Middlebrow had another litmus test for me. "We're all going bowling tonight - Are you in?" "I think I'll pass. I want to finish my origami project..." "Ori-ga-what??? Are you talking jibberish?" "No - just one of my hobbies..." Look immediately for the furrowed brow, followed by quizzical look, following by gaping mouthful of derision. I might as well be talking backwards. "Okay - well, don't forget about that summer block-buster film next week You can find time for that at least with your busy schedule?" "You mean the one with all the super-heroes taking on the space aliens?" "Yeah - you're aware that this is the third sequel that everyone's been talking about - and lining up to see for months on end..." "I would go... except that there's this Schubert sonata that I've been trying to finish...I think I may finally be able to get it up to tempo..." Get ready for that slight turn of the head that let's me know I'm a certifiable weirdo...Middlebrow will not be denied...
We had made our way down busy Palm Avenue towards the crosswalk. after zigzagging the usual route from busy Bandini Avenue to Tower Road to Rosewood Place. Bret was our wild-man companion - a fifth-grader with a take-no-prisoners approach to life. The local crosswalk, that most mundane of enterprises was soon to become the scene of spontaneous absurdist theater when suddenly out of nowhere came the random yelp: Hey...Hey...What do you want with us lady? - What do I want with you? said the most predictably normal gray-haired woman by whose ever so brief guidance we measured our daily jaunt to school. Yeah - where are you taking us? - There's only one way kid - It's this way... - You're not really a crossing guard are you? came the cheeky interrogative. The slightly bemused, limping, beleaguered woman was dwarfed by her bright yellow uniform as she held up her STOP sign - showing Brett. The other smaller kids walked by us single file in the middle of th...
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