23 July 07

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$3, protein bar and Diet Coke (yecch), newsstand in Grand Central (and conveniently right outside my Yonkers-bound track.)

More interesting things:

Worked almost painfully hard at not laughing when Professor Alpha tripped, apparently on the door to his living room. I'm not sure how that worked, exactly, but I have to admit to a serious laughing-at-people-who-slip problem, exacerbated by any commentary on the part of the slippee which resembles something like "Jesus fucking Christ!" as it did in this instance. I choked it all back, though; somebody owes me a cookie.

Wore a not-that-slickly commandeered karate t-shirt rather than my one of my favorite (white) polo shirts, which in itself was quite fabulous but which was heightened all the more when, on our way out through the chilly rain to the UHaul place and the grocery store, Professor Alpha tossed not just a jacket but one of his jackets at me. I put it on, waited quite awhile for him to join me near the front door, took it off because I felt like a dork, hung it on the back of a living room chair, and finally answered Alpha's question about whether I was in fact going to wear it with an "I was just waiting...", which got cut off by my into-the-jacket shrug - and, perhaps needless to say, his turkey noises. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the great sartorial accomplishment of my life: not choosing the perfect evening gown, not finding heels that manage to be both good-looking and comfortable, not even picking out a new favorite pair of jeans, but wearing clothing items belonging to not one but two - count 'em, TWO - handsome bearded professors all at one time.

Announced to Professor Alpha, as we left ShopRite with several cans of beans dangling from my left hand, that last July I couldn't really have predicted I'd be hitting up a supermarket just one short year later with the very guy who'd interrupted my bellowing at lazy cadets with an invitation for a phone interview: wasn't exactly in the plans, but oh man.

Discussed, for some reason, being broke all the time - oh, I think it was because somehow Professor Alpha was explaining that his view on money is that it's made to be used, which was the point on which I offered my agreement, although I added that I hoped I would not in fact be broke all the time. He heh-heh-ed a good laugh and responded with, "Well, you picked me as your role model, so you might want to get used to it," or something like that. (Whatever it was, it involved that comment about the role model business, which was the [lovely] key thing here....)

17-22 July 07

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Got out of bed just in time - at 10:36, to be precise - to leap into my clothes, leap into a cab, leap down the FDR (okay, I didn't actually do that part of the leaping), and leap up to the third floor of the high school at... 11:05. Hot damn. I really thought I was going to be heinously late, and I ended up beating some of my nippers. Not too shabby, thank you. (That was the 17th.)

Went to Professor Alpha's house for a really lovely dinner (and also an introduction to a drink I thought would be horrific - Bacardi Limon, tonic, and lime - but turned out great). While we were there, both my mom and Roey texted to inform me there had been some sort of explosion in the city, which is always a relaxing comment to hear, but it turned out to be that steam business and not only was everybody for the most part okay, but we got back with no problem. (Except for the part where I felt like moving in with Alpha and Professor Zulu. That's a little bit of a problem, since they themselves will not be in that house much longer.) (This was the 18th.)

Hung out with a variety of people, including Kevin and Rebecca, in a not-terribly-productive but still highly enjoyable way. (The weekend, of course.)

16 July 07

Time:

Almost exactly as much as I thought, from my bed to the front car of a Yonkehs-bound train (although I had time to stop for a muffin and some coffee, which I wasn't sure I'd be able to do.)

Money:

$6, aforementioned railroad (man, do I love the railroad... any freakin' railroad) ticket.
$4, also aforementioned breakfast, Junior's in Grand Central.
$32 (or something), sushi, that really good place in the West Village.
$6, pint o' Bass, Jack Russell's.

More interesting things:

Realized that some purposeful D.P.-related discussion must have taken place in the only house in Yonkers in which I have any particular interest. Professor Zulu ('cause she's Professor Alpha's complement; Mrs. Professor Alpha wouldn't work because she is one herself) announced that "Alpha tells me you drink D.P. - we have plenty of it!", interrupted by a slow growl from Alpha himself noting that that is one of many points on which we have bonded: damn skippy.

Felt very oddly like I was standing around in a house with my own parents as Professors Alpha and Zulu got cleaned up to go to the party for which they were driving into the city (and dropping me off, thank you, at which point I wanted little more than to yell, "Thanks, Dad!" as they drove away.) This was exacerbated by the fact that I sat in the back seat - not a surprise how that would make a person feel like a kid - but also by standing around in their kitchen while they did things like straighten cuff links and compliment necklaces, which does not have a whole heck of a lot to do with my own upbringing. Weird, but in a profoundly nice, strangely familiar (or maybe just familiarly homey) way.

