20th post anniversary

Short Story

"Too bad," he sighed while scratching his ear, "no inspiration."

He was but a hollow shell, ready to spend his spring break wasting away until claimed by the underworld.

This is the end

The end of high prices (yes, simpsons reference).

Friday afternoon is a predictably good day. My lesson was fairly decent, the students were great, and after work I ate a bunch of pizza w/soda (and even some salad) for free. How could I not be happy?

Took a 20 minute nap on the train and it was still great. I am home now and STILL I am feeling good, and blasting music (much of which is happy). Yet I know there is an inevitable retreat of that feeling... that elation will slowly become deflation. I am fine with that, but I wonder if there is anything I should do now, that I feel like I can do pretty much anything (and I'm not even in an alcohol/drug induced altered state of mind). I guess I can enjoy it and dance. Then I can do my taxes.

But what about saying what you really feel WHILE you really feel? I never quite feel as much on most other days. So is now the time to call all of my friends and tell them that I love them or hate them or just think about them? Do I let it pass until I become a normal person?

Let's loop back to the pizza - I think it was in honor of a new employee, who is from San Diego, but lived in Portland for the past year (I really think that living/having lived in Portland is almost certain to get you a job at this place, as the hiring person loves it). It came out that I went to Reed and she said " Oooh you're a reedie? Every reedie I met was eccentric and awkward" ... and I felt inclined to ask "are you including me in that group?"

I wouldn't want her to think that after talking to me for 2 minutes, but I do want to be eccentric, any kind of centric, really.

I want to be ...memorable. Don't you?

also my co-workers are apparently pretty cool and did hardcore peace corps instead of peace corps lite and posh corps. I wonder if this joke is accessible to any other ex-corpians.

Alcohol and conversation

Do you find that conversations go a lot smoother when drinking (or already having drunk) ?

Now, I have already been informed that alcohol is a "social lubricant", but I would like to know more. How is it like KY Jelly?

1. (A)Is the conversation better because you are more relaxed? Does that mean you are usually tense or otherwise your inhibitions stifle the conversation potential? .... That sounds like you might want to explore that further.

(B) Is the conversation better because the other party is more relaxed, so it's not really your inebriation that makes the difference? Analogous conclusions can be drawn here.

2. Is it less about being relaxed and more about alcohol encouraging social interaction and interpersonal fun? So it does alter you in a way that makes you a better, more interesting person to be around? This certainly seems unlikely, especially if you can't hold your liquor.

3. Or is the obvious conclusion merely that your standards are lowered to such an extent (think beer goggles for conversation...beer earplugs?) that you just think you've had a great talk, when in reality it was as mundane and pointless as the rest of your life?

Not sure how I should have reacted

The work day ended well at 9PM when my professor ended the class 30-60 minutes early (it's a 7:30-10PM class that he usually dismisses at 9:30, but today was 30 minutes more special).

I ran to the subway station, missed the train by no more than 7 seconds, as the doors closed while I struggled to get the metrocard out of my pocket. I took advantage of this fact by going to the nadal 1 deli to pick up a delicious chicken philly cheese steak. So good.

Upon my return to the underground, I went through the turnstile and another person went after me, but I am pretty sure he didn't pay - somehow he just slid through it. I watched this with curiosity, wondering if I could do it as slickly as he. Noticing me, and perhaps thinking I was judging him, he let out an aggressive "what are you looking at?"

Not exactly afraid, as this was a public place and this stranger seemed to be around 15, I was nonetheless startled. In such cases, the easiest reaction is "nothing", which is what I said. If i did it over again I might have commented on his inventiveness (it looks more legit than the usual jumping over the turnstile) and that I was pondering implementing it myself. However, I wasn't sure if he was seriously upset so I decided not to confront him.

To my surprise, there was an even younger kid (I would guess no more than 12 - he looked small but sounded mature) who told the "aggressor" not to be a jerk, and walked over to me, shook my hand (in that cool way, not the boring business hand shake) and told me that guy was just kidding. I said "thanks"... and maybe an "it's ok", not because I was upset by the situation, in fact I was genuinely pleased that this occurred because it just reaffirms that New Yorkers are really nice people. So the kid apologized for the older kid, then another girl apologized for him, then as I was walking away towards a more strategic location on the platform (for the exit at my stop, not to distance myself from them) the "aggressor" chased me down and apologized. I was super amused and pleased. I couldn't tell if it was an offended look on my face, or if they thought I was going to cry, but basically at least three people took the effort to make me feel better and it felt great.

Turns out they got off at the same stop as I (coincidence? ..well, clearly, but it is a cool one), and it turns out (naturally) that they live a couple of blocks away and the younger kid's name is Michael and he goes to school in the area and he said "cool, I made a new friend". Unfortunately we didn't get into the subtleties of defining friendship, but it was just nice that my expectations [accumulated over my first year of teaching] that all young kids are a-holes are finally starting to break down.