The first week (Part 2 of X)
When we left off, it was January 29.
Friday 1/29: Jen drove up in advance of our weekend together. I got a pizza from the local place, but by the end didn't feel so good. It was unclear whether it was from the pizza or just getting sick...
Saturday 1/30: After getting breakfast and checking the train schedule, I concluded that if we left at 1:20, we'd easily get to the train station in time. Then we get distracted and at 1:20, we start to gather our things together. We walk towards the train station, and just before the Crescent Ave underpass, I hear a train. "Don't worry, that's the one going northbound", I say, and indeed it is. Two minutes later, I hear another train. Fuck. It's an hour until the next train, and it's damn cold, cold enough that walking back to the house is a losing idea (because we'd then have barely enough time to have a hot cocoa before turning around and walking back to the station). I text Andrea that we'll be an hour later than previously scheduled.
Luckily, neither Jen nor I freeze to death, and we get into the city at a reasonable time. Andrea's texted as to where her, Jennifer and Carolyn are getting lunch. We take the subway to the Lower East Side, I give someone directions in the wrong direction because I myself have us going in the wrong direction, and eventually we get to the restaurant where just now, the three sisters plus Jeff and Kristin are getting their food (when someone asked for a Dr. Pepper, the waiter went to the convenience store next door and purchased one, and there was the slight chance someone's burger was a re-packaged Whopper). I introduced Jen to Carolyn and noted she was now just one away from the "Meeting all of my siblings" merit badge. Food was consumed before we went over to the theatre.
We, as well as Chris and Mom and Dad, were all in the city for Andrea's authorial debut, A Brief History of Cross-Dressing in the Civil War. As if the title and her personality weren't enough, she told us, "It's a comedy. Please laugh." Such requests weren't necessary, as it was hilarious. After the show, the sisters, Jen and I go to a bar and have a drink to celebrate Andrea's successful play, before Carolyn and Jennifer drove us back to my house. That night, Liz IMs me with a story that starts "So I just went on what was already the worst date ever before the guy even got there", but I'm not at the computer to respond.
Sunday 1/31: I get up to use the bathroom. I open my bedroom door, take one step into the hallway and start cursing loudly: "WHAT THE FUCK WHY IS THE GODDAMN DOOR WIDE THE HELL OPEN?" It seems Krishna, as part of his "Fuck you, I'm moving out" policy, decided he would leave the door open every time he left the house. It gets better. Jen has to go back home, and I have to go to Chris's to drop off a suitcase with Mom and Dad, who are going to Egypt. While I'm there, Krishna's move-out continues. Ralph reports that Krishna calls Mark, "I'm done, come by and give me my deposit." Mark walks in, walks downstairs, looks in the room. "You're not done, call me when you're done" and leaves. Mark is tired of Krishna's shit. By the time I'm back, Krishna is all but fully gone. Ali attempts to move out, but can't move his bed, and he bitches about stuff, and I stop caring enough to listen. I also get a call from a woman who Dr. Bath had given my information to, about tutoring. We set up a first meeting on Tuesday, and unfortunately I don't realize that if they are making an appointment before knowing my fee, I can probably charge more than what I've already been told is lowballing myself.
Monday 2/1: Since bumping a curb a few weeks prior, my car had been shaking at highway speeds. Since I was planning to drive up to Boston the following weekend, I went to the Mazda dealership and booked an appointment for Wednesday. When BCA called me to offer the "sitting in Mr. Holbrook's room" substitute position for the next two weeks until break, I took it but had to call them back later to cancel the Wednesday. Ali finishes moving out, then Mark comes to set up the room for the guy and girl moving in, disturbingly saying "Separate beds, so you won't need to hear the squeaking of the bed, and get kept up all night." Thanks, Mark. He leaves Ali's deposit with me, and Ali comes back later that evening to bitch that it's only $700 rather than the $725 minus $20 for the bookcase he took with him. I really don't care enough to listen. Juan and Marianella move into Ali's room, the 9th and 10th roommates I've had in this house since last July.
