30 Nov 06

Time:

?, because despite my best efforts to determine the total length of the midday gym trip from my desk and back again, I was foiled by the (express) Q and R trains, when what I wanted, of course, was the N or the W....

Money:

$6, yogurt, coffee, and a pretty good fat-free berry bran muffin, Cafe University.
$6, pet food, gym store.
$12, lunch-for-dinner, the usual place (duh.)
$4, maple macchiato, campus Starbucks.

More interesting things:

Walked past a lone running shoe in the middle of the sidewalk along University Place. It was an old but decent shoe - Asics, I think - and I can't quite fathom how it got there. It occurs to me now that maybe it, like, fell out of someone's gym bag or something, because if it started out on a foot, how did its owner keep trucking? Barefoot in the city?

Read an email from my grandfather that tied together a bunch of weird but exceptionally pleasant contrasts of place. His note was full of updates about Gainesville, of course, but I sat enjoying it here: an email from HIS desk near MY university, read at MY desk at HIS university.

Walked, gloriously unencumbered, having left my stuff in the recesses under my "study carrel," to Metro and the bank, past a creative guy whose sign said, "Fuck milk! Got cash?"

Stood waiting a long time for the N (after the fascinating trips back and forth to Union Square with a slightly sketchy wait at Prince Street in between) with a bunch of people who obviously had already been waiting quite awhile when I got there; upon its appearance way down the tunnel, a guy just a few feet down the platform from me let out an honest and entirely unrestrained "YEAAA!"

Passed not just a Florida license plate on my street as I made it back to my apartment but one from good ol' PBC. It's weird to think that in the head of the person who drove that car here is very likely some of the same information about Military Trail and Delray Beach and so on as lives in my head, but both our heads are in Manhattan.

29 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$3, oatmeal and coffee, Cafe University.
$26, pet food AND the vintage-looking hat, gym store.
$16, turkey burger and some wings, Josie Wood's.

More interesting things:

Decided that the cool but definitely not unpleasant breeze that blew as I was leaving for the gym reminded me of begonia weather. Unfortunately Manorhaven Park is not exactly walking distance from here.

Read, as I heffed my way through an uphill treadmill walk, a bit on the news ticker about a guy who got poisoned by his aquarium fish. I'm sorry that he got bitten or whatever, of course, but I'll have to admit that I was paying at least as much attention to the weirdness of getting news from none other than East Rockaway as part of the local update as I was to anything fish-related.

Listened to a short and relatively mild string of obscenities from a trio of maintenance workers in the gym stairwell - something about some "fucking thing" - and got an "excuse me" and a careful apology along with it when they realized I must have heard what they had said. I told them they couldn't offend me, but since they were on their way down and I was on my way up, the flights of stairs that were already between us kept them from seeing how hard I was trying not to laugh.

Saw a kid in a stroller as I ate my breakfast who was either the boy I described in a much earlier post as deserving of the name Dandelion, or Dandelion's little brother.

Admired a many-stories-high red ribbon and bow, done in lights on the side of a building near Rockefeller Center, and the tree itself in bright colored lights and sparkly will-o'-the-wisp-looking things as well. It becomes more obvious every time I hit a new block that the lights in this city are nothing to joke about, just something to smile hard over.

Found a restaurant (I guess) near Rockefeller Center that I'm going to have to try. The whole front is done completely in thick wintry greenery, and, for some reason, a whole troop of lawn jockeys.

Walked, on my way to Grand Central, past a guy in suit and pipe, puffing away and following some stocks-related announcement showing on a news channel in the window of one office building or another. If he'd had a monocle or something, it might have been even better, but short of that it couldn't be beat.

Got on the train at said terminal ahead of a guy who had been waiting there before me, per his invitation. I told him I knew he'd been there first, but he just smiled, bowed a little, and gestured again for me to get on. (And what campaign is this for?)

28 Nov 06

Time:

Left apartment (having forgotten my phone... duh) 702, arr gym 725.

Money:

$4, yogurt and coffee, Cafe University (that's what the red place on the corner is called.)
$11, an okay Fontina-and-mushroom sandwich, 'Wichcraft.
$8, macchiato, fruit, and yogurt, campus Starbucks.
$12, drunken noodles (again), Galanga
$4, coffee and granola bar, Think.

More interesting things:

Learned that my desk is in fact my desk, and that at least to a small extent Professor Alpha is looking forward to my colonization thereof, because then "we'll be able to, you know, hang out!"

Saw a silver-and-black lamp on the East guard's desk that was very obviously the non-clip version of that one I had in college all those years.

Had a very interesting discussion regarding "roadmaps" with Professors Number One and Five; Five said I was a loudmouth, One said I was very well-behaved, and Five came back with "She must be scared of you!", at which point I jumped in with the comment that Professor Number One is indeed "rough and tough." It didn't occur to me right away that this is kind of an Army term and that normal people don't necessarily know what it means, so I followed Number One down the hall to her office to explain, with a lot of laughing, that it was 100% complimentary. I stuck with her until just before class, when we trooped downstairs together and shared a laugh once again when someone used the word "tough" during a presentation. I don't know who's taking over when she's gone, but whoever it is has some impressive shoes to fill.

Heard that on being asked about the course for the Spring, Professor Alpha replied that I would be sending an email because I "take care" of him. All I can say there is, damn skippy and I still barely believe it.

27 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$4, yogurt and coffee, University Deli (?).
$3, peach Enviga, Delion.
$6, pet food, gym store.
$12, drunken noodles, Galanga.
$5, orange juice and granola bar, Think.

More interesting things:

Felt like I was under (an admittedly rather cool) Florida sky when I left my house at 650 this morning. It was those golden rumply-carpet-looking clouds out east, and they stretched across the whole view.

Collected my first Komondor sighting.

Collected my first USF-pants sighting, on a girl who apparently had something to do with the Bulls' dance team, tromping past the gym.

Wondered about a Dalmatian who looked to be waiting for someone behind the gym. It turned out his owner was walking just behind us, but as Roey pointed out, it was all very appropriate: we were across the street from Engine 7, FDNY.

Saw, while we were eating breakfast, the same three-spaniel troop that wafted by me last week, sniffing my ankle as they went.

Appreciated the efforts of the hot dog vendor on 14th and Broadway, who livened up his menu signs with plenty of silver tinsel. (Now, of course, his cart's physical appearance matches the scent it gives off, which as Roey noted yesterday is the smell of "Christmas in New York.")

26 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$12, an excellent brunch, Craft Bar.
$4, mocha, campus Starbucks.
$20, a good burger and some slightly weird barbecue wings, Dewey's Flatiron.
$6, cappuccino all'Amaretto and cannoli, Caffe Dante.

