Hostylefax: Hump Day at the Dog Run and Other Vignettes
This morning got off to a lazyish start. I discovered two job openings; I'm sure I can't get the positions given my lack of experience with stat programming, but I'm trying for them anyway. After all, Keith was short a whole master's degree when he got hired at my last job. I talked Mom into taking me out for an early lunch at Deluxe and taking Rhoda with us to sit outside, as it's been gorgeous out ever since the thunderstorm (during which I learned a tornado touched down in Jersey). Rhoda did not acquit herself quite as well as I had envisioned; we tied her to one of the barriers separating the seating area from the sidewalk and she walked off in search of an interesting smell dragging the whole barrier behind her. Picture that episode of Martin when Gina got her head stuck in the bed frame.
After lunch I met Sarah and Lucy at the 106th St. dog run. I arrived early and was treated to a german shepherd humping a chocolate lab at quite some length without owner intervention of any kind. After he was done the shepherd's owner appeared to notice, because she quickly leashed him and ran, looking over her shoulder. Someone is going to have some beautiful accidental puppies. Sarah and Lucy and I nipped over to a Thai restaurant on 108th which didn't exist when I lived here. Lucy, needless to say, did not walk off with the seating barrier. As we ate we were approached by a man asking first for money and then for our puffed shrimp crisps; I offered him the latter but he wound up in an altercation with the manager. I had one of those moments I'm prone to where I try to have a rational conversation with someone who is obviously mentally ill. My counselling him that being angry at her wasn't going to give him any peace did not go over well, and I realized that these encounters are really not part of my life any more. There are occasionally panhandlers in Davis, but they're always clean and never aggressive. I don't know where they go to get cleaned up and fed, but someone is taking care of them. And of course there's George who tends a homemade garden on 2nd and Pole Line; he's famous. Once April and Alex were buying him a burrito and as they debated whether or not to get him cheese, the woman in line behind them interrupted to inform them "George doesn't like cheese on his burritos." But I digress.
After lunch I headed downtown to the Children's Aid Society to sit in on David's class. He was the acting lead teacher today, and he's a really really good at it. He happened to have received his evaluation this morning, and it said among other things that he had "an extraordinary gift for working with children." I agree. The kids--who were 7 or 8--were very excited to learn that David had a sister. I told them he was my little brother. "Is he little?" I asked. There was a moment of silence and then a unanimous, "Noooooooooooooooooooooooo, hehehehehehe, he's biiiiiiiiiiiiiiig!!!!" Very cute. I spent some time with a child who goes into meltdown every afternoon at 3:00 when he remembers he's going home. Normally it's David's job to give him one-on-one attention at those times, but since he was leading the class I got to fill in. It was really cool, and made me miss teaching.
I had dinner with Jeff and Meitav at Max Soha. After some discussion we concluded that there was nothing effeminate about Sangria since Hemingway used to drink it and ordered a pitcher. It seems that Meitav's having a little trouble with his roommates' sense of hygiene. When he lived with Scott, Scott was the neat one and Meitav was the messy one. Major conflicts were, like, crumbs underneath the toaster. But now Meitav's the neat one. [GROSSNESS ADVISORY: SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU'RE SQUEAMISH] He recently attempted to convince one of his roommates that it was time to throw out a certain bathroom rug, on the grounds that it was stained with urine through to the other side. The roommate responded that he didn't want his feet to be cold, and that if Meitav wanted to find a way to clean the rug that was fine with him, otherwise it was his property and was going to stay. That's the good roommate. The other one apparently picks his nose while sitting on the toilet, and then wipes his boogers on the bathroom door. Meitav doesn't really know how to bring that up tactfully; he's considered just cleaning them off to indicate that they guy's not fooling anyone. Jeff noted that that wasn't so much passive aggression as passive passivity.
We adjourned to the Uptown Kitchenette for dessert and stayed there a really long time. When I got home, David and my parents were finishing up an after-dinner discussion with a catholic priest friend of my mom's who's also a certified (that can't be the right term) zen master. He's really cool.
Now I have to drum up some cover letters and update my resume. Right.
After lunch I met Sarah and Lucy at the 106th St. dog run. I arrived early and was treated to a german shepherd humping a chocolate lab at quite some length without owner intervention of any kind. After he was done the shepherd's owner appeared to notice, because she quickly leashed him and ran, looking over her shoulder. Someone is going to have some beautiful accidental puppies. Sarah and Lucy and I nipped over to a Thai restaurant on 108th which didn't exist when I lived here. Lucy, needless to say, did not walk off with the seating barrier. As we ate we were approached by a man asking first for money and then for our puffed shrimp crisps; I offered him the latter but he wound up in an altercation with the manager. I had one of those moments I'm prone to where I try to have a rational conversation with someone who is obviously mentally ill. My counselling him that being angry at her wasn't going to give him any peace did not go over well, and I realized that these encounters are really not part of my life any more. There are occasionally panhandlers in Davis, but they're always clean and never aggressive. I don't know where they go to get cleaned up and fed, but someone is taking care of them. And of course there's George who tends a homemade garden on 2nd and Pole Line; he's famous. Once April and Alex were buying him a burrito and as they debated whether or not to get him cheese, the woman in line behind them interrupted to inform them "George doesn't like cheese on his burritos." But I digress.
After lunch I headed downtown to the Children's Aid Society to sit in on David's class. He was the acting lead teacher today, and he's a really really good at it. He happened to have received his evaluation this morning, and it said among other things that he had "an extraordinary gift for working with children." I agree. The kids--who were 7 or 8--were very excited to learn that David had a sister. I told them he was my little brother. "Is he little?" I asked. There was a moment of silence and then a unanimous, "Noooooooooooooooooooooooo, hehehehehehe, he's biiiiiiiiiiiiiiig!!!!" Very cute. I spent some time with a child who goes into meltdown every afternoon at 3:00 when he remembers he's going home. Normally it's David's job to give him one-on-one attention at those times, but since he was leading the class I got to fill in. It was really cool, and made me miss teaching.
I had dinner with Jeff and Meitav at Max Soha. After some discussion we concluded that there was nothing effeminate about Sangria since Hemingway used to drink it and ordered a pitcher. It seems that Meitav's having a little trouble with his roommates' sense of hygiene. When he lived with Scott, Scott was the neat one and Meitav was the messy one. Major conflicts were, like, crumbs underneath the toaster. But now Meitav's the neat one. [GROSSNESS ADVISORY: SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU'RE SQUEAMISH] He recently attempted to convince one of his roommates that it was time to throw out a certain bathroom rug, on the grounds that it was stained with urine through to the other side. The roommate responded that he didn't want his feet to be cold, and that if Meitav wanted to find a way to clean the rug that was fine with him, otherwise it was his property and was going to stay. That's the good roommate. The other one apparently picks his nose while sitting on the toilet, and then wipes his boogers on the bathroom door. Meitav doesn't really know how to bring that up tactfully; he's considered just cleaning them off to indicate that they guy's not fooling anyone. Jeff noted that that wasn't so much passive aggression as passive passivity.
We adjourned to the Uptown Kitchenette for dessert and stayed there a really long time. When I got home, David and my parents were finishing up an after-dinner discussion with a catholic priest friend of my mom's who's also a certified (that can't be the right term) zen master. He's really cool.
Now I have to drum up some cover letters and update my resume. Right.
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