My Day Thus Far

Bought 2 papa burgers because they were on special. Could only eat one. The Silver Shear was closed, so I had to get my haircut at the backup spot named - you guessed it - the Golden Clipper. It was not a step up. Niki cut my hair, traveling the subject of conversation. So I mentioned my year studying abroad, got the usual question of where, and sheepishly stated Oxford without trying to sound too preppy. "Is that in Scotland?" Hilarious. Cab up to take the pictures. Cabbie in a sour mood. I would think that on such a beautiful Friday, most people would be in pretty high spirits, I quip. "You think wrong," comes the response. Beside the studio, a travel agent shop proves irresistible. Hi, looking for the price on a flight to Samarkand. The suit gives me credibility. "When were you thinking about going?" she asks. April, naturally. I didn't add the "warm morning in 1960" bit. Looks like the best deal is to fly into Tashkent and take the train. Although I think the original plan to stop en route overland from Moscow to Beijing/Taiwan still holds. Could have paid $950 to fly to Moscow via Vienna one way in a month's time. If only. Back in a new cab back to the office. The new guy is pumped, and has a DVD player set up to watch movies while he drives. What have you got? "I love Westerns," he answers. Put one on. "You ever see The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?" Yeah, the opening credits are classic, let's see it. Back to the office. On the elevator, random comment to me on the overturned chair in my office. "Looks like someone was pretty mad." Who knows how that happened, but I guess checking phone messages and email from home is not a foolproof way of guaranteeing that the absence is not wholly unnoticed. It is still scarily strange to have a secretary. And lovely still, there is more to come on this Friday. Thank Guinness.