Left to Fry: The Day I Went To Ironsides With Kirsten After Seeing Sean On Thursday And Interviewing For The Peace Corps On Wednesday

Highlights of the past few days:

- Interviewed with the Peace Corps. Presented myself well, heard what I expected to hear, and now I'm planning to apply for a Sac State Masters program that works alongside Peace Corps service. This means I'm officially en route to becoming a teacher. With an English degree, it was bound to happen eventually.

A young guy opens the door after I ring the buzzer. A middle-aged woman files things at the desk. We shake hands. “I’m here for an interview with Jennifer.” She’s out sick. Nicole will be doing your interview today. Please, have a seat. The place looks like a college teacher’s office—inspirational posters on the wall, bookshelves filled with travelling guides and binders, potted plants, a carpeted floor and plastic chairs. The guy comes back and says Nicole will be with me in five minutes, but now would be a good time to take care of my fingerprints. Red ink, all ten fingers, with the guy holding my fingers and rolling out my identity for permanent record. The machine heats the ink to make it turn black. Moments later I’m in an office with Nicole. It’s an hour long interview. How would you be a leader? How would you handle an uncooperative person? How good are you at adapting to change? What will you do when you’re lonely? Can you tell me about a situation where you had to lead someone very different from you? But first of all, why do you want to join the Peace Corps? “Travel,” I say, “Help,” I say, “Teach English,” I say, “See the world.” I touch on the Sac Press internship (Are you capable of working without structure?), I touch on my Crew Leading at A’romas, I touch on customer service, I touch on Costa Rica, I touch on getting my Masters through Sac State’s Peace Corps TESOL program. I’m qualified because I have a degree. I’d likely be a teacher because it’s an English degree. That’s fine with me. She said I have the right personality, but could use a little more experience to make me a competitive choice for nomination, which I’ve known all along. In the end I realize two things: I’m going back to school and I need to start tutoring some middle-school kids ASAP.

- Bumped into Cayla at the Crocker Museum. She has a new job at Peet's and was perusing the art galleries with a friend from work, Aaron. It was nice to get that one last conversation that I'd been wishing we'd had before she stopped showing up around the bike shop. We wandered apart and lost each other to the art galleries, but the moment was good and the moment was nice.

- Katie and I had a peculiar moment when she was about to drive me home Thursday morning, when I told her that I had plans later Saturday night. She's a sweet girl and I think what we've created is great, but it might not be right for her and I get the feeling things with Katie are going to cool off for a while. Like she said, however, we still have a lot of LOST to watch. Things might be odd for a bit.

- Watched "Brick" again. It's an amazing movie.

- Met a girl named Erin on my way to the Old Soul meeting. It was kind of neat because I walked past her in the alley and stopped, turned around and stared at her as she stared at me, and then she pointed toward the coffee-shop and asked, "Do you come here a lot?" and I said, "I work here," and she said, "I just came here for the first time a couple days ago," and I said, "What's your name?"

- Sean came down. We went to the Crocker and had a bonfire in my backyard.

- I think Tessa is going to go to the Murder By Death show with me on Sunday.

- I think Jessica (from Old Soul) is going to a Valentine's Day party with me tomorrow night at John Johnston's loft. John works for MSNBC and seems like he'd have friends worth bumping elbows with. Plus I'll get to see Jessica all dressed up. Should be fun.

- Visited Blue Bottle Coffee in Oakland.

- My grandmother went with me to Oakland for the interview. We took the train. She bought me lunch at Max's Diner and a return ticket and a Blue Moon on the train. I love grandmas.

- Kirsten walked me to the station in the morning. I sat on something on the Starbucks couch and it left a patchy pale smear on my ass all day.

- I think I have a problem. I can't really feel anything, emotionally. I tried to explain this to Katie. I don't think I was making any sense, and the more I try to explain how vacantly I view the world, the more I just feel like some heartless freak with no compassion. I blame it on being a writer.

- Maybe that's true.

- Maybe I just haven't met The One.

- I've been going through spurts of unusual confidence and self-pity recently. I don't know why I've become the way that I've become. I'm being a nice guy. Relationships just aren't the same to me as they are to others and I consider this a period of rebellion. A guy with as much resistance to love as I have can't try to create another monogamous relationship. They make no sense to me.

- Chris moved. David & Laura moved.

- Kirsten bought me "Scott Pilgrim" on blu-ray for my birthday.

- Drew is starting a literary journal for Sacramento authors with his financial aid money, and seriously.

- Kirsten and I saw Mayor Kevin Johnson at Spin Burger on Tuesday night.

- I need to get a bike because Max is probably moving soon. I was over there the other night hanging out with him and Kat and Pete and Sammy for a little bit, talking about the movies and TV shows of our childhood and playing Super Smash Brothers. Kat's getting a baby belly on her. Had to leave before we watched Mulan to meet Katie for a 7:30 pick up.

- I've sworn off porn.

- I wore my fancy interview outfit two days in a row.

- Meredith said to me this morning, "You look like you got laid last night," and it marvels me how easily she can read me. Jessica was there too. I may or may not be in love with Jessica, but I refuse to allow it because she's too busy and too flaky, just like Zoe was.

- I'm legitimately excited about this Sac State / Peace Corps / Masters Degree idea. It feels right and it feels like a path I've created for myself. It feels good.