- JG, a new PhD who has traveled the world, and now has beautiful new home near the university which is even more barren of furniture than my Minneapolis place. A small amount of wine opens her up to tales of Trinidad, Ivory Coast, and the dignity of the developing world middle class. She's dating someone new, and far away.
- M, a new math instructor who spent the morning having his duplex inspected and will teach three different sections of math tomorrow.
- E and J, a very cute hipster couple, trés Minneapolis, though they've moved to Duluth for the year. She bakes, speaks multiple languages, and is at home in both South Asia and France. He's shy, reputedly an anarchist, but says "yeah" a lot.
All of us are living unsettled, transitory lives, with little knowledge of where we will be in one year. And why not? The world's in flux, so why not ride along?
"It don't mean nothing. It don't mean nothing. Ride on."
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad it was a happy little hour! My evening was bizarre: I lost my phone, as you saw, and proceeded to harass ("give me back my fucking phone!") the 80 year old Quaker lady who had bundled it up after volunteering. Thanks to MobileMe's "Find my iPhone" feature, I watched my phone travel along 38th street to Bryant, where it lingered and I activated the "make annoying noises for 2 minutes" feature and informed the "thief" that I could see her location on Bryant. Then watched my phone travel back along 38th street to the office, where she returned it to my nervous laughter.
Productivity was shot, but it worked out. L invited me over for drinks and sociability afterwards, and I'm glad I took him up on the offer. Watched Robert Downey Jr do his Victorian-genius-Jack-Sparrow as Sherlock Holmes with a strong screw driver in hand. I smoked a cigarette as I chatted with the fellas. It felt friendly.
Ride on! And don't trust any anarchist ... even one as agreeable as E. :)