just returned...

from the dentist---relieved that that is over; glad to have spent what I needed to spend, will cost much less
in August---but what of Friends---still no work---at an impasse---should have committed to AP's but thought I would be needed in school---still there is much time, we will see.
Last night, went to the Harlem bar on Broadway and 148 street, across the street from where my former student Deyra Ramirez lives. Formerly poor mostly Mexican neighborhood, wonder what Deyra thinks when she sees all the people drinking and eating accross the street? Felt is if I stepped into a totally different world, decent enough vibe, four television sets, bartender very sweet and manager very eager to talk, made no contacts but enjoyed myself enough...will return...all the city is a bar adventure! That is what you think,
cityboy? Anyway, subway to 116 street, still could not go home, wondered from 116 to 110th with ample time in Bookstore on Broadway and 114 street (it has been there forever in different guises). Then the walk south (would have walked past 110th street but I was tired). There of course I began to consider my place in the "middle" of my generation. On one side, the "all rightniks" those of my generation who became teachers, social workers etc. now retired with a solid pension. Not world shakers by any means, on the other side, the aggressive ones, the movers and shakers (trite but what else can you say) those who wanted to make millions, did and are now shaping policy aggressively destroying the middle class, or making it harder for them. And in the middle---me---of neither group. Yes, we all grew up watching "Howdy Doody", "Radio Patrol" and the others. Felt a sense of strength in those four blocks, tired, woke up around 12, out again for a short walk, then returned slept until 5, and waited for the usual....