Wednesday 01/25/06
On a break
I didn't write about it when I did it, because I was embarrassed about having done it, and I didn't know what to think about it, but I've pretty much settled my mind about it, so here goes.
Wednesday of last week, I made an impulsive and unannounced visit to Roman. I knew he would be teaching a morning class in Wappingers that day, and he'd been under so much pressure lately, I was worried about him. I wanted to see for myself how he was. I could meet him outside the building at noon, after class, but then he'd feel forced to make some excuse re lunch (he was headed back to LI that afternoon), so I decided to catch him on the break, which would be around 10:30 am, for maybe 15 minutes. No pressure, and a neat time limit.
I arrived at about 10:15 and sat on the floor in the hall with my book. He called the break at 10:45, and a few students left the room (I think there were three in the class). I walked into the room, and he was sitting in a student chair next to a woman about our age, and talking about his fancy new camera (the one I gave him less than two weeks before "taking a break", the gift he has not offered to return, the cad). He looked up and saw me, and turned beet red. I've never seen anyone, let alone him, so red. I don't know whether he was startled to see me, or whether he was embarrassed to be caught flirting, or to be caught talking about my gift so cavalierly to impress another woman. Whatever. It was actually kind of funny.
We moved to the other side of the room, where he told me the latest about his mother, and I told him he didn't have to worry about me messing him up with the other woman (the one at home, not the one in the classroom, but I didn't say that), and he hugged me, and then we moved out into the hall, where I got several more hugs, the cheek-to-cheek kind, and he even shifted his head a bit once and kissed me in front of my ear, which I wish he hadn't done, that's confusing. So I was satisfied - he looked very good, I could stop worrying about him. I was afraid he'd be all haggard.
I hope he realizes that I won't say anything to "her" about him and me, but by damn, if he picks up with another woman, I WILL tell "her"! At this point I'm sort of on her side, and if he screws around again, it's me and her against him, by damn!
I wonder now if he glances at the doorway every time he calls a break, and I wonder if it's with hope or dread. I really don't know which I'd prefer.
Fur Storage
You're supposed to care for your furs by putting them in a cool slightly humid fur vault over the summer. Then in the winter, you get them out to wear, and they'll be hanging in a closet in your house all winter. That doesn't make any sense to me.
I've got some pretty fox and mink jackets (and one full-length, full skin, fox coat that I can't wear because I look like a walking igloo in it), (and before you get all excited, I bought all of them used, at auctions, so I did not create a market, and I did not pay a lot, about 1/7 their retail value). Two years ago I looked into summer storage for them. Ick! It would cost over $300 for me to store them, and that didn't include the hats. That's when I started thinking about it, and decided the whole arrangement didn't make sense.
Hot dry air is bad for them, right? So in the summer, when your house is air conditioned and a bit humid, you pay to store them? And then in the winter, when your house is full of dry heated air, you hang them in your closet? That doesn't make sense to me. It's exactly backward. Maybe it made sense before air conditioning, but not now.
So I've set up a canvas wardrobe in the basement, and that's where they live all year round. The canvas breathes, it's cool all the time, and it's not exactly humid, but not as dry as upstairs.
So there, Ms. Oppenheimer!
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