More interesting things:

Decided that, for some reason, the weather was summery somehow. It might have been because even the breeze seemed mild - not warm, but not cutting, I guess - or it might have been something else. But it was definitely not autumnal.

Met two Scottish Deerhounds so enormous I thought they were Irish Wolfhounds at first. Their person informed me that they were just nine months old (!), and let me pet them at length. (Not that she would have had an easy time doing anything else once they had decided that's what they wanted to do; she was barely taller than them herself.)

Found myself - and my various compatriots - somewhat transfixed by a gamma board featuring weird poetry lines (or something) lit up white. Someone suggested that it must be a publisher's building, at which point I realized the symbol in the terrazzo did indeed look familiar, but it was kind of hard to think about that when I felt like reading the next line that would pop up.

25 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$30, dinner and beverages, Jack Russell's.

More interesting things:

Spotted, while still in Florida, a luggage tag marked with a 516 phone number. Of course, since we were in fact headed back to New York, this was not exactly surprising, but it reminded me of hearing the words "Delray Beach" in Penn Station, and I enjoyed it for the same reasons.

Sat on the plane next to two (ostensibly) rough-and-tough hunters who really did not like flying. More interesting, however, was that in response to his friend's question about how magazine photographers managed such cool shots of bucks and does and whatever, one commented that "Those pictures come from deer farms! Where they breed deer!" My only question, then, is: do they really have such a thing? What do they do with the deer? It's not exactly Golden Retrievers we're talking about here.

Saw a big ol' (for a personal jet, anyway) plane out away from the main terminals at West Palm marked "TRUMP" on the fuselage.

Stood in a slightly insane line to get a new Metrocard before I realized that the main craziness was for people waiting to do business with the station attendant, not for the machines. Even so, there were still lines involved, and when an older couple who had been behind me before we figured out where we actually needed to wait got up to a machine before I did, they offered to let me jump ahead of them. Now, I'm quite sure that these people did not live in the city, but I'm going to add it to the New Yorkers ARE Polite Campaign anyway; we can have a special visitors' section if it's necessary.

Decided that I am never so happy to see the E as when it's important to my trip back from the airport. This is not to take away from the value of being down south; I'm very fond of Florida and of course I love my family, my dogs, and my house. But getting back here is still really nice, and it always seems like that particular point of the return trip is when I suddenly remember where it is I'm returning to.

Listened to a small boy with his dad and his older sisters, I guess, on the subway. He had a little stuffed cat and a cowboy hat, which of course meant he spent most of the trip talking about the cat sitting IN the hat, the cat sitting ON the hat, the cat sitting UNDER the hat, so on and so forth. I was pretty impressed with his prepositions, but even more so when he hung the cat by its paws from the string of the hat and announced that it was a "cat in a PARACHUTE!"

Admired the Christmas lights and garland at Jack Russell's. It's pretty dark in there, and when you add all those little sparks it glows the way I like so much.

24 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$0, since I didn't really leave the house.

More interesting things:

Napped, watched television, and played some pirates video game with my little sister. It was the only restful section of the break, and I enjoyed being home.

23 Nov 06

Time:

Left apartment on airport shuttle 237, arrived Terminal 6 310.

Money:

$0, airplane Screwdriver, in honor of Thanksgiving (the fact that it was free, I mean, not drinking it in the first place), somewhere over the eastern U.S.
$4, maple macchiato, PBI Starbucks.
$12, more coffee - for all of us, this time, Glades Road Starbucks.

More interesting things:

Decided that while walking is unquestionably the best way to get around this place, there is something to be said for driving as well. It's because of scale. When you're on foot, things - restaurants, stores, bars, etc. - come up quite slowly, and your mental record of any particular spot's physical context is on a micro-scale. It can be hard to remember details that way, even if you are more directly immersed in the environment. In a car, on the other hand, it is much easier to see how large chunks of space relate to each other, and blocks start to seem as small as they actually are; it's the macro-scale. (But that doesn't mean I'm going to start taking cabs.)

Rode under some overpass on the way out of the city and only realized that a Long Island Rail Road train was rumbling by because of the glowing-red destination signs. It was cool to think about rail cars criss-crossing these islands at all hours of the day and night; this city really doesn't sleep, and it doesn't worry about letting the suburbs get too much rest either.

Watched a middle-aged guy examine a fallen palm frond as we all waited to be let up to the security checkpoint at JFK. I'm not sure what was so fascinating about it, other than the way it showed that the pot it sat in also contained a real live tree, but you wouldn't think that would inspire an entire minute of careful inspection; you'd kind of get the real-tree idea after about two seconds of looking at the leaf. Of course, it's not as if I had any absorbing plans for a 4am wait in a quiet airport, so maybe he was just trying to pass the time.

Laughed - quietly, so as not to make my neighbors nervous - at a jetBlue guy who decided that West Palm Beach - 6:00 - Flight 831 was not a gate-sign message festive enough for that particular morning and so tried to add "Happy Thanksgiving!" on the line that normally provides the airline's web address. That was cool enough, really, since I'm always glad to see the human behind something like an electronic sign, but when he realized he couldn't fit the whole thing, stopped and thought about it for a second, and then came back with "Happy Turkey Day!", I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Remembered Professor Alpha's comment left on on the answering machine of one of his colleagues, which sounded remarkably like one I'm fond of making myself: on hearing, evidently, the announcement that "You've reached the So-and-So's", he responded, "No, I haven't, actually... I've reached the So-and-So's answering machine," and concluded with "Happy, happy, happy turkey, turkey... turkey.... Yeah."

Listened to some turkey noises. As I waited for my people to pick me up outside PBI, some spirited soul came over the loudspeaker with "Gobble, gobble! Gobble... gobble... gobble!" Which is, of course, exactly what I did when I got home. It was an excellent Thanksgiving, featuring all the correct food items - sausage stuffing, pecan pie, and so on - PLUS Irish herb butter. Excellent.

22 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$13, Phad Thai and (free) Shrimp Fritters, Spice on University Place.
$6, maple macchiato and raspberry scone, campus Starbucks.
$20, leaf plate, Williams-Sonoma.
$25, black leather gloves, Filene's Basement uptown.
$16, an excellent chicken-and-mozzarella panini with sweet potato fries, Pita Grill (delivered!)

More interesting things:

Admired a great coat on a guy in the subway. It was one of those dark brown-looking sort of understated plaid designs - I'm sure it has an official name, but I certainly have no idea what it might be - and a woolly brown collar, and I wanted to see if it was as fuzzily soft as it looked. I couldn't very well reach out and pet the guy, but Grand Central was kind to me: the fast turns just before stopping caused him to brush hard against my arm - and the coat felt as nice as it looked.

