It's after such a Russian takeover, and I'm living in a house with the family from "Eight is Enough", as well as other "refugees" or displaced persons or something, we're all very crowded into one house and trying to work things out. It's not easy. For instance, the bathrooms have low stall doors on them and after waiting to get into one, the boy before me wanted to stop and chat and there are always people coming by so it's hard to get enough privacy to pee. The family's very friendly, though - these other people only just came and are just settling in. I come into the bedroom and this friend of mine wants to talk about the coffee arrangements. She and one of the others - a black girl, younger than me - think it's got to be changed. Something about the $7 a month we pay not covering new equipment. I'm not sure what they're talking about and they're taking it awfully seriously. I feel guilty for some reason, as though the problem is my fault, or maybe I should be taking it as seriously as they are. I give the black girl $5 to start off the contributions and they say some more, then I say, okay, please start over, I don't understand yet - I paid $7 before, and I've just given another $5 to you, now tell me why? They start to talk and just at that moment a whole crowd of people comes through the door, all talking animatedly so we can't hear any more and walking in between us. We give it up. Lots of these people are tenants in this room, some of them new. I get to listening to a guy talking about maybe knocking another window in this blank wall so you can see the sun and I tell him I'd been thinking about bringing a bookcase from my old house and putting it there, maybe we should think about it. I leave the room and find the "mother" of the house in the living room, sitting at a desk - I greet her saying, at last I've found you! - and she says she'd wanted to talk to me about my lip color and how I sometimes am overglossed. I say I never wear lipstick and she talks about not liking to wear it, either, and runs over all the same reasons I really don't bother wearing it, it's a waste of effort. She's a nice lady. Short gray hair. Also somewhere in here there's a kids' theatrical being presented outdoors on a sort of plaza, with a bunch of kids in whiteface with bright pastel Indian-paint on their faces and sort of tutu costumes, singing a musical number in formation with lots of arm gestures.