Decided that there are way, WAY worse positions to hold in the world than to be one-half of a two-professor couple living close enough to the world's greatest city that its public transportation system gets near your house and the commute is the same length as that of some people who actually live in the city itself but far enough from that city that the houses are huge (and old), there are not just driveways but cars to sit in them, and the most expedient means of getting to work involves an above-ground rail line. That is - to speak less in fluffy generalities and more in specifics - you would not catch me arguing with anyone who wanted to tell me that someday I'll be a) a professor b) married to another c) living in a not-quite-suburb of New York with d) a big ol' book- and squeak-filled wooden house, e) a corner office in the city, and f) a country house in the mountains. The thing that made me think of all this is probably going to seem very weird, but this was in fact the catalyst: these guys have the option of taking into the city either a 30-minute drive or a 30-minute train ride, a situation which seems so quintessentially Northeastern - Tri-Rail's not that great, folks! - that I didn't even need to be able to look down at the Hudson River to be able to tell you what state we were in.

12-15 July 07

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Recorded nothing in my phone about this little chunk of time. I went to the Met, sat around on Fifth Avenue, walked to Grand Central... well, that was two of the days, anyway. And on the day before that I slept too long and hit the gym ferociously hard, both in an effort to ignore my concern for a certain businessman, followed by a happier trip to Astoria for dinner at this cool place (Mundo) with Rebecca and her friend. But nothing too weird or unusual, I don't think.

11 July 07

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$4, protein bar and D.P. for breakfast, that place across from my gym.
$4, pretty much the same thing for lunch, Duane Reade (although the lovely Rebecca brought it back for me.)

More interesting things:

Got invited (?) to Professor Alpha's house for moving purposes. You got it, Alpha - I'm getting good at that Metro-North thing....

Had dinner with the lovely Patrick, who turns out to be an excellent cook in addition to an all-around fabulous guy. Thanks, man!

Fell asleep on the phone, but only for a minute before one or more of us snorted back awake and actually hung up on purpose this time.

5-10 July 07

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Had a great visit with Michele, which involved going to the Cosby house (where we horned in on a tour and collected my first Newf sighting, complete with white tail-tip), Jekyll and Hyde Pub (ridiculous, and not necessarily in a good way), Jack Russell's, the Staten Island Ferry, Ground Zero, John's Pizzeria (reminding me what the real New York kind is actually like), Jack Russell's, Fifth Avenue, Grand Central (where we met Kevin, who snuck up and grabbed us with a classic "Welcome to the madness..."), Times Square, St. Patrick's, Second Avenue (for lunch, not because it's so inherently cool, although I guess it is), Central Park, more of Fifth Avenue, my apartment (!), and - you guessed it - Jack Russell's, where we either drank or watched/benefited from some very amusing Rusty Nails. (The next day was Blockhead's and the Met and a relatively early COB, but it was fun, too.)

4 July 07

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The timing (or lack thereof, more accurately) of this entry is absolutely ridiculous, but at least the day was memorable enough that I can mention a couple of good details, all of which had to do with the fact that I...

Went to Professor Number One's house for the Fourth. The food was good, the fireworks were spectacular, and the visitors were goofy. This was particularly true of the only person there under the age of 18: a barely-14-year-old associate, somehow, of Professor Abercrombie, who apparently failed to attend to the "sip" of wine this kid was supposed to take but which she turned into a red wine slam. (Yecch.) At first I thought something was genuinely wrong with her, but apparently ADD mixed with enough instant alcohol to make someone twice her size a little fuzzy is what resulted in her exuberant introductions, including - bad call, kid! - one to Professor Number Five. "Ooh, your name is Number Five?! Ooh, we have... we have a person... [insert loopily tired trail-off here.]" "In Israel named Number Five?" "Yeah!" Har.

Was told by Professor Number Four, in his classic laughing-and-finger-shaking way, not to spread any rumors, which was slightly mystifying but still amusing; heard Anne tell Professor Number Four respond with, "Yeah, she's good at spreading," which was not mystifying in the least and also utterly hilarious. At that point I'd had rather a lot of wine, and Girts's story about spreadsheets at his store, which would have been funny in any case, pretty much sent me over the "you're a moron" edge and may have caused Number One to wonder whether we were in fact ever planning to leave.

29 June - 3 July 07

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I'm a moron. Just wanted to put that out there before I start piecing together my personal history of the last few days. A big blogging moron. Okay? Let's begin.

Was supposed to go to the beach Friday, but we changed it because the weather was not going to be great - not rainy, but not particularly sunny and a little cool. But of course, I can't remember what I did instead.

