at some point mira, sam, stephen, spencer, willis and i stood in a circle. i said we should make it into a game where one person turns to face outside the circle, so one person is excluded from the conversation at all times, but no one tells them what they missed when they turn around. when they turned around another person had to immediately take their place as ‘excluded person’ and face outside the circle. this was fun. this deteriorated. spencer and willis each said things to me about coming to the beach the next day. i think willis said ‘rockaway taco.’ i said they should come. saw marie and rachel white walking out of ‘VIP area.’ saw tao talking to maybe two short girls near entrance of ‘VIP area.’ at some point mira and sam and stephen and me decided to walk inside ‘VIP area.’ it was loud. i think i hugged gian before this.

the ‘VIP area’ was mostly empty. remember it as ‘red.’ remember sitting in a group of maybe six people near the back, on a booth facing the room, behind a table, seeing the bar area where we were formerly standing. remember talking about the weed lollipops. mira said she thought tao had bought weed lollipops from the person on the street also. tao and a man in a suit approached table. the man in the suit seemed gregariously preoccupied with other things in the room. something about him reminded me of tom cruise. think i greeted tao by standing and hitting him or something, think we each hit each other playfully. tao said he was leaving because he wanted to do work. i said ‘i bought weed lollipops’ and took them out, i think, expecting to hear about how he bought them too. he said ‘i bought weed from a person on the internet.’ asked what was in his pill box and he said ‘just…adderall.’ the man in the suit seemed to pay more attention. tao introduced him but i didn’t hear. the suit man asked if he could have a weed lollipop and i said ‘if you have five dollars,’ then felt like this wasn’t appropriate, due to tao’s face before he left. i said ‘you can just have one, don’t pay me’ and gave him one.

other things in VIP room: stood away from group/table for a while. forget what incited this. i asked marie to sign my book and complimented her dress. rachel had an e-cigarette. i was smoking my e-cigarette inside. rachel said she did that so i thought it was okay. talked with suit man who i discerned was tao’s editor. they had just come from another party. he asked me things about being a character in ‘taipei.’ felt unable to answer his questions. teeming with enthusiasm and gregarious preoccupation with other things. marie said ‘can you hold this for rachel’ and handed me rachel’s e-cigarette. mira and sam and spencer and ralph passed and said they were going to ‘java dog’ and i said i’d meet them there soon. heard ‘japanese hot dog’ several times. gave rachel her cigarette and i think talked to her a little.