Walked all around the place after my interview with one of the student-teachers. We went to the Time Warner Center, which is more of a very upscale mall, walked up from there to Anne's house to make sure the champagne glasses she'd bought at said mall did in fact match the two she already had, hiked up to the region of the parade preparations (77th and CPW; the balloons were absolutely terrific), came back down a little to go to Filene's, and split up there - I walked a few blocks up to get the crosstown bus, and she headed home.

Found myself grinning uncontrollably at the giants resting in the blocks around the Museum of Natural History before their big day tomorrow. Snoopy and Big Bird both looked kind of like they were taking naps, but Scooby's gigantic head was up and ready for the rest of him to try to catch up. The atmosphere, as Anne pointed out, is irrepressibly festive, and you cannot help but be carried along on the happy tide; this, unquestionably, is the town to be in on the day before Thanksgiving.

Floated along on that tide for all the rest of the circuitous trip home. We went past a market that introduced me to the oddly pleasant scent combination of roses and bacon and meandered - no, really; that's what it was - down a quiet street filled with old apartments and a new(ish) police station that together all glowed gold. Lights are up on trees and over roadways, and apartment windows add to it, now that it gets dark so early. You've got to love a season that makes a city luminous.

Was pleased to be able to tell the person sitting next to me on the bus a) where she could get off for the 5, b) which direction the Bronx was in, and c) what side of the street she should get to in order to be headed that way. I mean, I like to know things anyway, but to be able to help someone out a little AND remind myself that I really do kind of know about living here is a particularly nice way to go.

22 Nov 06

Time:

Alarm went off 1010, on my way out of the gym (after a half-hour run) 1150, lounging in Pless 1210.

Money:

$5, pet food, gym store.
$4, a pretty good chai latte, Oren's.
$13, very tasty Massaman Curry that would have been even better without the potatoes, Galanga (that's the "g's" place I've mentioned twice now...)

More interesting things:

Spotted, like, a fire chief's Suburban outside the gym, but I could tell without even looking hard that it wasn't a city truck. Getting a little closer allowed me to see that it came, in fact, from none other than Franklin Square.

Got inspected by one of a three-pup troop of golden-brown Cocker Spaniels - little brown Granties!

Watched, shortly thereafter, a small parade led by a very furry and bear-like black Chow, with a good-looking Golden Retriever in the middle and an appropriately spotty Dalmatian bringing up the rear.

20 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$6, pet food, gym store.
$4, maple macchiato, campus Starbucks.
$12, regular lunch (but for dinner!), regular place...

More interesting things:

Noticed a sign in front of... Annie's Vegetable Market, I think? reminding patrons that no dogs were allowed in the store but that "The Flowerman Will Hold Your Pets." First of all, I didn't realize "flowerman" was a single compound noun, but I like it. And second, does he know that's part of his job description? I mean, is it something he discussed with his boss? What if someone wants to buy a bouquet when he has hands full of Irish Wolfhounds?

Agreed with Roey, in a truly odd turn of the conversation yesterday, that the old Toyota "Dogs Loooove TRUCKS!" commercials were works of genius. Excellent.

Got an email back from someone at Starbucks about that comment card Anne and I had filled out awhile ago, telling us that the supervisors at the "West Fourth Street store" would be informed about their employees' great work. I hope that's true, because they really do crack us up.

Enjoyed thoroughly a series of conversations with my fabulous Violet friends. I always appreciate being reminded of Johnny B.'s point that it is so pleasant and somehow kind of surprising - no matter what kind of high self-esteem you have - to realize that people you really like happen to like you back just as much.

19 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$10, pancakes, one or another of those coffee shops.
$12, burger and fries, Jack Russell's.
$11, ticket for A Good Year, 86th Street.

More interesting things:

Saw a guy in a Gator visor. It's not exactly visor weather these days - at long, long last - but I guess it's always a reasonable time for something orange-and-blue... shades of the Ol' (traitorous) Ball Coach, right?

Enjoyed A Good Year, although it was a little weird in some respects, and even weirder since I can't quite identify what those respects might be. It was certainly a pretty movie, though - in setting AND casting, thank you - and I'm glad I saw it.

18 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$14, half a great pastrami sandwich, matzo ball soup, and half a piece of coconut cake, Katz's.
$more than that, beverages, Peculier Pub.
$14, cab ride home (!)

More interesting things:

Rode a very crowded train down to the Village to meet Anne at Katz's. Two youngish guys - older than college students, but not by much, maybe - got on with a bag containing two six-packs and included me a couple of times in their conversation, most notably when a) they joked about the Jheri curl on a greasily ringleted guy and b) one offered me his half-full can. This didn't come out of nowhere; he had apologized for bumping into me a little at an abrupt stop, so I told him "You're cool, you guys have beer...", whereupon he told me he really didn't want to have to throw it away when he got off the train. I didn't take it, of course, which was probably good for a variety of reasons, but I appreciated the offer.

Noted also that if I rode the Friday afternoon school bus yesterday, this was the Saturday night version: fully three-quarters of the reason the car was so packed had to do with people under the age of eighteen. Where they were going and what they were planning to do when they got there, I have no idea - but I'm glad you need an ID to get into the pub.

17 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$6, pet food, gym store.
$18, Cuban food ordered in - it was quite good - at Anne's.
$13, yogurt, strawberries, and Pepsi, Gristede's.

More interesting things:

Rode towards Union Square with the subway version of the Iron Chef America judges' panel. On one bench, a guy was drinking Starbucks, a very small boy was thoughtfully consuming a bag of potato chips, and the lady who had been walking in front of me on the street worked away at one of those little chocolate-looking cake things from the bakery, which was impressive since you don't get to see forks in action on the train too often.

Watched the Princeton swim team check in at the gym's front desk, and was pleased to discover that although it is a little better tempered in this atmosphere - I did not line up with hundreds of other Violets to make rude noises at them as they made their way onto campus, probably because nothing athletic is viewed as all that fascinating here but on a personal level more because I already have a place to do that - forceful comments like, "You're gonna lose... you're gonna LOSE!" still leapt from my tongue. I just kept it quieter than I would have somewhere else.

Ran into Anne's husband as I left the gym; I always keep one eye peeled for him anyway, but since it's generally peeled in the direction of his store, it was quite amusing to see him on the street.

Realized that the Earth really DOES sort of angle away from the Sun at this time of year. I figured this out because while 1440 is a pretty well-lit minute in Florida no matter what season it is (well, unless it's raining for real), here all it took was one fairly measly, sketchy cloud in front of the Sun to make it look DARK outside - like, maybe, mid-evening down south.

