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!)