18 May 07

Time:

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Money:

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More interesting things:

Walked to the subway past a middle-aged man who looked like his face was carved from polished walnut or something. Not in a bad way, like he had no expression, but in a very cool-looking way, like his features were well-defined and his skin was glowing and medium-dark. Pretty nifty.

Discovered, in a tremendously frustrating and unusual look at my phone once I was on the subway, that I had missed a call from Professor Alpha. I wanted to stop and grab Rebecca's phone charger from her office and drop it off before calling him back, so I reined in my interest in calling him and took care of that first (poor lady's NOT feeling well). I decided I couldn't wait all the way until I got to my desk, though, so I rang him back as I walked along Washington Square South. We discussed the emails I was getting ready to send out and then moved on to how Rebecca was doing; he said she'd be okay because I was looking out for her, to which I agreed very drily, and then he added - laughing like a loon - "Ah yes! Nurse R.! I think that's just the right role for you, isn't it?" Har.

Rode the subway back uptown with the Friday Afternoon Freak Show. Part of it, I have to admit, had to do with the ridiculous advertisement I saw: I always knew that Flip crap Dr. W. dragged us to was a bunch of baloney, but now it appears he's got a self-help book endorsed by the president of NBC Sports or something. Wow. I'm so impressed. Mostly by the fact that it was pretty clear from the start that this dude was some kind of package-selling person - I don't mind self-help writers, but I do mind if they go around masquerading as educators in order to break into that genre! The rest of the freak show involved, for the most part, these two bizarre little seventh-graders (or whatever), one of whom was this furry little red-headed boy, the other of whom was a baggy-pantsed, skull-and-crossbones-do-rag-wearing person who had clearly gone out of her (it turns out) way to make it difficult to tell. They darted around through the decent-sized crowd in the car, stuffed food in their mouths and chewed it like angry horses, and waited (this was the real classy one in the do-rag) for an express train to get next to ours before waving a middle finger back and forth in the window. Oy. And then there were all the other tired masses, some who were putting up with the weirdness, some who didn't know it was there, and some who tried in a very urgent but also very delayed effort to escape it at 77th Street (that was the final oddity, a guy who leapt from his seat, trying to get off the train, but didn't make it out. Usually it's the other way around.) Anyway, by this time I should know better than to expect normalcy on the Friday afternoon train, and also better than to think I won't find it amusing....

Walked down my street past a maroon F150 that otherwise looked just like my mom's, right down to the eagle decal - and it had a New York plate: very unusual.

Got three lovely birthday cards, from my dad, my grandparents, and my Proteach friend Heidi. Pretty nice haul for one afternoon's mailbox checking!

Got also a lovely IM from Roommate Ben, agreeing enthusiastically not only to go out to dinner but to take me to dinner. Thanks, Ben - I really enjoyed it!

Listened to iTunes as I got ready to go to the gym (hooray!) "Any Day Now" came on, and it was amusing how fast it reminded me of playing Tony Hawk with my little sister. (It also reminded me that it's a great song.)