Left the local to catch the express at Union Square only to follow Roey back onto another local when we realized how packed the other would be. Someone watching would have thought we were taking some kind of recreational interlude on the platform, but getting back on a later version of the train we'd started on afforded us a) a lot more room, b) the opportunity to feel like we were riding the Friday afternoon school bus home (which, in effect, we kind of were), and c) the chance to hear an older guy, who had in some way been annoyed or offended by one of the little creeps on the school bus, tell the kid "to go get smashed in the face, you little cocksucker." Awesome, and entirely worth the platform rest stop.

Saw, as I waited for the crosstown towards Anne's house, a NYC Parks Enforcement truck, ostensibly containing a city ranger. Pretty cool.

Heard, once I had gotten on the bus, a soft dinging sound from somewhere near the front, followed by an equally soft but still distinct "Aw, shit" from the driver. It didn't appear to indicate anything really terrible - I made it all the way across the park and to my stop with no problems - but it did seem like the sound and the comment were connected, and now I have to wonder what it means when a bus starts dinging.

Smiled inwardly as a lady who had just come into the station where I waited for the train home pulled a neighborly "left-right" move, presumably to figure out either from which direction the train would arrive or which direction was up- or downtown. (Of course, that doesn't matter much, if you've read the signs over the stairwells coming into the stations, but I suppose she might just have been double-checking.)

Listened to yet another one of those ostensibly homeless guys with a long prepared speech about why we should hand him some money and/or food, and who even paused so we could all understand what the conductor was telling us at each stop. He's right, of course - there really are people whose lives head downhill fast and who could use whatever specks we've got in our pockets - but the unfortunate thing is that every time I hear one of these speeches, I find myself wondering less about how much change I have on me and more about whether these guys have, like, presentation coaches and speechwriters or if they come up with it all and practice by themselves. They're so similar in delivery that it seems someone must have helped them, but if that's true, who does it? Is it, like, a department of one of the homeless aid agencies? Is there a PR person whose version of contributing to society is helping to develop professional-sounding explanations and requests? And this is why I don't have to bring the New Yorker with me everywhere I go.

16 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$3, more Enviga, but berry this time, Delion.
$13, fava bean hummus and baklava, Hummus Place.

More interesting things:

Sat in the library waiting to go over to the lecture on research and watched a faculty-type guy blow past with a black oilskin under his arm.

Walked from dinner to the West 4th Street station (since it was raining, AGAIN), passing an impatient cab driver tapping his horn at the business van in front of him, causing the driver of that vehicle to get all the way out of the seat and bellow, "SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY!" at the cabbie. For all this city's reputation as a haven for people with dockworker mouths, I really haven't heard too much interesting language. (Of course, folks like this guy make up for it in amusingly concentrated ways....)

15 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$2, diet lemon Snapple tea, which was warm and not as good as the raspberry kind anyway, Delion Market.
$3, peach Enviga, which was cold and quite tasty, Delion Market.
$13, turkey burger and a Stella, Josie Wood's.

More interesting things:

Found that the stairs down to the express platform were roped off, and although I found this mildly annoying, I had nothing on one of my fellow commuters, who responded to the situation with a loud and completely unreserved "Fuck this! What happened NOW?" and a further string of obscenity-laced commentary that, thankfully, faded into the background noise as he huffed his way down the platform.

Had the relevant features of Grand Central's layout explicated for me (and everyone else on my train) by a conductor with the deep and thoughtful voice of a movie star or possibly Barry White's younger brother. I mean, this guy took his time and made it sound like the Metro-North upstairs was an absolutely scintillating transportation possibility outdone only by the "shuttle, going to Times Square, taking you to the west siiiide." Whew.

Went to ask Professor Alpha about the course number for our January revival of an ancient jewel and got pointed at, which evidently served as a reminder for what he was about to say, and boy am I glad he came up with it: he offered me, "since we're finally taking care of you - it takes awhile, but it does happen!" a cubicle. Furthermore, it has a computer, and an excellent geographical location - that is, within spitting distance of the corner office belonging to Alpha himself. I can sum up my reaction by saying that as I walked down Washington Square East towards the library, it was approaching modern-day shades of the "holy shit!" walk from Norman Hall to Graham Pool on that oppressively hot day six (!) years ago now.

Thought a little more about offices and came up once again on a thought I'd had before: it's true that this university practically closes up on Fridays, and it's equally true that Professor Alpha, for instance, does not come to work on Mondays. However, where Dr. B. could easily run (literally, or bike or drive) home between classes, or between class and office hours, the same is much less true here, since for at least Professors Alpha and Number Four, the commute is a relatively long and drawn-out one. Thus, when they're here, they're really here - you can generally count on finding people in their offices if you know it happens to be a day when they're on campus at all, which is a nice change for me.

Spotted a van which, like apparently all business vehicles operating in the city, had its company's name and address on the door: Washtenaw Avenue, which I knew even before I read the next line was found in none other than Ann Arbor. Maybe I'll get East Lansing or even Austin next....

Walked from The Gap towards the unfittingly-named Caffe Pane e Ciocolatte with Anne, passing an unusually jolly homeless guy as we went; Anne was smiling anyway, but I happened to be concentrating on figuring something out and therefore, I guess, did not appear joyous enough for this guy's liking, which he expressed by calling out after us, "Hey, smile! It's downhill right here!" (He was right, but that's not why I started grinning even as I determined where I would buy a soda!)

14 Nov 06

Time:

Got off the train at Union Square 819, on treadmill 839, headed back upstairs and out of the gym 934 (it was just a half-hour run day).

Money:

$12, the old lunch from the old place (even though they were out of portabellos, which should have been a clue to skip it).
$4, iced mocha, campus Starbucks.
$13, my excellent philosophical noodles, Thai place on W. 4th (which is called something involving a bunch of g's... the letter, I mean, not the kids who think they're cool.)

More interesting things:

Saw an elkhound of one Nordic persuasion or another - I can't keep the Swedish ones straight from the Norwegians - and a nice furry golden retriever, both of whom reminded me that I also collected my first Gordon Setter sighting yesterday.

Found, as I walked along Washington Square East, that fall is really and truly here, even if it was too warm for the long black coat I grabbed to wear over my sweater in my mad dash out of the house this morning. I think the rain has accelerated the leaves' dropping process, and between that and the cool breezy gray, it seemed like I should have been on my way to Dr. Rieger's office for a dreaded check-up rather than headed for meetings with professors.

