3 Apr 07

Time:

?

Money:

$who knows, I'm a total blogging SLACKER.

More interesting things:

Sat on the subway with a good view of the back page of someone's New York Post, where it announced (damn straight!) "CHOMPS AGAIN." Ha!

Turned a little reluctantly away from that glorious sight and saw a guy to my left with the pole in one hand and a plastic shopping bag in the other. This was interesting because - and I checked three times for a mundane explanation - the bag appeared to have originated in Kathmandu. It was for a clothing store called "UFO" (don't ask me), and the three or four locations listed near the bottom of the bag were all to be found in Nepal. No mention of New York or even New Delhi anywhere to be found: a pretty well-traveled piece of disposable plastic!

Looked up from my iPod once again on my trip downtown (the train was just hopping with interesting things to look at for some reason) to see a guy holding two pieces of his dry-cleaning in front of him. At first the back of the clothing was what faced me, and all I could tell was that it looked like chef's whites; then the holder turned them around and I could see where they were emblazoned with "Brasserie Les Halles" on the upper left breast. I shared the commute with someone who works for Tony "The Pompous One" Bourdain and lived to see it another day - very impressive.

Went to grab the usual egg-white sandwich at what has become not just "the usual lunch place" but plain old "the usual place" and engaged in a short conversation with the lady running the cash register. It's been clear for awhile now that she recognizes me; when I yanked off my second earphone to better understand the question she seemed to be posing as I paid for my breakfast, I learned that she recognizes Professor Alpha, too: after a couple of false starts, she asked where and who "the old man you come in with" was. I'm proud to say that it only took me a second to compose myself into an answer, and as much as I would have liked it to the response did NOT consist of, "Oh yeah, that's my sugar daddy."

Wafted past Professor Number Seven's closed door with a "good morning" hand raised, since I had caught her eye, to which she responded with a "come in here" wave. Annette and another professor (one of the rubric people, who, as it happened, was the other person in Professor Number Six's office on that fateful first day of our acquaintance) were in there with Number Seven, who announced that they had purposefully held on to what looked like a dissertation so that I could take a look. Annette flipped it open to the first page, and... Glamour Shot! Now who, I would like to know, sticks a fluffed-up photo of themselves in with what's supposed to be research on education? I shared this thought in a slightly modified form - I think I asked whether that was a special dissertation Glamour Shot or something we thought she'd had sitting around beforehand - which got a good laugh before being told that Number Seven had a) dropped herself from this candidate's committee and b) planned to shred it now that I'd gotten to see it. Hey, Annette - thanks for holding on to it for me... we always want to know what we should be doing, of course, but fine examples of what not to do are great fun too!

Sat in my class watching busy undergrads make their way through their end-of-semester project and, consequently, had enough attention to spare for my buzzing phone. I expected it to be someone I'm related to, but it turned out to be... Professor Alpha! I thought he might have some pressing comment, and they were working, so I went ahead and answered what turned out to be a very nice "just saying hello." Hee! (And since that "hee" was directed at the joy of a phone call, I'll go ahead and add another one here to be directed at my breathtaking nerdiness: hee!)