Gloria Calomee

            On Thursday morning I finished translating “Al Cassel’s Air” by Serge Gainsbourg and memorized the first verse. 

            I switched on the heat since it’s damp enough outside that I won’t have to turn on the humidifiers. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice. Soon I’ll be taking it to Alex Wood to have him change the tuners, the nut, the bridge and the first five frets to hopefully solve the tuning problem. 

           Tomorrow I’ll begin a two day stretch of playing my electric guitars. 

            I weighed 86.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            At 13:00 I met my upstairs neighbour David for lunch. It was his birthday and he chose to go to the Shambala next door. I wanted to pay but he insisted so I guess my present to him was letting him buy me lunch. I had the chicken chili with rice and a Himalayan Lager. David always has fried rice because he has a weak stomach. 

            I had time for a 45 minute siesta before getting ready to leave for my appointment to have my upper left tooth extracted. The dentist was not Dr. Singh, who had recommended along with several dentists over the last few years that the tooth should be extracted. This dentist thought the tooth could be saved with a root canal. My periodontist Dr. Xia told me that tooth can’t even be saved with a bone graft. I told her that I agree with Dr. Singh that the tooth should be removed. It took several needles to freeze it without it hurting even when pressed with her finger. As far as I could tell it took a lot of work for her to extract it and it came out in two pieces. She gave me a prescription for some pain killers and I filled it but so far I don’t need them. The pharmacist said I was the second patient from Family Dental that day who came in after an extraction without having been given a prescription for antibiotics. He said he strongly disagreed with that choice. After about four gauze packs at 30 minutes each the bleeding stopped. 

            After the drug store I went straight to Freshco where I bought five bags of green grapes, a pack of raspberries, some bananas, two containers of skyr, a pack of Full City Dark coffee, and a jar of basil pesto. I did a price match on the grapes at $8.80 a kilo. 

            I weighed 87.25 kilos at 20:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 20:35. 

            I’m not supposed have anything but cold liquids for 24 hours so I couldn’t have supper. I drank a glass of water while watching season 1, episode 9 of The Bill Cosby Show. 

            Chet is attracted to Ellen, a substitute teacher at his school, then introduces himself and asks her to lunch. But before he can meet her in the lunch room the principal tells him he has to fill in for the sex education teacher who is sick. The class is an all girl class and since he hasn’t read the chapter they were supposed to discuss he lets them ask him questions. One asks if he’s ever been in love and he says yes. Then another asks why that didn’t lead to marriage. He tells them that he knew her in high school when he was too shy to declare his love. Then he spent four years in the service and then met her at a party where he told her that he loved her in high school. She said she loved him too but now she’s getting married. After class he goes to meet Ellen in the cafeteria and she is mad that he didn’t show up for lunch. But after his explanation she agrees to go to supper with him. He is at home preparing for their date when his brother Brian calls to ask why he isn’t there after promising to babysit tonight. So he calls Ellen and she says she’ll meet him at his brother’s place later. He goes to babysit the two sons and daughter of Brian and Verna. The kids trick him into giving them ice cream, saying they always have it on Thursday nights. Then they ask him to do his somersault trick before they go to bed. He does it and rips his pants. Ellen comes over but then Brian and Verna come home early because the play that Chet recommended was an experimental play that involved audience participation and Brian ended up getting into a fight with one of the actors. Brian and Verna invite Chet and Ellen to stay for dinner. Chet wants to leave but Ellen says they can’t go out with his ripped pants. They have a good time and Chet sees Ellen home, then invites her to lunch or dinner tomorrow but she is leaving for New York tomorrow. They kiss goodnight. 

            Ellen was played by Gloria Calomee, who received an Associate of Arts degree at Los Angeles City College. She became a fashion model and also posed for Jet and Ebony magazines. She studied acting in various workshops and became a contract actor for Columbia. Her TV debut was in an episode of Going My Way. She was in the national tour of the play For Coloured Girls Who Have Considered Suicide. As a singer she did a tour of cabarets and nightclubs across Europe. She was producing director for the Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Centre for ten years. She has written articles and essays for the LA Times, New World Magazine, and The NAACP’s Crisis Magazine.