Enjoyed an unusually large number of said meetings. It started out with a short but relatively interesting one with Professor Bravo, who gave me one lit-review-type assignment and one that involved collecting stuff for our website, due not next week or even the week after, but the week after that, thereby freeing up my time-constricted Tuesday morning gym trips for awhile. I continued on my odyssey of chats with faculty quite accidentally, because Anne needed to make copies and ask Professor Number Four a question, both of which involved spending time on that floor. I don't quite remember the sequence, but I do know that I talked with (and was laughingly harassed by) Professor Number Five, added quickly to the information I began collecting yesterday when Professor... well, the one whose office is between One's and Five's caught me to talk about an email she had from one of her former students supporting my hypothesis about that research question I'm working on, and rounded it out with a lengthy and highly enjoyable conversation with Professor Number One herself. The three of us covered the distastefully but necessarily politicized nature of Number One's dinner-party invitation strategies, my "helping us up the professor cliff" metaphor, the difficulties involved with student-teacher supervision, the insane scrappiness running through the process of choosing applicants and assigning money, and more dinner party plans - this time including us students, which of course already guarantees that I have an appointment with a sweaty door-knocking hand next semester but sounds extremely cool anyway.

Hit my meeting with Professor Alpha at the appointed time and, maybe needless to say, enjoyed the whole thing, even if it did start out with organizing "all the shit on the windowsills." On discovering in one of the piles a copy of the middle-school journal from just after September 11 in which the P-ster featured prominently, I mentioned that we all were very fond of him and somehow alluded to just how fond some of us were, whereupon I learned that "young Bob... oh yeah, he slept with everyone at those conferences." This was improved upon only when the forthright Professor Alpha added, "Well, I mean... I shouldn't throw stones at poor Bob when that's what I did. I mean, that's what we ALL did," and then, "Well, I don't do it any more, of course, and he doesn't either, I'm sure... well, you know, maybe he does!" So let me just say: Ho. Ly. Crap. And oh my Lord. I can envision this bad-ass crew of appropriately deep-voiced, poetry-loving, broad-shouldered E.E. pimps roaming around these conferences bedding the other attendees, who, as we know, are largely 17-year veterans of some minute school district in, like, Indiana, where they don't have that many people who manage to possess both a command of the quatrain AND a willy all at once. It would not have taken, I suspect, much more than something like "young Bob"'s comment involving the phrase, "When I read poetry, with a woman..." to get denim jumpers practically leaping to the floor (and I wonder if Professor Number Four, in whose class at Amherst Alpha told me the P-ster was as well, learned/worked this stuff too.) All this was compounded even further, if such a thing is possible, when I asked about one of Alpha's co-authors and learned, in what was really just an explication of something I had for some reason sensed way back when I was doing some decision-informing reading in Norman Hall, that she wanted to marry him and hasn't talked to him since, I guess, he told her no. Oy. The humanity is seeping upwards from the ground pretty quickly at this point, and it's all I can do to a) fit it into a large picture with roots in history and branches in the future and b) keep track of it all here. I know it's not my most readable stuff, but... where else am I gonna put it?

Walked with Roey to our train, and was told that "sociologists are really doing stay-at-home anthropology." Poor sociologists - but I think he's right....

13 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$3, pet food, gym store.
$3, more pet food (I only ate half of what I usually get in the morning), Campus Eatery.

More interesting things:

Walked for a few minutes behind a mom and her cat daughter. Well, her cat-eared daughter, anyway; the kid had one of those headband-type things with fluffy leopard-print triangles poking off the top, which I admired because that's really only a couple of steps away from wearing one's mink tail to lunch in Pennsylvania.

Got a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in organization after printing out and responding to our emails to the student-teachers. It didn't take very long, but just knowing that this is a real (if basic) form of genu-ine data collection for a paper that might actually get written, that I did it without signing anyone's daily check-in sheet, and that this is the kind of thing they're actually going to pay me to do for the rest of my life (God willing and the creek don't rise) is enough to make my day all by itself.

Went to a RefWorks class in which I learned that one or another of those databases contains exactly 352 references to eggs (not alligator eggs, necessarily), and heard, much to my amazement, that "there are an infinite number of numbers" for my sources to be organized by. I mean, I realize that the instructor only meant that the program doesn't cut you off or start repeating itself at some point (which, I believe she was quite right to say, could be disastrous for organizing purposes), but... come on. Infinite numbers? A good update.

12 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$11, egg-white omelet and coffee, Viand.
$6, Stranger Than Fiction ticket, Third Avenue.
$25, burger and beer, Jack Russell's.

More interesting things:

Laughed at and appreciated for its literary merit Stranger Than Fiction, which did a remarkably amusing and intelligent job of presenting a very book-like story on the big screen. The acting was quite good, and the people in charge managed to avoid killing either Harold Crick or the story he found himself in, which was a great trick.

Watched contentedly the Eagles in the dark and comfortable Jack Russell's; heightened the sense of contentment after talking to the LTC, who was of course doing pretty much the same thing I was, just 1300 miles south of here.

Managed to get my laundry done in two relatively small loads, although each one still required two rounds in the dryer. I am absolutely not finishing this coming weekend without putting on one load of wash; maybe if I keep it to a single batch at a time I'll be less frustrated by my repeated trips downstairs to feed the rest of my quarter supply to those ancient squeaking machines.

11 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$317, a terrifically inexpensive round-trip ticket home for Thanksgiving, JetBlue.
$1, can of Diet Pepsi, hot dog cart at Union Square.
$76, long-sleeved shirts that I desperately needed, midtown Old Navy.
$12, bison burger, Viand Coffee Shop.
$25, margaritas and empanadas, Mustang.
$3, pineapple juice, Gristede's.

More interesting things:

Hit the MTA website in order to make sure that I really would be able to get out to JFK on T-day, and found that a) it seems entirely possible, b) the LIRR "Getaways" button has a picture of mysteriously red-cheeked soldier girls that would confuse you if you have not been as lucky as I in terms of seeing the Rockettes' Christmas show, and c) the subway system has 3,083 turnstiles at 468 stations, to which all I can say is, "dang."

Asked, without very high expectations, whether the crew hanging around in the cardio room at the gym would change one of the TVs to CBS, and was very happy that after I explained what I wanted to watch - the Florida game, of course - they agreed.

Battled our way back towards the subway station after finishing up at Old Navy, and walked past a guy who was either a very devoted and extremely well-funded Scottish Regiment wanna-be or, in fact, a real live member of one of them. He wore a Black Watch kilt, a black (or very dark blue) dinner jacket with some kind of shiny buttons, and a row of dress medals. I can't fathom the specifics of what he might have been doing all spruced up in such a way, but that he could find a good reason for it somewhere in this particular city doesn't surprise me at all.

