24 Apr 07

Time:

?

Money:

$4, fruit salad, yogurt, and D.P., regular place.
$20, quite a good shrimp BLT, NoHo Star.
$14, burger and shake (what a surprise, given that it was at...), Johnny Rockets.

More interesting things:

Enjoyed a slightly weird lunch with Professor Alpha, whose interest in a burger rather than salad propelled him in the direction of Bleecker Street. First of all, as we were leaving, some weird lady greeted him enthusiastically, asking whether we (me and the girl behind Alpha) were his daughters; in an entirely un-thrilled tone of voice he corrected her. A few minutes later - once he'd managed to extract himself - he informed me that "That was R.G., who I was trying to get you in touch with." Only problem... it wasn't actually me. It was Marisa. I couldn't very well let that kind of thing fly by, although I have no doubt that my faithful (and thus weird but much appreciated) readers will be able to predict the response to my protest: turkey noises. Second, once our halting trail of little conversation chunks had taken us all the way to our chairs at the restaurant, Alpha kept, like, looking over my shoulder. Perhaps I should just have found this amusing - it was warm, and the shorts were short - but you'd kind of think that would have put him in a better mood than the one he appeared to be in, so I wasn't really getting any benefit from it. Regardless (and this is really the important part), it was nice to hang out with him, nice to deviate momentarily from the lettuce regime, and I'm not complaining.

Returned from the copy machine to find that Professor Alpha had also returned - from the usual lunch place with our coffees ("It's hot today, so I decided you were having iced coffee," which worked out fine for me) and a piece of cake to share (I don't remember what comment he supplied then, but I'm sure there was one as he pulled a chunk off for me. Oh, wait - I think it may have been one of those quiet but amusing assertions, as in, "Here, you'll have some cake." What would he have done if he hadn't converted?)

Walked to meet Anne and Co. in the park. This involved coming up behind Mr. Garibaldi and passing him, very slowly, on his left, as I tried to determine whether that was a bronze bird, a very quiet real bird, or - as it turned out - a stuffed bird perched up on his shoulder. This goes firmly down in the books with the floating Chinese food box, the 2001 obelisk, and Lafayette's ladybug umbrella: someone not only had to climb up there but to manage to locate both a particularly fine inanimate crow and a good way to stick said crow to the statue. This is deeply impressive stuff, you know.