Did in fact go to the beach on Saturday. I really did not feel overly interested in heaving myself out of bed, but I soldiered on down to Penn Station - and it turned out to be more than worth it. The waves were mostly high enough to be interesting for playing in and the sand was warm but not disgustingly hot as it often begins to feel within 47 seconds of planting oneself on a Florida beach. Furthermore, there was a bouncing topless woman building sand castles and inspiring us to grumble about the highly inattentive police-like people (who somehow looked around themselves carefully enough to determine that the paper bags near the people on whom they bestowed citations in fact contained beer but still managed to miss the show) and two Gators sitting across from me on the train ride back: dooo-do-doo-do-do!

Slept in ridiculously on Sunday, before attempting to catch up in the blogging department. It should be obvious what a thorough job I did.

Went to work on Monday, where things were pretty quiet because Professor Alpha was giving a workshop most of the day.

Went to work again today, where things were less quiet because Professor Number Four was giving a workshop most of the day and I was expected to go. It was great; I'm really starting to feel kind of attached to that masters group, and anyway, one of my favorite students thereof added to his participation in the question-and-answer period (thanks, Number Four - seriously, although at first that sentiment might have been expressed sarcastically!) with "Just one more question, Counselor" - particularly amusing since he actually happens to be one!

28 June 07

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Had a weird dream about Professor Alpha, but for the life of me I cannot now remember what it was. Something about him being finished, which only makes sense; in fact it makes so much sense that I wonder if this isn't a particularly dramatic instance of my subconscious brain filling in what my conscious brain doesn't understand or even recall.

Found out that I did quite well on my Spring teaching evaluations. It was just nine students, but... I'm taking what I'm getting.

Got from one of my students what must have been the single highest compliment this particular guy knows how to pay: he said I was really a math teacher. Close, at one time - but ha, and also thank you, Newton.

Sat listening to my students' conversation (I'd given them complete license for what I called a free-for-all), which was so smart, fiery, invested, and authentic - I didn't say a thing - that the intensity of my pride was about two minutes away from turning a mental and emotional reaction physical. I never saw that kind of discussion happen before, and I cannot believe I can try to spend my life getting paid for this stuff.

Stood by at the masters' class party chatting with a variety of people, which was lovely, especially as it grew more and more enbeered. Near the end, one of Professor Alpha's more... interesting? students corralled me and asked, among other, weirder and less reasonable questions, how I'd "gotten so lucky." Fortunately, Alpha himself was not too far away, so through a small but happy cloud of Dos Equis, I invited him without any further explanation to answer his student's "incisive question." The hilarious part was that I didn't have to identify for him what the luckiness in question consisted of. The really pleasing part was that Alpha still remembers calling me on the field that day. And the really accurate part was that he characterized me as weird. Right on, Alpha - but as you yourself have pointed out, my nutty self feels at home here, mostly because I'm surrounded with like minds!

27 June 07

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Ran into Professor Number Five a second time, just outside the building when she was on her way to lunch. The meeting consisted first of me expressing my mild jealousy that she was off to her regular Tuesday lunch with Professor A.5 and then of Number Five giving me a big hug and telling me outright that she loved me. Hee!

Escorted Professor Alpha from his last class at this university. It's a good thing I had other plans for dinner yesterday, actually, because if I hadn't - if I had gone with Alpha last night - I probably wouldn't have gotten the invitation I did today. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The first thing to note here is that Alpha gave out a really terrific poem to play with - Adrienne Rich, "In a Classroom," which provided all of us with lots of little facets to examine and follow and posit and enjoy; I particularly like that my final interpretation involves the poet as just the kind of book-title teacher Alpha most appreciates. After we got through all that, class was pretty much over, and I performed all my packing-up rituals as slowly as was necessary to stay in step with Alpha. As we left I asked where he was headed - if the answer was "back to my office," I was going with him; for better or for worse I now know very well that you don't leave a deposed professor alone immediately following the conclusion of his or her reign - and got, in answer, my raincheck: of course I'll grab a bite with you... I'd even grab several. So off we went, free this time of conversational falters, all the way to Acme, where Alpha and the waitress deliberated extensively over the darkness of the Restoration Ale and then concluded their discussion with the order of a Hurricane. I got the ale, however, which looked far less interesting than his enormous red beverage but which still invited the kind of curious Alpha-style eyeballing I knew meant he wanted to try it - a conclusion that was good to draw and think favorably about, since right about the time I went to hand him the bottle, he yoinked it from me, aiming it in the direction of his face and announcing that I could try his, if "you're a rum drinker." (Ha.) The executive decision was that the ale was in fact sufficiently dark for him to have chosen it, but it didn't matter; either the rum or the day contained enough intoxicants that the conversation never stopped.

