206/356 stella

you can tell by looking at her she commands ancient magic. she makes clothes that could make a woman feel like she's a queen & some mysterious handsome man is waiting. i have her to thank for my beloved bella & giovanni.

205/365 jerry

step-cousin, 6 months younger-which mattered a lot when we met at 16. it was christmas eve, i was tanked on 7&7's, he was wearing race car pajamas. we went on to find lots of trouble that wasn't even looking for us.

204/365 tom from guam

has an uncanny ability to pop up & graciously offer his help when it's needed & stays just as gracious whether or not one makes a monetary offering for the assistance. is rarely without a cheery smile & wave. in spite of everything.

203/365 nicky

used to be a muslim. used to live in baltimore. used to take meds for his bi-polar illness. wrote poetry and scripts for children's movies. now he gently panhandles, self-medicates, sleeps outside and is the oldest kind of LA story.

202/365 miguel

may or may not live in the parking lot. usually has a kind word for almost everyone and is the unofficial local spanish-to-english translator. without guile, tells me it doesn't make sense to be alive if you're not happy.

201/365 sy

escaped from bulgaria to palestine during ww2 as a teenaged boy. now he crankily holds court behind a counter in LA-sells milk of magnesia, vintage 80's t-shirts, cheetos & spanish soap. his stories cost nothing & are his most inestimable offering.

200/365 colette

surfer chick-goddess with a weakness for big ole cars. which wouldn't mesh with her greener-than-anyone-i-know life, unless she made them all run on french fry oil. which she does. squeezes more juice out of one day than i do most weeks.

199/365 jackie

spoiled princess of a girl, but so smart & funny & good-hearted you had to like her. used to gather the girls in her rec room when her parents were out of town...drink margaritas, play poker in silly pj's all night.

198/365 christy

used to go & watch her boyfriend & his friends do tricks with their lowrider cars on saturday nights. even then, this blond, blue-eyed slightly goofy & very smart beauty was incongruous among the cholos. but he loved her like crazy. everyone did.

197/365 miss palmer

3rd grade. she wore go-go boots & lipstick & short skirts that even a 3rd grader could recognize as chic. i vaguely recall that she was related to the golfer. i clearly recall my crush on her. she wasn't like other teachers.

196/365 graciela

met her on the beach in san felipe...both of us looking for seashells. used my poor junior-high spanish to find out she was a grandmother. she didn't have running water, but fed me lunch & taught me to make tortillas.

195/365 reynaldo

worked together dropping french fries, we'd never've been such good friends if we'd met at school, i was too rebellious & smart...he was way too cute-- & not quite smart enough. couldn't have been sweeter, though. i hope he still is.

194/365 danny

fancied himself a latin lover. & he certainly was loverly. smooth. charming. smelled wonderful. brought flowers. could dance all night & buy breakfast in the morning. problem was, his wife back home turned out to like all that about him too.

193/365 tim

partner in the terrible "crime" of helping kyung. we got written up & restricted to barracks for a month for "disobeying a direct order." made this goofy california girl, & that redneck from mississippi much closer than we'd ever have been otherwise.

192/365 colleen

grew up a gorgeous surfer-girl in so-cal. grew up again in the 1st gulf war. it amused her buddies to pretend to negotiate more camels & mercedes from a rich saudi in exchange for her. she came back broken & hating men.

191/365 jim

he & madonna had a bad break-up before we met. (she told him she hoped it turned green & fell off) as it turned out, i didn't like his cockiness & persistent sweaty-sock smell & abrupt falling asleep after, any better than she had.

190/365 mick

cabbie in limerick, gave me a tour including the homes of the cranberries. loved clinton & said there was work for him in ireland if we didn't want him. invited him to san diego for golf- a year later, he showed up!

189/265 max

was already my godmother. already someone who'd always, always, no matter what, be on my side. her casual mothering love was so welcome & so bemusing to my complicated & anxious & screwy kid-self. on top of it all, she gave me dewey.

188/365 bill

"once was lost, now is found!"my baby brother. kindred spirit. creator of small empires & tiny philanthropic endeavors. an artist. broken boy. kind & cautious man. quicksilver mind. wickedly funny. couldn't not be creative if he worked at it. amazing grace.

187/365 officer bill

came to school in 2nd grade to tell us how to be good citizens. then he told us we already were good citizens. thrilled, told my mom when i got home. i cried when she said he was a pig.

186/365 lajuanna

meth-head with bad teeth & a good heart--lived next door. once went to sleep with a candle burning & refused to call the fire department. got our garden hose & doused her bedroom through the window. then she went back to sleep.

185/365 "grandpa jug"

my grandpa's dear friend. played poker like a real live hustler, & had a seriously devilish laugh. his voice spoke that he'd smoked like a fiend for years, but there was something tremendously appealing about its timbre. & the jokes it told.

184/365 bobby

of those cousins, he was the teddybear-est. patient, smiled easily, kept us safe. then he decided to keep the city safe & became a cop. took some time, but he doesn't smile much anymore or have a hint of softness left.

183/365 tom

dashing- what else would he be with a bentley? probably owns paisley silk pajamas. definitely owns tiffany martini glasses. marooned by age in texas, he sends his outrage & laughter & intellect with a "FW:" in front of it almost every day.

182/365 john 2

should've been writing for the daily show, instead, toiled in wrinkled shirts & thick glasses, over spreadsheets & ledgers. he's the pocket-protector kind of cute, blushed furiously if you mentioned anything even remotely relatable to sex. candles, batteries, or zucchini, for instance.

181/365 "I am not a plumber" mike

another of the factory's prodigious art talents. head-over-heels with his adorable & smart-as-a-whip daughter. tattoos in all the best places. bought smoothies @ the hustler store. resisted the establishment, & made you want to follow him enthusiastically down that road. (or anywhere else)

180/365 another aunt norma

grandma's sister. another woman in my family that funneled all the artistic & creative energy she had into being a good wife & mother. painting & poetry were "just hobbies." guess her family's glad about that, but the injustice & waste just kills me.

Free Burma

179/365 karen

journey to happiness was arduous, including a marriage that ended shortly after she found her husband was fond of foreign hookers--since their honeymoon 20-some years earlier. she's radiant now...a woman in love with herself, a new man, & the world.

178/365 aundi

rife with captivating paradoxical juxtapositions: gorgeous face & shaved head, writer of beautifully precise, delicate poetry & former featherweight boxer, cerebral scholar with a myspace page. off to england to study theory but her brilliance will likely result in inventing her own.