Orientation

I saw all the NYU freshman waiting with their parents outside the dorms today, taking their turns moving in. Pallets full of bedding, bottled water, and crates of sweaters to be worn in the anticipated winter. Today, though, it was hot, and the flurry of activity outside the 15 story dormitory on 3^rd and 11^th was placed into an appropriate though unnoticed context by the Howl festival taking place a few blocks away in Tompkins Square Park. All those parents dropping their 17 and 18-year-old daughters and sons to live next to one another in the belly of the beast, the East Village. Nuts. All of them. I don’t know how much I can blame the parents for their ignorance, but they’ll realize what they’ve done when their fresh-faced, Midwestern boys and girls come home from Christmas with a mild pot habit and an unexplained prescription for penicillin from the university clinic.

NYU...In the Waiting Line

An apt oldie but goodie for those of you who remember 1996, while this tike was in 4th grade.

Mother mother how's the family?
I'm just calling to say hello.
How's the weather? how's my father?
Am I lonely? heavens no.
Mother mother are ya listening? just a phone call to ease your mind.
Life is perfect, never better, distance making the heart grow fond.

When you sent me off to see the world,
were you scared that I might get hurt?
Would I try a little tobacco,
would I keep on hiking up my skirt?

I'm hungry,
I'm dirty,
I'm losing my mind...
Everything's fine!

I'm freezing,
I'm Starving,
I'm Bleeding death...
Everything's fine!

Yeah, I'm working, making money, I'm just starting to build a name.
I can feel it, around the corner, I could make it any day.
Mother mother can you hear me, sure I'm sober, sure I'm sane.
Life is perfect, never better, still your daughter, still the same.