26 June 07

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Celebrated exactly one year of heading for the back right corner of East. I was going to describe it as "noting," since on the outside that's probably all it appeared to be, but in my head it was in fact quite a lot more than that. I mentioned the day's red-letterness to Professor Alpha in combination with the phrase "scared shitless," to which he responded, "Well, it didn't take long get over THAT, now did it?" Heh.

Yawned, it seems conspicuously. Professor Alpha asked, in that thick from-under-the-eyebrows voice, "we keepin' you up at night?", with just the right suggestive lilt to reduce me to a snorty "uhh...."

Caught an elbow in the side as I waited for copies to finish. Professor Alpha was letting me know he was headed out to lunch but would see us after class. I love a guy who keeps you up to speed without even making you work nosily for it; I especially love a guy who does this kind of thing because he expects the same in return.

Got out of Professor Alpha's class five minutes early, which was useful because my dash from campus to Shun Lee required stops at the ATM and the Gap along the way. We stopped near the restroom so I could finish listening to Alpha's description of his arrival time for the next day, I leapt back out as fast as I could, and... skidded to the elevator just in time to wait for it with Alpha himself and encounter a question with the easiest yet most paining moral answer I've had to come up with in awhile: "Wanna grab a bite for dinner?" Holy crap and no fair, since I had to answer that I was on my way to Shun Lee with the grandparents. His response was entirely supportive, of course... but DAMN. IT! (Not that I didn't have a great time at dinner, as we shall see momentarily.)

Raced, unfruitfully, through the Gap, all the while listening to my mom talk about the officiating powers of notaries public at the weddings of their relatives and then - oy - a conversation in which she told my youngest sister, for the second time at least, that I would probably marry someone who is a) a professor and b) quite a bit older than me. Ha. This lasted pretty much all the way uptown, interrupted only for a second to text Professor Alpha with a request for a raincheck, which was positively received. Anyway, when my mom said all that stuff again, I decided that it was just too mean to keep the joke from her, and admitted that I had been talking to this nice guy from my class last term with whom I planned to go out once he'd returned from vacation. "And he is, in fact," I added in a slow growl, "a professor." At that point, I had to stop talking because of the shrieking laughter coming at me from 1300 miles away; the next obvious question I responded to first by asking whether she would have a heart attack and then with the not-surprising number of 53. "That IS older," she answered reasonably, "but... not really. I mean, YOU'RE 53 inside..." so on and so forth. Clearly, this conversation could have gone much worse - it had, in fact, gone quite well and did not make me feel funny, which was a pleasant surprise - and I was, as much as it bemuses me to say so, glad to have engaged in it.

Heard, to the feigned dismay of my grandmother, a gonorrhea joke. (The part that was supposed to be dismaying, I hope in light of her sex-with-students comments, was that it was my grandfather relaying it and a very expensive dinner table over which it was relayed.) It was something goofy about Big Louie or whatever, but the key here is just that I got it in the first place. My grandfather's a pretty cool character.

25 June 07

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Agreed with the department chair that things had had "a happy ending," which he observed when in responding to Professor Alpha's booming summons he found that I was sitting there, too. I mentioned that I planned to frame my copy of the committee letter, at which the point the chair sort of laughed in that weirdly tremulous, non-committal way he has and noted that so far things had gone well; just one person so far had been told "no." Here Alpha's eyebrows went up, the chair went back, and he growled, "Yesss... well, we TOLD J. to seek Professor R.'s advice, but she didn't do it in time - and you should never ignore advice from Professor R." Ha, ha, and more ha - the association of my name with this "professor" word is pure insanity.

Rode back uptown headed for a quick dinner at Jack Russell's (that would be 12 dollars for up there, I guess) and got a series of songs that seemed particularly well-timed. First, in the middle of my examination of my class ring we had the We Are the Boys March. Then, I think, it was Miami 2017 or something similarly New-Yorkish. Then I got Spirit in the Sky and Hey Jude, neither of which seemed unusually fitting, but when in coming above ground I thought about my timing needs for the next two years to the accompaniment of Pomp and Circumstance, I figured they'd all been appropriate somehow. So I called my mom, and sure enough she had tried my number earlier, leaving just Norman Greenbaum to be explained; later on, I talked with my dad and was reminded that it was my uncle's birthday. Hi, Uncle Billy.

Read my nippers' journals and found that one had quoted me to myself, if you can believe THAT shiz-nit. It was something about playing with the future, and that I made teaching sound like a cool job. Hot damn.