Rode the... R, I think it was, back uptown with a conductor who was either exasperated and bored or having a lot of fun acting like he was; it was a caricature of the classic subway voice from TV (or whatever) except that you could understand what he was saying, making it that much more amusing. A guy standing near us said, "He's had it, too!" after those on the platform got a singsong exhortation to let everyone off the train followed shortly thereafter by an equally goofy "stand clear of the closing doors." Somewhere - I think it was a Bill Bryson book - I read about the residents of one city or another "putting on a good show" so the "visitors from the sticks" can go home with good stories, and I wonder if this conductor realized he was doing the same thing.

10 Nov 06

Time:

Local arr Union Square 824, arr Astor Place (not Bleecker, thankfully) 826.

Money:

$4, a preemptive maple macchiato before class, Astor Place Starbucks.
$11, decent Pad Thai, Apple.
$16, LIRR fare to Westbury, Penn Station.
$too much, boots etc. at... Roosevelt Field Nordstrom Rack.
$3, milkshake, some fast-food place at the mall.

More interesting things:

Made some goofy comment to Professor Number Five and got a hug and a kiss on the cheek in return, which of course made me laugh. The personalities around here just crack me up, and I think that's all I can say.

Threw my arm around Professor Number Four's shoulder and asked him how many and what kind of advanced degrees it takes before people are allowed to call him "Gordie," and got what I consider to be quite a fabulous answer: "It's where the degrees come from that makes a difference!"

Walked to Roosevelt Field, stumbling upon Eisenhower Park - home of Safetytown, may I add - in the process. It was absolutely a surreal feeling, particularly as I had a very strong sense that by leaving the city on a Friday night to shop on Long Island, we kind of had things backwards. It was really, really enjoyable, however - both the weird perspective AND the shopping - and I'm pleased we went.

Listened as we shopped to the mostly-'80s music Nordstrom was playing, which of course was interesting given that pretty much the same stuff was playing last time I was at that mall.

9 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

?

More interesting things:

Headed for the subway and walked past a guy who appeared to be delivering Dunkin Donuts. I'm trying to imagine a situation in which that would seem to be a reasonable option, and I'm only coming up with, like, a business meeting, but he had just three coffees. So - I have no idea.

Sat - since it was already early afternoon - across from a guy on the train who was exceptionally well-coordinated: baggy brown jeans, a couple of shirts all in shades of light brown, a bulky brown jacket, a brown Yankees cap... and a Big Brown Bag from Bloomingdale's. Clearly that was not an accident. I wonder if he bought, say, the pants there, and maybe he told the clerk he really needed a bag to go with them, and when she suggested heading to the leather section of the store he just told her, "No, the one you're about to hand me will be perfect."

Decided that I really like the implications of those "Cheat on NY" advertisements Delta has up all over the place. They say goofy stuff like "Flirt with Kiev" and "Have a Fling with Puerto Rico" (or something; I'm not positive about that last one, but it's pretty close), and it only occurred to me today that of course you can only "cheat" if you also love: a clever inversion of the classic I [heart] NY stuff.

Overheard two guys on University Place discussing the merits of Hava Nagila as a song for pleasurable listening. I really wanted to jump in and not only agree but suggest the version by Ben Folds Five; somehow, I managed to restrain myself.

Went to the computer lab to reprint my critical summary and waited just in front of a smiling lady who noticed my shirt and informed me, as she started up her laptop, that she had gone to Florida too. She was in journalism, so I told her about telecommunications production, and then we shared the observation that there are a ton of us at this school. At that point, it was my turn for the lab, so we didn't get to discuss anything else, but still... it's nice to think just how many people in this town would know, for instance, about the Archer Road reference I made a couple of days ago.

Hit All About Food (and there we have at least one answer for money spent) for coffee, and sat near a table which had been taken over by the ladies of the Red Hat Club... to that, all I can say is, awesome.

Saw a man wearing a tie - it was different shades of reddish-gold with a kind of floral design - that reminded me of drinking glasses, I think? At Aunt Mary Lou's house? It was very, very strange that I should make such an association, but it was quite a strong sense and now I'm wondering just what Aunt Mary Lou's glasses did in fact look like. (Hey, everyone's gotta have something to think about.)

Watched on the subway ride back from school as a man took his restless, climbing toddler son (I mean, I guess) from his wife (another guess, of course), perched the baby up sitting on top of his forearms, and gently attached the hand of a very small commuter to the bar overhead. This, I guess, is what you do after a long day of hide-and-seek with George in Washington Square: learn to be a straphanger.

8 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

?

More interesting things:

Had a reasonable night's sleep - about six hours - but it came on the tail of an almost-all-nighter: I got up yesterday at 730 and got in bed at 630 this morning. This is the first time I've had to do that since I've been here, and although I hope such activities won't be too frequent, there is something in remembering a sheepish apology to a professor and a hazy but very enjoyable trip to an Archer Road Outback to recommend it.

Thought, just before I fell asleep, that having accomplished my first attack on a literature review my weekly critical summary would seem very easy later on - academic wave training.

Saw, hanging from the hand of an officer who boarded the train I was on, a police hat. I realized that I already knew the underside of the bill was green and that the sweatband was brown, because of course I have one - for "the smallest cop on the force."

Attempted, in my rain-soaked irritation, to take the local from Union Square to Astor Place, and at least I got it half-right; the train did stop at Union Square (obviously, or else I wouldn't have been able to get on), but it blew right through Astor Place - as narrated electronically by the voice that tells us, "THIS is... AStor Place," although "THAT was..." would have been a more suitable opening - and stopped at Bleecker instead. I was, at this point, more annoyed than ever, but I found that there was something useful about the Bleecker stop: it caused me to walk past Eastern Mountain Sports, where I got a normal-people rain jacket at long, long last.

Walked past a small roundish pumpkin in very good shape, just sitting on top of a subway grate close to the curb. It didn't look like it had been thrown out, necessarily; it was not carved, smashed, decayed, or surrounded by piles of trash. Instead, it looked for all the world like it, along with the rest of the rained-on universe, was just standing there waiting for a cab.

Looked up as I persevered down Broadway at a view of a row of tall, tall buildings shrouded in misty gray, each one blurred more completely than the one before it until all you could see was a thick but luminous gray at the end. Sometimes I forget to do that in this town - look up, I mean - and that's really dumb. Maybe I'll set my watch to remind me: one beep to tell me it's time to take my vitamins, one beep to tell me it's time to open my eyes.

Heard the particularly nice secretary on Professor Alpha's floor address him as "Uncle John." That made up for at least half of my weather-slogging irritation.

