the ex-boss got into town on saturday and brought edsel and i out for dinner at fuji mountain, where there was excellent tea and soba and a platter of sushi that barely fit on the table. he had just come from a hike through the bucks county trails -- hiking, he claims, gives him an endorphin high -- and was all rubicund and bursting with joie de vivre. this is funnier if you actually know him (kc: don't tell), but i swear to you that his life runs like that car (mercedes?) commercial with people being born when they're old and moving backwards through time. as i've said before, when i retire, my recreation is going to be completely sedentary and utterly luxurious.

it was a comfortable dinner. we even managed to not talk about work most of the time (edsel being there helped), although i'm not sure that the slash-and-burn tactics of landowners in indonesia was that much of an improvement as a post-prandial conversation topic. i enjoyed myself though. i always perceive that meetings with the ex-boss will be a lot more awkward than they actually are, and i think there are two reasons why this might be. first, he has Opinions. second, i've been culturally programmed to mistrust older people in general and older people in positions of power in particular. this is not even a once bitten twice shy thing, just a deep ingrown sense that as long as you are someone's subordinate, sooner or later that person is going to get you. one of the many reasons why i need therapy.

edsel and i walked back after that, over the schuylkill, while i tried to find out as much as i could about green cards and non-resident employment, meeting on the way a slobbery and too-friendly labrador, a mysterious hooded figure, and a discombobulated, sweaty and possibly drunk russ, who thought i had no right to be outside his apartment at 11 p.m. on a sunday evening.

#37 - Warm, fresh, fluffy towels