The Black Queen

First Entry

August 7, 1983

Im in London now. Ten fucking hours from Arizona to London. If only plane rides offered decent looking food then I would eat it. I need to get settled. Im already in my new apartment and I still need to unpack my things and get my side of the room fixed up. Not to mention take a walk around the city to get to know the place. I know I haven't written in you for a while. I've been pretty busy, you know how things are. Thirteen years of writing in a journal. I don't know why I continued, or needed you, I guess you were just a habit I never grew out of. And now I'm referencing you as a person. That's not weird.

My parents were a bit upset of me leaving, but they were happy of course. Being an only child means more expectations of course. And yesterday was the day when their plans were successful. I got a job, well sort of. I told you, right? I got a job at a record company. I'm an assistant to a very important manager in London. Jim Beach is his name. I've never actually heard of him. I start in tomorrow. I'm excited. My first job, on my own, finally independent, just the way I like it. But I do miss everyone at home already. I was just unpacking some of my stuff right now, taking out my belongings, including a photo album. One of the pictures fell out as I was lifting it. It was a photo of me and Marty. My best friend since the first grade. I remember how shamed he was of his name when he first met me. You remember his name don't you? I wrote about him the day after we met. Maybe you can't remember after so many years, but his name is just short for Martes, which is "Tuesday" in Spanish. He hated the fact he was named after a day of the week. I told him my name was kind of dumb, too. I mean come on: Dahlia Florez? As in the flower, and my last name literally translating to flower? Yea, Central American names are weird, take it from us. Anyways, the day I left he was there, which was really nice. We did our handshake before I got into the car, and he began to sing Cielito Lindo as I began to drive away. It was our song. I must confess to you know. I actually was in love with him, I just never got the courage to tell him.

London is a strange but intriguing place. The weather is much different, than from Arizona of course. The people are the same, except, not much Latin Americans, which would be a bit hard to get used to. A lot of cute guys too, but, I'm not going to focus on that quite yet.

I'm almost done unpacking now. I just need to get out the remaining of my clothes. And run down the the store to buy some whiskey and cigarettes. Maybe I'll go down the pub or something. No, never mind, that's a bad idea. I have work tomorrow and I don't want to risk being late. It's 9:30 pm now. It would be 2 pm in Arizona. Everyone's awake at work while I'm off to bed even though I'm not that tired. I'll tell you tomorrow night how the first day was. Good night, querido.

-Dahlia