Apron Strings and Grown-Up-Clothes

Obviously, I have not been blogging lately. I blame it on this graduate women therapy group that I am quitting today. More on that later.

Work is pretty awesome. Seriously. :) And, I managed to work out not once last week, but 4 times! By Monday (yesterday) I was feeling so energized that I did 40 min on the elliptical rather than my minimal 30 min. I feel like I might be getting my life back, and that is a good feeling.

Yesterday on my commute home: bus then train, I had my binder of organic to study but I got distracted by a gentleman on his cell phone. The guy had his back to me on the bus, but he was tall, blond, and lanky... and he was wearing kackies, a dark polo, and "grown up" shoes. You know, not tennis shoes, boat shoes, or even flops,* but instead black leather dress shoes. This is not how the normal nerdy American student dresses at my university. As the shoes suggested, there was something uniquely "grown up" about his appearance. But his conversation is what distracted me. He was talking to his mom. This I am sure of. He seemed very sheltered, but maybe we all seem sheltered when we talk to our parents. Maybe not.

He was talking about starting graduate school. (This is what caused my ears to perk up.) He is taking 3 neuroscience classes, and he just found a research group. Three grad students and one post doc. A small group. He seemed really relieved to have found a group... And it is impressive that he already has a group and it is mid-september. Now he has to play catch up on his classes.

He has an undergrad math degree. He hasn't taken his advanced math classes in 6 years though... He worked between now and his Bachelors. That is probably why he is wearing Grown-Up Clothes.

His little sister is engaged to a friend of his. A guy he has known since Kindergarten. His mom says that the guy is self-centered. Grown-Up-Clothes says he has always been that way, and that he doesn't think anything of it because he never expects anything else from him. His sister's name is Logan. Fuck. If my parents named me Logan and I was a chick I would be pissed.

The other interesting thing about this guy, other than the start of grad school talk, and the total innocence with witch he talks about it, is that he is not from the south. He talks with long O's. He says "You KnOW" repeatedly. And in, "People say I am good at memorizing," mem-er-ising turns into Mem-OOOORR-rising. Grown-Up-Clothes is a beagle in human form.

As we were waiting for the train, I saw his face: baby face. Indicative of someone without "life" experiences. It is true that you can't hide anything from people who know about things. Like drug addicts can tell other addicts by the look of their face, and the lack of "life" shows up just as well.

I felt some sympathy for this kid, Grown-Up-Clothes. He is a long way from home. He doesn't have many friends yet. He is optimistic about graduate school. And in the next 2 years he will figure out how shitty it can be. I wanted to tell him it will get shitty, and to hold on. But I said nothing to him. Mainly because he never got off of the phone with his mom.

*flops = flip flops

Vagiant

Still working on the list: 10. Safety is my goal: Please Call
I have seen this truck twice now. It has that normal phone number and tells you that the goal is safety, but someone has keyed out one of the identifying numbers in the phone number and one identifying numbers in the Truck ID number. I wonder if the employer will ever see that truck. Two photos:



11. Absolute Pear billboard = Georgia O'Keeffe Vagina Flower
Now in this next photo, a billboard has a giant vagina on it. Sex Sells.

That is enough of the list for one post.
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1. Zazu Pimple
2. Boss Anger Group Meeting Communication
3. Maru, Katu, and Arum Rae (also Jed, THE FAN)
4. Parents visit
5. Experiments working
6. Black boys catcalls
7. Harlem Shakes Vampire Weekend vs Bonaroo Music Festival
8. Magazine Obsession
9. Cake Therapy

14. Penelope Trunk's writing
15. Things that make me happy
16. Feeling happy vs Feeling Powerful vs Feeling Superior
17. Jips comes home
18. Flowers and Presents

The Danger Zone

Don't walk under the danger zone. I saw this flight of pigeons a few days ago when I was walking home to my new apartment. The barrage of bird poop was audible. The scene was pretty though, so I took this photo.

Here's the second installment of commute cut-ups:

Cut-up Commute II

Going to do some more recording today.

Audio Document of Wasted Time

These are the sounds of my comings and goings from the city to Brooklyn and vice versa. I decided to start digitally recording my commutes after I received a mp3 player/voice recorder from my work. My new boss found it when he was cleaning out the office and gave it to me. I've recorded three commutes so far. They've ranged from 25 minutes to an hour. I used the three files as source material for the following audio document:

Cut-up Commute

Listening back to these recordings is pretty interesting. Trying to find significance in the sounds that I just experienced while waiting to arrive from point A to point B is one option. Or I can just treat it as an artifact of an unique space and time in which I existed- no greater meaning necessary. I used to read on the train when I lived in Greenpoint and my commute on the G and V trains ensured that I would always have a seat and plenty of time to waste. Now, it's pretty much impossible to snag a seat and reading is kind of difficult when you're hanging onto a pole and pressed against a crowd of strangers. I rarely listen to music on the train either. Recording my travel time has helped me be more in the moment when I'm usually spaced out and on auto-pilot. I'll see how long I can keep it up.