is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Food. Water.
Today, for 4 earth dollars, I had a cilantro pine nut pilaf with asparagus and green beans and roma tomatoes, some watermelon and a piece of cornbread, plus a coke, at the Amherst faculty dining room. Four dollars!
It was hot earlier today. So I had to wear a dress that shows two of my three tattoos. Normally when I begin teaching I keep it covered, not because it matters all that much but because it's good to give the students less to look at, etc.
Anyway, by the time teaching began it was raining and chilly, so I put a sweater on, problem solved. But all morning I was running into colleagues and talking to computer technicians, and everyone I talked to today kept looking sidelong at the tattoos. I'm in New England. The guy at the grocery store who bagged my groceries yesterday had a tattoo, and so far that's the only one I've seen. So, as Les Claypool might say, I've been flying the flag. (He would have said, "Charley is flying the flag." Back when I knew him, which was a very long time ago, he for some reason insisted on calling me Charley. But, given that many of his other friends had been given names like "Flapjacks" and "Curveball," I never complained.)
Last night I got myself into this hungry mindspace wherein I was too hungry to go grocery shopping, but there wasn't any food at home. So I went home to order a pizza. But then I remembered that I DON'T HAVE A PHONE. So then I got back into the car to go to the grocery store. But I was too hungry. So I ate at Chili's. Can you believe it? Chili's. The teenage girls who work there all looked at me like it was sad that I was alone. And perhaps it was.
I'm never sad eating alone at Chili's in Walnut Creek. Because in the Bay Area it is fairly clear what I'm doing and why. Here, not so clear. But things aren't all bad.
I taught my first class today. The students are bright and nice and respectful. I have lunch with my friend Tom tomorrow, and dinner with Judy's friend Andy next week. And this weekend I'm going to NYC for my friend Bill's art opening, then Emma's PhD party at David and Josie's, then some other late night party that Wendy knows about.
Water is falling from the sky. I have to go buy an umbrella. This means that the president's picnic is cancelled. I have been invited to that picnic "along with all of my family." So I guess Buffy the Bison is coming, too. Anyway, the cancellation means that there is one less social event around which I have to do the delicate dance of should-I-stay-or-should-I-go avoidance that results from my social retardation.
Also. At Amherst there is the program called TYPO, which stands for Take Your Professor Out. So it seems I will be consuming food alongside students at some point, unless none of them like me.
I'm in my tiny office right now. It has internet access and an air conditioner. Also, lots of office supplies. But it is far away from my car and it is pouring outside, and I'm the dumb Californian without an umbrella.
2:53 p.m. - September 08, 2004
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