Decided that one reason tea at night seems like such a nice habit to get into is that part of the motivation to do so is a lot more hard-core rough-and-tumble than Earl Grey. There is something about getting your hands and your insides warm around a hot drink that connects directly to kayaking, rock climbing, Raider meets, and summer camp (even though it's not cold there), and, in turn, a non-wuss, no-furnace method of staying alive in hard weather.

7 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

? (Grrr.)

More interesting things:

Discovered that if I were to get a "real job" at my own school when I'm done with the degree here, I could expect to be making upwards of 67 grand to start. Yeesh.

Followed Professor Alpha down the hall towards his office, with a running commentary - mostly just "You guys beat Vanderbilt," but that's fine with me - on Florida football the whole way. Since I'm reasonably sure that he doesn't care too much about this stuff in the general sense, I'm thinking he makes a bit of a point of seeing what happened just so he can comment on it when we meet. This, then, is a small representation of some of the larger reasons I wish so much he weren't going anywhere.

6 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$6, pet food, gym store.
$48, enough protein bars to eat lunch every weekday for almost three weeks, GNC.
$9, gym soap, tea, and half a gallon of milk, Gristede's.

More interesting things:

Told the quick story of my money clip to the people behind the counter at the gym store after they complimented me on it (actually, the one girl goes, "That's hot, that clip thing," and it took me whole seconds to figure out what the heck she was talking about. But I got a collection of "awww!s" and so on in response, and anyway it is definitely not everyday that the word "hot" is used to describe something of mine... well, at least not in public.)

Read the writing on the sidewalk. In this case, it was near Astor Place, and it had been traced in back when the concrete was wet. The important message saved for posterity? "Goat cheese."

Passed, in my quest to find the GNC that still had the bars I wanted, not just an Italian restaurant but a kosher Italian restaurant. I mean, in case you were wondering what city this is.

5 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$7, Sticky Toffee Pudding ice cream and some Diet Pepsi, Gristede's.

More interesting things:

Spotted, as Ben and I left for the store, a "Media Mail" envelope with someone's EBay order inside; it had come from Sanford, FL, which is a turn-around since on several occasions people at my house bought stuff coming from HERE and going, obviously, down THERE. Kind of weird to think that that package came almost as far as I did. And then, once we were actually on the avenue, the first car I saw had a Florida plate.

Eavesdropped on a dad with his maybe three-year-old son in a stroller, making their way down the soup aisle. The kid was holding onto the basket and said something - I missed what, unfortunately - that caused the dad to respond with, "Next we have to get the peanut butter crackers. I'm not confident that they will have the right kind, but we'll look." On the other hand, I AM confident that that kid will do pretty well on his SAT someday.

4 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$22, breakfasts, the coffee shop on... 85th and Third?
$0, Borat ticket, since half the breakfast bill was Roey's, some theater in the Village.
$20, pastrami sandwich and beverages (yes, again), Josie Wood's.
$60 (maybe?), an impressively wide-ranging array of beverages, Peculier Pub.

More interesting things:

Woke up to a text message detailing plans for the movie and an invitation to breakfast, which is a pleasant way to start off.

Rang the LTC, the 1SG, and the CSM in turn, since I knew they were at the drill meet. It was really nice to talk to them, of course - I miss them so much - but those kids are getting a little pathetic: ONE Color Guard (and only barely that), unarmed squad, the usual female exhibition individual, and Iron Eagles. Very, very lame; I don't know what's going on with these cadets. It's almost a good thing I wasn't there, because I don't like to cut off my shiny golden early-November Saturday outside too early, and I would have felt like holding the yutes responsible. But - it was still excellent to chat with my guys.

Enjoyed my pancakes and the accompanying conversation, except for the part where some wacko jumped up from his table to ask if I'd ever even MET any Army aviators (I guess he heard some of the comments we'd been making, although a) if he'd listened to the kind of things I was saying - about Rolexes and so on - he probably would have been able to gather that I DO know what I'm talking about, and b) I actually do think it was my dining companion who made the last comments!) and then told me I was welcome, to which all I could think to say was, "Yes, I am welcome, thank you." Dumb reply - REALLY dumb reply, actually - and I could easily have come up with something better if I hadn't been so taken aback, but I don't think this guy was too bright so it would have been wasted anyway. Fortunately, based on his accent and the truck-stop-looking ballcap he had pulled down over his eyes even as he ate, I don't think he was a New Yorker, so no counter-exhibits for my campaign on that one....

Rode down to the Village for the movie with an older Irish guy in marathon number who wanted to know where "Central Station" was and a lady who caned her way on and ferociously but largely politely refused to take the seat that she was encouraged towards at least three times, proclaiming for all the world to hear - I mean, including, like, China - that she was only going one stop and would be fine standing up. Funny, but admirably hard-core in a typically New York kind of way.

Cackled hysterically all through Borat, which was a genuinely intelligent and hilarious movie, but it was almost a no-go. We got to our particular theater, which was a good trick in itself since it wasn't numbered like some of the others, and sat through all the previews only to discover that they accidentally wound Marie Antoinette up for us - yecch. A mass exodus of the yapping and annoyed descended on the poor guys in the lobby, and after some discussion about cutting off the previews (which, obviously, they are not allowed to do), we made our way back and finally got the movie AND, for those of us patient (or indecisive, as the case may be) enough to wait around for a few minutes, a free ticket. Excellent.

Admired, in a moderate and I-know-this-isn't-Market-Street kind of way, the verbal decorations on the walls of the Josie Wood's bathroom stall. Nothing to beat that poem about rolling in a bed like eggs, obviously, but a decent reply to someone's comment stating "He's just not that into you": "Speak for yourself!"

Stood on my corner in the late-afternoon grayish chill, enjoying the difference between the weather and phone calls: one is fun because it pushes you to get out of it, the other because it pushes you to stay with it.

Skipped over 28th Street on my way back down to the Village because of a police investigation in the station... what was that about?

Read a system of chemistry equations recorded for posterity in bottle caps on the wall near the restrooms at the pub. You know your bar serves patrons from a really selective school when....

3 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$3, some kind of coffee (hey, at least I remembered I HAD some...), Oren's.
$18 (or so), a more-than-passable pastrami and sandwich and beverages (just Woodpecker - eh), Josie Wood's.
$85, very cool black V-neck sweater and a really soft scarf exactly the color orange I was hoping for, Banana Republic.