Tuesday 2/2: I report to the main office at BCA and then go to Room 150 (hereafter "my room" for ease of typing, though it will always be "Mr. Holbrook's room" to me) where the gigantic IGS has its attendance taken. I again met a few of the key students on the math team, and talked with Dr. Abramson (hereafter "Michael"), as much as I could with my sick and raspy voice. Coincidentally, this was Mr. Holbrook's birthday (hence his representation by the artists of the math team as a groundhog), and there were donuts provided by the Math Team boosters, one of which was delivered to me early in the morning as "I've been asked to give this donut to whoever is in charge of this room." When the school day was over, I went to the Ridgewood Library to take a half-hour nap, followed by tutoring the Ridgewood kid and then the Mahwah girl, setting another appointment with the latter for Thursday. When I get home, at about 9:30, there is more or less a family dinner for meeting the new roomies, who work with Sven at Stryker (while Ali worked at Stryker, he was in a different building) and are co-op students from RPI (as Alicia was). Ralph calls me a schmuck for not telling him before scheduling an appointment with Ramsey Mazda, as well as for telling them I jammed a curb as now they may invent things to say are wrong.
Wednesday 2/3: As snow falls, Charlie helps me off the car at the dealership. I am told there will be a diagnosis charge if I don't have any repairs done, and am unable to pull off whatever tricks Ralph suggested to avoid such. When they call back and suggest repairs that would amount to more than half of the car's actual value, after consulting with Dad, I tell them to piss off. Dad suggests that we switch cars on Friday, so I have their minivan while they park the red car at the airport while in Egypt. At some point, Ralph asks me if I've noticed the bathroom is dimmer. I say it seemed like it, but I wasn't sure. Turns out, Krishna, in his last act of "Fuck you, I'm moving out", TOOK A DAMN LIGHT BULB from the bathroom!
Thursday 2/4: Another day of feeling sick, but going to BCA. Thursday is Quiz Bowl day, so I stuck around for practice, and discovered that my voice is not quite yet ready for Saturday. From there to Cresskill to Mahwah. The last leg of that, Google suggests going via the Palisades and Thruway. When I get on the Palisades Parkway, I discover... hey, the car isn't shaking. Push it to 60, still not shaking. No rational explanation exists. Mahwah gives me a mug of green tea to take with me to help me get better, because when your family can afford a house that massive you can just give someone a mug. I call Dad to let him know that the Mazda is running fine, but that I'll meet up with him at Charlie's on Friday just in case.
Friday 2/5: It's a half-day, but I'd been asked to stick around to babysit some club which is watching Up. I hadn't seen it before, and it's a good movie. The wordless five minute montage of the love story was so sad. The club apparently was planning to use this as a fundraiser and had tons of food they were expecting to sell, but there were less than a dozen students. Mom and Dad were delayed coming in from PA, so since I was OK with my car, I just went up to Boston. CT-15 was pretty awful, so I cut back to I-95. I kinda got trapped in Boston and downtown Cambridge unable to make the turns I wanted, but eventually found my way to the apartment where I was crashing.
Saturday 2/6: I helped staff NAQT Sectionals at Harvard. Initially, I was one of two people staffing in a room, and I read two rounds then scorekept two rounds while my voice recovered. When the other guy had to save another room that was falling behind (or maybe just not getting through enough questions), I got the room to myself. While I was finally over my sickness, my voice was still not 100%. So by the end of the day, it was scratchy as all hell.
Sunday 2/7: Ralph said that his crazy friend was inviting us back to the bar in Ramsey for the Super Bowl. It was an exciting game, and Jen and I exchanged snarky remarks over the course of the evening like "Did the Census just spend two million dollars on... that?" (in all fairness, the Army must spend tens of millions of dollars on advertising, and the Census is no less noble an organization).
