~Tuesday~ I did a “Groundhog’s Day” this morning, rushing around in order to catch the 7:45 bus, but arriving at 7:48, I missed it. It was so humid that instead of waiting 20 more minutes out in the heat for the next bus, I walked back up the driveway and into my townhouse, lay down on the couch for 15 minutes, and then started all over again.
I enjoyed overhearing two guys sitting behind me—one white, one black, the white one being the younger, thinner Marlon Brandon guy with the huge canvas suitcase—talk about old TV shows. Marlon talked incessantly about Good Times, and quoted entire conversations between JJ and other characters on that show, his most animated scene ending with his impersonation of a lady character on the show saying, “I like my coffee like I like my men—black!” to which both he and the black guy hollered.
Then the black guy went on to say that the Fonz was his favorite character in the shows of that era. It was almost like they were trying to weave some kind of ebony and ivory hipness around characters from each other’s culture.
I had an hour-long meeting with my manager to catch her up on what she’s missed over the last couple of days (she was out Thursday afternoon and Monday), mostly going over what was covered at that meeting that I attended on her behalf yesterday.
From 10:30 until 1:30, my time was consumed with Parent Orientation (covering the Information Technology (IT) services on campus) and then the Info Fair, answering both parents’ and students’ questions about IT on campus. At the end of the Parent Orientation, my colleague who was presenting said, “John and I will be down front here for a little while if you have any question you didn’t want to ask in front of the group. I’m a PC guy and John’s a Mac guy.”
Well, that is so not true, but I didn’t want to correct him in front of the whole group. But, as a result of his comment, all the people who had questions about Macs came down to ask me about them. I responded the best I could, remembering some of the information I’d gleaned working with two of my other colleagues participating in the orientations and info fairs who are Mac users.
For the Info Fairs, our IT table is adjacent to the Study Abroad table, which is one of the most popular programs at NCSU, at least in terms of parents and students coming up to to get more information. Today, there was a lady and a gentleman staffing the table, and I recognized the gentleman. It took me a few minutes to place him, but eventually I remembered that it was “Sam.” When there was a lull, I said to him, “On October 12, 2005, we spent a couple of hours stuck in an elevator together! I don’t know if you remember that.”
His face lit up in recognition, and he said, “I remember that night very well, Yes. Adrian…” he said laughing, referring to one of the other people who was stuck with us in the elevator that night.
When I got back to my office, I sent him an email that said:
| Subject: October 12, 2005 Elevator Memories
Hi Sam,
Our chance meeting today made me re-read one of my most read and commented-on blog entries–the one from the subject night. I may have sent you a link to it at the time, so you may have already seen it. It was fun to re-read “the details,” though. 🙂
If you click on the link at the bottom of the entry that says, “8 comments,” you’ll see that Adrian commented on it back then. 🙂
Good to see you again,
John |
I had Michael Jackson’s funeral on cnn.com Live! in the background at work this afternoon, but watched it much more intently at home via video clips at cnn.com. I wasn’t moved to tears at any point, but I loved Lionel Richie’s and Jennifer Hudson’s performances.
It was kind of surreal whenever the casket was in view. I liked the fact that Usher (whom I’d never heard of until today) walked down and around to the casket for his emotional song.
I got to the gym on the late side tonight, but at least I got there. I did some stretching (arms, back, and legs) before doing my 15 sets of 20 reps of ab crunches, followed by 40 minutes of cardio work on the elliptical machine. I listened to my recently downloaded/purchased Michael Jackson: Ultimate Collection, while I burned off 753 calories.
When I left, Ba-ba Wa-wa was close-captioning her day at the service. She’d been invited by the family “to sit up close,” so was two rows behind the family, and was granted interviews (of course!) with several of the stars performing. When I was done and leaving, she was, according to the “coming up next” items they kept showing, about to talk to the mother of Michael Jackson’s two children, which I wouldn’t have minded listening to. Oh well. It’ll probably be on cnn.com or YouTube or something tomorrow.