25 Apr 07

Time:

?

Money:

$3, oatmeal cups, Delion.
$4, fruit salad, yogurt, and D.P. (since they didn't have any small milks), the usual place.
$8, chow mein and "cow sides," according to Roey, the usual place.
$20, quesadilla and Corona, Blockhead's.

More interesting things:

Passed, on my way to the subway, a girl (well, a young woman, I guess...) in large silver rollerblades, small orange shorts, and a very small camouflage t-shirt labeled, like, "Adventures for Girls" or something. Don't ask me - even if I'd taken one of her pamphlets there's a good chance I would have nothing useful to contribute on this subject.

Got a 180 from Professor Alpha. Okay, maybe not a 180. A 165, then. Whatever. The point is, this sort of mild off-ness of late seemed to fall away after an interaction with... oh boy... Professor Sierra Two? She had come past my desk to talk to Alpha for just a second, and - recognizing me, which is lovely - did the gesture-and-announce thing wherein a person takes up a newly-informed tone of voice to acknowledge having just met someone that the third member of a party already knew well; in this case, she asked, "So I hear this is your assistant?" Alpha responded first with a smile (hooray) and then with, "She's my right-hand woman!" (quadruple hooray), to which I added that I felt quite lucky to be in that position. Sierra Two put her hands up to stop the conversation - I wonder who taught her that trick - before turning to me and explaining that just about everyone who ever works for him says the same sort of thing. I figured this gave me a good opportunity to agree by sharing what I'd written on his evaluation earlier in the day ("If I thought for one second that his 'retirement' meant I wouldn't get to talk to him again, I'D TRANSFER TO COLUMBIA.") Alpha'd been walking away as I explained my commentary, but his ears are good and he knew he needed to turn around, so I said it again, he gave a good lauch, and... that was it, I guess: cracking up cracked it open. (Or cracking up at a genuine but funny compliment cracked it open. He's not shy about such things.)

Jigged (or I would have, if I'd known how and it wouldn't have been too conspicuous) into Professor Alpha's office at the sound of the friendliest, most light-hearted verbal beckon I've gotten from him in days; he even prefaced my name with "Miss," which was pretty damn cute. We were going over the newest Jawbreaker Assignment (they last for days and if you're not careful, you'll choke) when I asked yet another admittedly disingenuous question about a party non-attendee, spurring an amusing story that I'd already heard but was more than happy to get again. Then, as Alpha got up to fetch printouts regarding some breakfast places I'd helped him locate for this thing he needs to do tomorrow, he dropped "a nice note" into my hands for my perusal. The note was MORE than nice, from one of his former (like 37 years former) students, clearly well-deserved, and I enjoyed reading it. I was also, however, spurred to ask Alpha about his views on constantly being reminded about the upcoming personnel change, a question which I clarified by explaining the only other Retirement I've ever really thought hard about. I should know by now that a real question of a semi-(?)personal nature is an outstanding way to get him to talk; I still think someone who compares ME to HIM is for the most part pleasantly delusional, but we are pretty similar insofar as our benign yet diligent nosiness is balanced by near-extreme levels of openness.

Attended as stealthily as possible to a conversation between a young, cool-dressed black man and a less young, business-dressed white woman. She was flipping past a page of one of the free dailies when he sort of stuck his finger out and said, "Oh, wait, Miss, can I...?" So she turned back and they read - together, out loud in parts - a Macy's ad describing some tattoo artist's clothing line. Or something. I didn't care much about what they were actually looking at. I did, however, care a whole lot about what I was actually looking at: New Yorkers, commuters, readers, clotheshorses, whatever - for a minute there, they were a pair, two of a kind, but I wonder how they might be described by someone who wasn't sitting next to them.

Got done smiling about these Macy's fans and got to start smiling about the girl sitting across from me with a stack of CUNY materials and a legal pad on which she was in the process of making all kinds of notes: this about City College, this about Borough of Manhattan, this about Kingsborough. I hope she figures it out soon, and I hope she's happy with her choice - realizing you've made such a big decision well is a nice feeling, as I've learned.