More interesting things:

Enjoyed, as usual, the Friday class. I don't remember what started it - oh wait, yes I do: it was my turn to do the Research Question Tango, so I wrote up my original, very vague (and forced - I couldn't think of anything else to write back when I did the assignment) question about reading and writing, mentioning as I did that it was my old one, and not something that appeared in my research journal; I was herded back to my chair in a chorus of things like "Put up a new one!", which of course I responded to with a bunch of light-hearted apologies to Jenn (who now had to go first) and everyone else. (It's my version of doing all the humble Japanese bowing, I guess.) Professor Number Four told me once to cut it out, though - I hope he didn't think I really felt bad! - and we drove on. Then, near the end of class, we all had to share three sentences from our research journals; I had some good ones picked out, about the Labaree article, but they were pretty long, so of course I apologized for that too - and while Professor Number Five nodded approvingly (I think) over my passage choice, Number Four leaned toward me from across the table and almost hissed, "Stop... apologizing!" Which broke me up completely, needless to say; he's just lucky I didn't say sorry for saying sorry! Ah well - in short, the dynamic in that class is quite lovely, and I'm glad we have it even if it's a little fluffy.

Went, with almost all my classmates, to the above-mentioned Josie Wood's. It reminded me very much of the Friday's/Chili's days of yore, and although I hoped I might get something like that back again, I wouldn't necessarily have bet on it - and yet, here it is. (And I can't say I ever got a demonstration of the mouse dance in Gainesville.)

2 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$4, coffee and "oat scone," Oren's.
$48, an extremely necessary wool sweater, The Gap.
$9, a very good sandwich, hummus, and diet lime Pepsi (hooray!), that campus restaurant place.
$9, really excellent gruyere macaroni and cheese, 'sMac.

More interesting things:

Waited for the local - since for the benefit of Professor Bravo, who ended... up... stuck... in... a... meeting, I skipped the gym and went straight to campus - and wondered if the fact that an MTA guy was methodically checking and, like, sweeping the rails on my track should be taken as an indication that it was going to be a long, long time before the train actually showed up. As it happened, that was not the case: when the worker saw the headlights way down the tunnel, he moved slowly and deliberately into the space between the columns separating one direction from the other and did this runway-style arm-flagging thing. I don't know if this would count as an instance of politeness, exactly, but I'm quite sure it counted for the shared-humanity aspect of my campaign when a bunch of us on the platform looked quizzically and somewhat worriedly at each other; I even mentioned to the woman next to me that I didn't think you'd be able to pay me enough to stand there and watch a train come in, to which she agreed in that "o-kaay??" tone that it was scary. Bravo, MTA person... I think you are tougher than I am.

Detoured as widely as I could around a drunk but apparently largely harmless guy who went into The Gap at least twice making strange comments about strawberries and such (well, that's what the cashier told me.) Two police officers came in to get him out, and they did so in what seemed to be a fairly pleasant way - they didn't touch the guy, or threaten him or anything; they just sort of herded him out the door quietly. I'm sorry he then had to experience the cold while obviously not having much control over his mental faculties, but I guess the situation could have been worse.

Glimpsed - and then did a double-take to make sure that I had glimpsed - a skateboarding waffle. Halloween was two days ago now, but I guess if you need to be an Eggo Washington Square East is a good place to do it.

Remembered Professor Number One's comment to... I think it was Jenn, yesterday at the welcome thing. She was talking about retiring and all that, and she concluded some section of the conversation with, "Just come and visit! I'm only on __th Street! It's not that far...." And the thing is, I'm quite sure she genuinely means that. So - at some point, I think I can expect to be writing here about taking her up on it.

Watched approvingly a pigeon who carefully crossed the street, first over Washington Square East, doing a little hop-flutter onto the curb, and then over Washington Place, staying well within the crosswalk lines; in fact, he walked pretty much with a crowd the whole way, like maybe he was going to class with the other kids. (Ornithology major, anyone?)

Sat and enjoyed a little more of that vicarious friend-visit thrill thing as I listened to Anne chat with someone arriving tomorrow. I'm glad her friends are coming into town, of course, but for myself I still cannot quite get over this idea that I live in a city half the world seems to want to come and check out for a few days. Okay? I live here. This to me approaches unbelievable, but since I see it, hear it, breathe it, eat it, drink it, and walk it everyday, I think I have to believe it, too... but good Lord, what a gift and a chance.

Chatted most enjoyably with Professor Alpha, although the topic of conversation - impending "retirements" - was not in itself terribly lovely. He seemed to get that, though, didn't joke about it or do some version of the horrid "no one's indispensable" speech I used to get from ANOTHER retiree I know in an attempt to be, like, even-keeled. He just agreed that it wasn't exactly making him completely thrilled either, although they're setting it up pretty nice for him (and the others) and added in what may have been the most serious and direct tone I've heard from him yet, "______, I'm not abandoning you. You're going to be my last product as a professor here." When I thought about that response, I felt a little bad, because I don't want to add to whatever funny feelings this process is engendering - and I know there's got to be some - but I do think it's important that he knows why I'm here. Ah, well. He can still do the committee and all that jazz; he's technically still on the regular faculty for awhile yet, so that's good. And it appears that I'll be having two classes with him in the spring, including one he's reviving in small form just for our benefit, which is also extremely cool. It's just... this is twice now, these wonderful silver-headed guys taking off, just as I've landed. Is this going to be some kind of weird pattern in my life? Because if it is, I'm not taking any more jobs until I find out how many people plan to retire once I'm hired....

Got a quick nod and smile from the conductor of the express on my way home, which I always appreciate.

1 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$26, pet food and the gold vintage-y t-shirt I've wanted for awhile, gym store.
$18, cider and an excellent burger, Cedar.

More interesting things:

Peered into an express train that was not moving so expressly, since the local I was on actually picked up speed faster. It's an interesting idea, because you can see the people and the advertisements and the maps and all nearly as well as you can on your own train, but the objects of your staring are even more removed from you than are the ones in your car. This creates a perspective that seems to lend itself more to a story-like interpretation than does the one you might have on your fellow passengers, and then the tracks diverge and you're back to looking around only your immediate environment.

Noticed that in addition to the usual mosaic - and painted black-and-white - station signs featuring numerals, the 28th Street station also has at least one big mosaic sign indicating "Twenty-Eighth Street." Now why would they expend all those extra tiles? It's not easier to read that way, I don't think, so maybe it's just an unusual indicator of old-school street-name formality, but it's kind of funny in any case.

Felt extremely confused as I made my way down University Place under a sky and a sun that made it seem like nine in the morning rather than two in the afternoon. It was that bright, almost unbearably shiny quality of light that usually hits Florida about 8am on the first Saturday in November, and is replicated to a certain degree in autumn afternoons, but only in the intensity of the blue of the sky; I've never seen that kind of glow so late in the day before.

Enjoyed a lovely - and welcoming - welcome shindig for us English education people. I liked getting to talk with the more advanced students, and I especially appreciated the weird sense of contained history, like it was a family picnic with a bunch of generations all together.