a damn good day.

one of the worst things about living in a university town is that i make friends with graduate students and then later they move away. feh. especially because, being a very ordinary person (but only in certain very small and overlapping subcultures) it isn't easy for me to make friends in the first place.

i prefer, when possible, to have jewish friends. barring that, people who understand the ironies and demands of modern faithfulness.

i prefer, when possible, to have friends who parent their kids rather like i try to parent mine. barring that, well, it's probably easier if they don't have any kids.

i prefer, when possible, to have friends who are a bit geeky and computer nerdy and science fictiony and such. barring that, i cope.

i prefer, when possible, to have friends who are feminist. barring that, well, actually, there is no barring that. they have to have at least some feminist consciousness.

i prefer, when possible, to have friends who are cool with queer culture and queer people. barring that, i don't want to know, or they aren't my friend anymore.

and i prefer, when possible, to have friends with an ironic and sarcastic sense of humor. barring that, i cry into my tea and bewail my fate.

so why is today such a good day? well, first i brought razi and zora to religious school, and someone i met during the high holy days was running the bagel cafe. and we got a lot of time (over two hours) to talk and get to know each other better. and she's cool. muy cool. no kids yet, but she and her spouse are working on changing that. and i think she fits all my other "prefers" up there. and she's a writer. so i read some of her blog when i got home. she's even cooler than i thought. as in, she has a nerd harem on her blog. she is SO getting invited over soon.

and when i got home, the "lunch date" was here. by that i mean a couple who go to our synagogue that spouse and i have been working on getting over here since, well, the high holy days, actually. and we had a blast. we talked work, SCA, politics, personal history, what it's like raising kids in this town (because like the chick above, they don't have kids yet but are thinking about changing that).... i like them both. a bunch. the wife and i have some career things in common, the husband and my spouse talked and talked about all sorts of stuff... they were here for hours. i think they genuinely liked us, too.

and best of all, not a one of these people is a graduate student!

so! a good day. yeah.