September 27th, 2001.  Thursday

    Another day, another dollar.  That's just an expression I guess.  I didn't make any dollars today.  I didn't go to my night time job.  Instead, I used the evening to frivolously spend money on things I didn't need at all.  And I did the same thing with the afternoon.
    I met up with Caryn at Cafe Pick Me Up around 5, about half an hour after I got there.  She'd been fasting for about 22 hours for Yom Kippur.  She couldn't even drink water.  How silly.  A day of atonement, she said.  Fine.  Anyway, so I sat there and drank coffee and she suffered through her hunger pangs.  So then we got up, walked three blocks over to 3rd Ave, then James called and said he had some time to kill and wanted to get coffee.  So we turned around and walked right back to the same coffee shop we just left.  It just occurred to me that all my recent talk of being in coffee shops in New York sounds like an episode of Friends or something.  Or maybe not.  that's just what I thought right now. I just imagined someone reading this and getting that impression, of a big coffee shop with huge couches and attractive and hip people inside.  That's not the case at all.  The place is tiny, with mismatched tables and chairs huddled together in a dark room.  There's melted wax all over the walls and a lot of the fixtures from candles that have never been removed.  And most of the people there are terribly unattractive.  I did see a girl today with curly brown hair and beguiling eyes.  But she sucked.  And I did see that girl that I thought was so cute again, but she became much less cute as she talked to this guy who looked like a total jerk off.  Anyway, James had said he'd be there in 15 minutes, and due to Caryn's presence and insistence that we couldn't go to the camera shop because we wouldn't make it back in time, I forgot that 15 minutes really means 35 in James-speak.  I hear this is how they work in Europe.  Anyway, I got a glass of wine and tried again to read the Village Voice.  I was really just looking for the listing about the Wilco show I'm going to tomorrow.  But I think they hid the Voice Choices this week, just to get people to page through their crappy paper.  Eventually James showed up, borrowed two bucks for coffee, and I had to go find him a chair.  Chatted for a while, the he left and Caryn and I went off to Sandobe to get sushi.  I get the same thing there everytime now.  While we were there Jen from DC called, confirming her trip up here tomorrow with her brother and her friend Betsy. I'm excited that she's coming up.  Up until a few days ago, I was thinking about going down to DC, but then she said her brother's friend is having some sort of picnic or something in Prospect Park on sunday, and they decided to come up.  So that sounds good to me.  Anyway, the sushi was adequate, and then we went over to the pastry shop next door.  Caryn was still hungry from not having eaten, and chowed down on two eclairs.  I got a miniscule fruit tart.  I also got a call from another Jen, Jen K, my friend from the Parks Department.  She and boss lady Kate are going down to Staten Island for some reason on Sunday, and wanted me to go.  Not sure that's going to happen. the thought of getting up early on Sunday and getting on the State Island Ferry isn't very appealing right now.  Though I haven't seen Kate in a while.  Not that that's all that troubling.  Things are always weird with her.  I think there's been a series of odd misunderstandings between us over the past year, and it's just seemed a little kooky. Or not. I don't know. She's weird.  Anyway, on a trivial note, today I talked to all three Jens that I know.
    So then I got some coffee and Caryn and I continued our weird little date and sat in Tompkins Square Park and held hands.  Then under the light of the nearly-full moon...  Actually, we sat in the park and she listened to a cd I made and I drank my coffee.  Then realizing I'd have to pee pretty badly in about 25 minutes, I bid Caryn adieu and got on the F train at 2nd Avenue and came home.
    After sitting at the computer for a while, I met James and girlfriend Rosario for a drink. I don't know why I've always had a need to sneak up on people and surprise them.  I can't help it.  Although I certainly had time to plan all sorts of things while waiting for them.  Before leaving, I said "So 20 minutes sounds like enough time?" and he said "that sounds great."  So I leave the house 30 minutes later, get to the bar 10 minutes after that, call him, and he says "we're on our way."  "Where are you?"  "We're no where near. Why don't you just start walking toward us?"  argh...  So i do.  Then I stop after a block and decided to wait for them.  Then I see a dark doorway, and decided I'm going to wait there for them, and if they don't see me when they walk by, I'm going to quietly walk behind them.  The blaring flourescent lights of the a liquor store obscured the doorway from the vision of any passers-by, so unless you turned your head and looked you wouldn't think to look for anyone in the doorway.  And there was a fat old man standing there smoking a cigar. So i figured they'd be focused on them.  then again, I doubt James would notice a pack of wolves devouring a bunch of orphans if it were right in front of him.  He's not too quick to notive his surroundings sometimes. So I don't know what i was worried about.  Sometimes it's infuriating, the waiting around and what not.  Anyway, so as predicted, they pass right by me, and I walk behind them in stride.  At the street corned, I put my hand on James's side, in an attempt to get him to think it was Rosario. I had my hand there for a while and he didn't flinch, so i guess it worked. Then he looked over and saw Rosario a good three or four feet away, then reeled around and saw me.  I guess there were sufficiently shocked that it made the wait worth it.  I wonder how far I couldn've gotten with my hand if Rosario had been closer to him.

    While we are the bar, James re-told one of my favorite James stories, about an Asian boy named James Chen, who James knew and abused in high school.  To make a long story short, after being made fun off by James, James Chen, perhaps thinking James was himself a dork and shound't be making fun of him, told James he was going to kill him.  Someone else told James that James Chen was telling people the next day that he'd brought a gun to school and was going to shoot James.  This was pre-Columbine, so no on really thought much off it. His friends teased him about it.  They'd be walking home and every time a car went by, they scream "Get down!" and jump on James.  Then one day, during first period, Jame's science teacher popped his head into class and asked if he could talk to James.  Everyone knew what is was about at this point, since James Chen had made no attempt to keep his assasination of James a secret.  One of James' classmates, his nemesis for years, made the pistol motion with his hand as James walked out the door.  When James got to the office with the science teacher, the school psychologist and principal were also there, along with a police officer.  They told James what they heard.  Here's my absolute favorite line, which I hadn't heard til today.  James' science teacher, according to James, said "James, you've probably heard about the threats James Chen has made.  He came in yesterday for extra help, and he said he had to leave early because he had to go kill you."  That's so goddam funny.  I can't stop laughing. I'm busting a gut right now.  "He had to leave early because he had to go kill you."  I can't even imagine any teacher of mine saying that.  I wonder what that was like.  Can you imagine what it sounded like to the science teacher.  "I have to go now."  "But we're not done with the extra help."  "I know, but I have to go kill James."  heh.  They called James' dad, and he didn't seem too concerned, and didn't really want to leave work, but came down anyway.  When he got there, James was for some reason crying.  Anyway, they searched James Chen's locker, and find a letter opener. Sometime later, James got a card from James Chen, an apology filled with Jesus references I think, asking James to forgive him.  Now see, to me, there's something that's always disturbed me about Asians and Jesus.