illegal subway talk

Today as I was relaxing on the subway (if that's possible when it's so crowded), a few young people entered the car I was in. The first thing that struck me about the young woman in particular was that she was eating something out of a white tube--turns out it was cake icing. (The next thing I noticed that was the crotch of her jeans was, quite literally, at her ankles. Her sweatshirt went all the way to her knees. I really don't know how she could ever dream of walking. Inwardly, I laughed a little! But I digress.) A 30-something man wearing a USSR t-shirt said to the girl, "You know, when I was 8 years old, I would steal those tubes of icing and eat it before I got home so my mom wouldn't know." And the girl look at her two friends and burst out laughing. "What, did you steal that?" asked the man in the USSR t-shirt. "Yeah, well, he's the one who actually took it!!" she said, pointing to her friend, the young man next to her. She continued to lick frosting through a hole roughly poked in the side of the tube--I couldn't figure out why she didn't just open it at the top. What was so strange (to me) about the whole thing is that the subway car was packed-standing room only-and everyone heard this interchange. No one seemed at all phased by it. Most people ignored it, I think.

Interesting.

In other news, today in my art/civilization/knowledge class I understood some of what was discussed. A friend, Chris, did a presentation on how Dewey (the author of the book we're reading) might be advocating for socialism. However, that's somewhat irrelevant. The relevant part is that I UNDERSTOOD WHAT HE WAS SAYING. Hallelujah! And, we finished this book by Dewey that I've been having a hard time with, and we got to say what we thought of it. Many people bashed the disorganized writing--the content was great--and the size of the assignments. It was beautiful not to feel alone in my frustration.

My cousin Lawren was going to come to visit today from Syracuse, and I was going to make dinner for him and Mary, Earl, and Myra. However, Lawren is stuck in a cheap motel in New York state somewhere due to the terrible snowy weather!! I'm sorry, Lawren! I hope you can get back home soon.