Cool person at the doctor's office.

The other week I was at the doctor's office, and I began chit-chatting a bit with a (young) (black) (female) medical assistant.

I was asking her my standard summer chit-chat (up to much, doing anything fun, any trips, etc.), and she said she was going up to a big city north of here the very next weekend, for a concert.

"Cool, who are you going to see?", I was like.

"I'm going to run it," she was like, and she then told me how she ran a hip-hop business on the side and had an artist in from the Coast that she was trying to break.

"No shit," I was like.  "You're like real-life Empire!".

She liked that, and I joked that I should call her 'the Empress'.

"I like that," she was like, and smiled.

Odd dream, of display cases and a robbery.

The other week, I dreamt that I was in this dim hallway strung out between 2 buildings, and I kneeled down to look more closely at these male Bratz dolls on a lower shelf, which were composed entirely of crystals and were thin and frozen in poses like ballerinas gesturing rapturously and inspirationally upwards.

Then, I realized that I shouldn't do that, since there were 2 people there, and the area was isolated and they were likely going to rob me.

So, I stood up and casually strolled back past the 1st person (a young black man), but the 2nd person (also a young black man) blocked my path, and dropped his pants down a bit to show that he had a gun, and began sticking me up.

Then, I woke up, and was immediately ashamed that in my dreams the criminals were black.

3 interactions with my one stoner neighbor:

1) "Hey dude, did you see that chem trails?", he says to me as I step out of the apartment and find him outside, looking up into the sky.

He then explains that some military jets leave exhaust that hangs in the sky and settles downward over time, and that people on the internet claim that the army is testing chemical warfare agents over urban areas.

"Of course, I'm not sure if that's true, bro," he was like, "Since it's an internet conspiracy theory."

. . .

2) Biking back from somewhere, I round the corner onto my street, and he's talking there with a (young) (black) (female) postal lady who's trying to load her van.

So, I pull up my bike, and all formal like, I'm like, "Excuse me ma'am, is this man bothering you?", and immediately, she reacts all straightforwardly and naturally with a bright and open face and is like, "No, he's great!"

. . .

3)  One other day I'm talking with him outside the building (which is where I usually run into him), and he tells me that he didn't know that the back top apartment was empty, otherwise he'd climb up and sit out on the fire escape more.

"You can do that?", I was like, and then I was like, "You do that?".

"Yeah, man," he was like, and he then explained that the fire escape ends in the backyard, and that you can climb up it.

(I guess I had never noticed that; I don't spend too much time out in the backyard.)

He then pointed out the fire escape that he was talking about, which extended on the side of the building across the entire 3rd floor, both back and front apartments.

"Dang," I was like, "But don't you bother the people up front?  They got kids and aren't up late."

"Bro, it's not like I'm up there screaming," he was like.

Matching Ensemble: Deviled Eggs, Sweater.

The other week after a concert I met up with my one (half British) (half Sudanese) friend's sister and some of her friends for a picnic.

She had made up homemade deviled eggs, and made sure that everyone knew that and tried some.

Interestingly, she also had on a mustard yellow light sweater.

I joked that that was very Martha Stewart of her, and that next time she should have coordinated even more, and worn a white skirt and shoes and had a red hair band (for paprika).

Vacations of a downtown bartender.

So, the other week I popped into this bar downtown that my Czech literature professor friend likes, and I started chit-chatting with the (lower middle age) (white) (male) bartender and asking him how his summer was, was he up to much, taking any vacations, etc.

He said that he mostly vacations fall or spring, since summer is the busy time, and that he tends to go to Vegas, New Orleans, or one other city (I forget which one), since you can stay up till 4 or 5am (when his shift usually ends) and still find a "burrito place" after.

Other people's lives are interesting.  They can be so different.

Another tree felled near my apt.

So, after that one tree was felled near my apartment last August, this August another tree was felled...

Outside in front of my apt. block there's a little lawn, and a corner of it extends out towards the driveway of an industrial garage next door to the left when you look out.

On that bit of lawn contiguous to my front bit of grass but actually belonging to the people next store, were 2 trees.

Over the winter, 1 died, and someone cut it down.

Then, the other day I was working from home and I hear a chainsaw, and I look out and a guy had chopped down the remaining little tree out front.

I'm not sure why the people who owned the garage did that (I'm assuming that it's them who did it) - maybe b/c the tree was small, and someone backing out of the garage fast might have backed into it accidentally?

Thankfully, the trees in the backyard are the landlord's, and I don't think he'll chop them down.

I almost want to plant a couple trees out front, though.

I'd ask the landlord, but he and his wife had a baby this past year, and they're too busy for a small request like that.

Possible Derivation of "Always".

Did you ever really look at the word "always"?

I wrote it down in the same sentence as the word "way" the other day, and I suddenly realized that it must derive from the phrase "all ways" (which somehow got extended to mean for all time).