” which I’d never done in my life before and which, as soon as I said my own name as though it were his, took me to a real I never shared with anyone in my life before, or since.  --Andre Aciman, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME 

There's Only One

Words swim farther than a man can walk.--Lawrence Hill, SOMEONE KNOWS MY NAME
Alan and I found another good one this week ‘at the movies’.  We came across BENNY AND JOON, starring Johnny Depp and Mary Stuart Masterson.   
It was the ideal romantic comedy.   It was just what we were in the mood for.   It was kind of cute and original because Benny must take care of his sister Joon:  left to her own devices, she's a tragedy waiting to happen.  When Benny brings his friend's eccentric cousin Sam into his house, he hits it off with Joon.  As Sam and Joon fall in love, Benny becomes jealous.  
If you're one who didn't really like Johnny Depp before you'll surely start to like him after this movie.  There's only one 'Johnny Depp'.

Former coworker, Reed Campbell, went off to Vancouver and sent a postcard for me from there:
4-17-93Hi Michael, Here for a week, sightseeing and a travel convention.  So far the usual dull stuff.  Keep looking for another Michael…but I guess there’s only one.  See you at Christmas…I hope.Best, Reed

And it was a needed weekend getaway for Alan and me.  We flew to Oakland and drove up to a place called Gualala.   We wrote postcards to each other. 
4/20/93Michael, We really didn’t discuss our Anniversary today.  It’s been 27 MONTHS.  I Love You and Want you to know that you’re the greatest.  1993 will bring great things to American Express.  You…I hope the itches have disappeared by now.Love,Alan
One of the greatest gifts we can offer people is to embody non-attachment and non-fear.  Happiness is possible.  True Love is generated from within.  You need to feel complete in yourself, not needing something from outside.--Thich Nhat HanhHOW TO LOVE