V.C.O.

One thing never changed: the brilliant charge of their infrequent couplings was darkened by the sense of time flying, never enough time, never enough.
-Annie Proulx
"Brokeback Mountain"

Twenty-five years ago today:

September 6, 1986
Saturday

I woke up and went straight over to mom's house. I did my Happy Birthday sing-a-long for her. Then we went to SAFEWAY to stock up on the goods for the afternoon barbeque tomorrow.

I had intentions of bike riding but I slept instead. You see—I do love to sleep.

By 6PM I had collected more postcards that my mom had stored away. I had fun decorating my wall full of postcards galore.

It was 7PM when Mark Landreth finally telephoned.
"I was wind surfing," Mark disclosed.
"I figured you were out and about. How about I pick you up at about quarter passed eight?"
"Okay, see you then."

After driving to San Lorenzo to pick up Mark I drove to Anne Alberti's apartment in San Leandro, arriving at approximately 8:45PM. We sipped a little champagne and made small talk. Patty was already there.
I said, "You wouldn't believe how I found my bike chain necklace today after it had disappeared two years ago!"
They laughed about that escapade.
Then Mark added, "That's like my dog tag being returned after three years!"
Like I said, it was 'small talk' as we sipped champagne.

Before I knew it the four of us were in North Oakland on College Avenue at ZACHARY's Pizza.
I made a comment to Mark about someone by saying, "V.C.O."
It's another one of my acronym codes that I'd made up.
Mark laughed, realizing the code.
Of course, Anne and Patty kept prying as they were dying to learn what V.C.O. meant. We didn't tell them, keeping it our secret.  It means "Vision the Clothes Off".  That's a major secret code we could not reveal.

By midnight we were in Berkeley (on University Avenue) watching the ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. It was quite an experience. The blond muscle hunk (Peter Hinwood) in the movie reminded me of 'Mark' a little bit.  We all had such a good time.

After we dropped the girls off at Anne's place Mark confided in me by saying, "I really don't want to go out with Patty again—but you should continue to pursue Anne."
"You think so?" I asked.
He just sort of nodded or shook his head in a 'maybe' mode.

I dropped Mark off at his house and we awkwardly--but politely--shook hands goodnight.

"Oh, he's not unbalanced...he's just suffered a severe disappointment."
-J.K. Rowling
"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"