Time spent in Manhattan

Lyrics on my mind:
I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days and I thought they'd never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought I'd see you again.
-Fire and Rain, James Taylor

I drove up to Manhattan today for a few appointments, the first of which was to be lunch with my friend Katie a little after noon. I had only spent ten minutes speaking with her in person in almost six months, so I was looking forward to seeing her.

I got to Manhattan and got a phone call from Katie; one of her coworkers screwed up and she needed to push back our lunch. I had a 1:00-2:30 meeting in Kedzie, so we chose to meet up after that.

So, from noon to just before 1:00, I went and visited my cousin Jennifer. She and her husband have been offering to provide me practically free room and board for helping them with their house and babysitting their daughter, Emma.

Emma is a four-year-old darling that is chock-full of sugar-fueled sillyness, she kinda reminds me of my friend Mela's little girl. She's a very sweet, special little girl; spend too much time around her and you can feel your spine start popping as she tries to wrap you around her little finger.

Ok, that's an exageration; but only a little one. Moving on...

The meeting in Kedzie wasn't in Kedzie, after all. It was in the Union; there's no real important reason why, so don't ask.

The subject: a candidate for Collegian advisor was available for questioning, er... discussion with Collegian staffers and Student Pub-ers in general. Her name was Kim, and the best way to describe her is take Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth from The Apprentice, give her a friendly personality and a healthy dose of competence, and have her apply to be the Collegian's advisor.

I won't say anything more about the meeting.

I got out, called Katie, and we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for food, fun, and... well, that's about it. She had boneless wings, so she was able to eat them with a fork and remain dignified. I, on the other hand, ordered the regular wings -- they were 35 cents apiece -- and looked like a crazed beast as I tore through the tender, flamingly spicy morsels.

We also played the in-house Trivia game at the restaurant. Katie kicked my ass.

Something funny happened as we were sitting in her car before driving back onto campus. Katie asked me about something, and as I tried to think of it she said "Gee, thanks for remembering to wear clothes today."

Not thinking about what she said, I replied "You're welcome."

Turns out she had been expressing her thoughts aloud about a girl who had walked right in front of the car in a sports bra and running shorts, and I didn't even notice her.

What does that say about me?

Later on, I went to Wal-Mart. I got a case for my iPod (finally), some new headphones to replace the ones our dog chewed up, and an extra pair of pants.