Next time: The rest of the month of Febr-snow-ary.
Friday 1/29: Jen drove up in advance of our weekend together. I got a pizza from the local place, but by the end didn't feel so good. It was unclear whether it was from the pizza or just getting sick...
Saturday 1/30: After getting breakfast and checking the train schedule, I concluded that if we left at 1:20, we'd easily get to the train station in time. Then we get distracted and at 1:20, we start to gather our things together. We walk towards the train station, and just before the Crescent Ave underpass, I hear a train. "Don't worry, that's the one going northbound", I say, and indeed it is. Two minutes later, I hear another train. Fuck. It's an hour until the next train, and it's damn cold, cold enough that walking back to the house is a losing idea (because we'd then have barely enough time to have a hot cocoa before turning around and walking back to the station). I text Andrea that we'll be an hour later than previously scheduled.
Luckily, neither Jen nor I freeze to death, and we get into the city at a reasonable time. Andrea's texted as to where her, Jennifer and Carolyn are getting lunch. We take the subway to the Lower East Side, I give someone directions in the wrong direction because I myself have us going in the wrong direction, and eventually we get to the restaurant where just now, the three sisters plus Jeff and Kristin are getting their food (when someone asked for a Dr. Pepper, the waiter went to the convenience store next door and purchased one, and there was the slight chance someone's burger was a re-packaged Whopper). I introduced Jen to Carolyn and noted she was now just one away from the "Meeting all of my siblings" merit badge. Food was consumed before we went over to the theatre.
We, as well as Chris and Mom and Dad, were all in the city for Andrea's authorial debut, A Brief History of Cross-Dressing in the Civil War. As if the title and her personality weren't enough, she told us, "It's a comedy. Please laugh." Such requests weren't necessary, as it was hilarious. After the show, the sisters, Jen and I go to a bar and have a drink to celebrate Andrea's successful play, before Carolyn and Jennifer drove us back to my house. That night, Liz IMs me with a story that starts "So I just went on what was already the worst date ever before the guy even got there", but I'm not at the computer to respond.
Sunday 1/31: I get up to use the bathroom. I open my bedroom door, take one step into the hallway and start cursing loudly: "WHAT THE FUCK WHY IS THE GODDAMN DOOR WIDE THE HELL OPEN?" It seems Krishna, as part of his "Fuck you, I'm moving out" policy, decided he would leave the door open every time he left the house. It gets better. Jen has to go back home, and I have to go to Chris's to drop off a suitcase with Mom and Dad, who are going to Egypt. While I'm there, Krishna's move-out continues. Ralph reports that Krishna calls Mark, "I'm done, come by and give me my deposit." Mark walks in, walks downstairs, looks in the room. "You're not done, call me when you're done" and leaves. Mark is tired of Krishna's shit. By the time I'm back, Krishna is all but fully gone. Ali attempts to move out, but can't move his bed, and he bitches about stuff, and I stop caring enough to listen. I also get a call from a woman who Dr. Bath had given my information to, about tutoring. We set up a first meeting on Tuesday, and unfortunately I don't realize that if they are making an appointment before knowing my fee, I can probably charge more than what I've already been told is lowballing myself.
Monday 2/1: Since bumping a curb a few weeks prior, my car had been shaking at highway speeds. Since I was planning to drive up to Boston the following weekend, I went to the Mazda dealership and booked an appointment for Wednesday. When BCA called me to offer the "sitting in Mr. Holbrook's room" substitute position for the next two weeks until break, I took it but had to call them back later to cancel the Wednesday. Ali finishes moving out, then Mark comes to set up the room for the guy and girl moving in, disturbingly saying "Separate beds, so you won't need to hear the squeaking of the bed, and get kept up all night." Thanks, Mark. He leaves Ali's deposit with me, and Ali comes back later that evening to bitch that it's only $700 rather than the $725 minus $20 for the bookcase he took with him. I really don't care enough to listen. Juan and Marianella move into Ali's room, the 9th and 10th roommates I've had in this house since last July.
