Something random.

My ex-bookstore manager Michael and I were talking earlier this month, and he recommended a book to me. He said he was telling other people who knew me about it.

"I was reading this book, and the narrator sounded just like Benjie," he said. "Except the narrator was a male whore."

Michael said the narrator of this book, the title of which escapes me, just started stories in the middle (rather than the beginning) and just went on and on about people you'd never even heard about before.

Michael and I used to talk like that when he worked at my bookstore. I'd tell him stories about random ex-boyfriends, estranged friends and other past dramas, acting as though he already knew who they were.

Kris, another co-worker at the store, told me that I was one of the few random-speakers he'd ever known. That just, out of nowhere, I'd start talking about some sort of topic that was both fascinating and completely disconnected from anything related to any topics that had previously been under discussion.

My friend Larry says conversations with me on the phone are delightful because I'll just jump into whatever the hell is on my mind without even bothering to say hello. Larry once told me that I had this fascinating mind that didn't forget much and operated at its own speed. He said he could understand both why I could be really good to know and be completely annoying at the same time.

My train-of-thought runs in a circle. All the connections in my stories that go on in my head aren't vocalized. I apologize to people all the time, for it's sometimes easier than explaining to them why I'm two pages ahead of everyone else in the narrative. Or it's easier to apologize than explain why I know I'm right.

When I first met my friend Lupo, I presented him with a gaggle of essays, telling him that I came with required reading.

To know me well, to get all the references and hints and backstory, you have to read or pay a tremendous amount of attention, I guess.

I'm like a soap opera. You can jump in at any time, no matter how long the show's been on, and eventually you'll figure out everything that's going on.