Well, I’ve made it out alive. It just got…a little bit crazy these past few days. But now my roommates have returned, as have most of my friends. I think things are on the up and up.
I actually made it all the way to midtown for an Estihana sushi roll, veggie egg roll, Sapporo beer and a steak (I told you food was running low, I was hungry.). I went to see an old high school friend, with whom I go to this particular restaurant whenever she’s in town.
After dinner, when I got on the elevator at 181st street, one of my random stranger friends got on right after me. This was the kind of random stranger friend that I recognize even before they come up to me to relate intimate details about my life.
As with most of my random stranger friends, I wasn’t sure if I actually knew the guy or not. I looked for a kippah and saw none, so of course I assumed he was just some white dude living in The Heights. Then I realized random white people don’t live in The Heights unless they go to YU.
I tried to remember where I knew him from. As with all my encounters with random stranger friends, I thought back to high school and my early years at YU to try to place him. No luck.
I started to fear that I had become a random stranger friend to someone else. What if he only looked like a familiar YU guy, and I really had never met him before?
I tried to catch his eye, maybe jog his memory. He was in front of me on the elevator, though, so this was pointless.
As we got of the elevator, I decided the past few days in solitary confinement had left me desperate for human contact. This truly was some random YU guy, and not a relic friend from my past.
But, passing the fruit stand on 183rd (or whatever street that its on); he glanced back and looked me in the eye, as if to say “Yeah, I know who you are. What are you gonna do about it?”
“Nothing,” I thought, “Its all just residual hallucinations from Thanksgiving”
That’s when I heard him pick up his phone and answer in an Australian accent. It was GABE! I did know him. From sophomore year (or something). Sadly, though, he turned right on 184th and was lost.
Will I see ol’ Gabe again? Will I ever figure out in what year I actually knew him, or if indeed I was still delirious? Did I actually leave my apartment at all, or was this all some extended delusion from staying in my apartment too long?
Stay tuned and find out.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Acid rules all
Do you think that your posts about "random stranger friends" hav reduced the number of people who say helllo to you "randomly"?
Because I know I have refrained from speaking to the great and popular grange since I read your post. I don't want to be "that guy".
Somehow you've turned saying hello to a classmate into a socially awkward experience.
Thanks!
Dear Anonymous,
I by no means, meant to alienate friends, strangers or stranger friends. While I have, of late, seen less of my random stranger friends, I have also seen less of my friend friends. I attribute this to being stuck in my apartment writing papers (I have 20 pages due over 2 weeks...). I do miss them, and hope to see more of them (you) when I emerge from writing induced hibernation.
Post a Comment