Tuesday 2/2: I report to the main office at BCA and then go to Room 150 (hereafter "my room" for ease of typing, though it will always be "Mr. Holbrook's room" to me) where the gigantic IGS has its attendance taken. I again met a few of the key students on the math team, and talked with Dr. Abramson (hereafter "Michael"), as much as I could with my sick and raspy voice. Coincidentally, this was Mr. Holbrook's birthday (hence his representation by the artists of the math team as a groundhog), and there were donuts provided by the Math Team boosters, one of which was delivered to me early in the morning as "I've been asked to give this donut to whoever is in charge of this room." When the school day was over, I went to the Ridgewood Library to take a half-hour nap, followed by tutoring the Ridgewood kid and then the Mahwah girl, setting another appointment with the latter for Thursday. When I get home, at about 9:30, there is more or less a family dinner for meeting the new roomies, who work with Sven at Stryker (while Ali worked at Stryker, he was in a different building) and are co-op students from RPI (as Alicia was). Ralph calls me a schmuck for not telling him before scheduling an appointment with Ramsey Mazda, as well as for telling them I jammed a curb as now they may invent things to say are wrong.
Wednesday 2/3: As snow falls, Charlie helps me off the car at the dealership. I am told there will be a diagnosis charge if I don't have any repairs done, and am unable to pull off whatever tricks Ralph suggested to avoid such. When they call back and suggest repairs that would amount to more than half of the car's actual value, after consulting with Dad, I tell them to piss off. Dad suggests that we switch cars on Friday, so I have their minivan while they park the red car at the airport while in Egypt. At some point, Ralph asks me if I've noticed the bathroom is dimmer. I say it seemed like it, but I wasn't sure. Turns out, Krishna, in his last act of "Fuck you, I'm moving out", TOOK A DAMN LIGHT BULB from the bathroom!
Thursday 2/4: Another day of feeling sick, but going to BCA. Thursday is Quiz Bowl day, so I stuck around for practice, and discovered that my voice is not quite yet ready for Saturday. From there to Cresskill to Mahwah. The last leg of that, Google suggests going via the Palisades and Thruway. When I get on the Palisades Parkway, I discover... hey, the car isn't shaking. Push it to 60, still not shaking. No rational explanation exists. Mahwah gives me a mug of green tea to take with me to help me get better, because when your family can afford a house that massive you can just give someone a mug. I call Dad to let him know that the Mazda is running fine, but that I'll meet up with him at Charlie's on Friday just in case.
Friday 2/5: It's a half-day, but I'd been asked to stick around to babysit some club which is watching Up. I hadn't seen it before, and it's a good movie. The wordless five minute montage of the love story was so sad. The club apparently was planning to use this as a fundraiser and had tons of food they were expecting to sell, but there were less than a dozen students. Mom and Dad were delayed coming in from PA, so since I was OK with my car, I just went up to Boston. CT-15 was pretty awful, so I cut back to I-95. I kinda got trapped in Boston and downtown Cambridge unable to make the turns I wanted, but eventually found my way to the apartment where I was crashing.
Saturday 2/6: I helped staff NAQT Sectionals at Harvard. Initially, I was one of two people staffing in a room, and I read two rounds then scorekept two rounds while my voice recovered. When the other guy had to save another room that was falling behind (or maybe just not getting through enough questions), I got the room to myself. While I was finally over my sickness, my voice was still not 100%. So by the end of the day, it was scratchy as all hell.
Sunday 2/7: Ralph said that his crazy friend was inviting us back to the bar in Ramsey for the Super Bowl. It was an exciting game, and Jen and I exchanged snarky remarks over the course of the evening like "Did the Census just spend two million dollars on... that?" (in all fairness, the Army must spend tens of millions of dollars on advertising, and the Census is no less noble an organization).
Next time: The rest of the month of Febr-snow-ary.