Jan 7, 2008

Ice cream man, on my street


Last year I was in the elevator (I believe with Susan Harris, in fact) and there was this kid (kid being college student of comparable age to me), but he looked more like he was thirty years old. I had seen him several times before in the elevator and whatever. He always wore solid colors--lots of army green, navy, black, white, beiges; even his shoes would fit in these parameters. But the particular time being discussed here was different. He was licking an ice cream cone from the dining halls like he was four years old--an activity not uncommon for the elevator of a college residence hall, but this coupled with the fact that he looked about thirty five was just too much. The juxtaposition was hilarious. He was just resting, leaning back in a corner of the (overly massive) elevator with his ice cream mindin' his business.

Ok, so then I guess he lives in my apartment building this year although I hadn't seen him once last quarter because I have seen him three times in two days! Still in the same color scheme, of course. My building has this 'study lounge' sort of thing which I never really go to, but today I decided to do some reading there because its couch is (unfortunately) more comfortable than mine. And this kid is there, on his laptop with headphones, laughing for about a half hour. But his laugh can't really be described as a normal human laugh; it's more of whispered cackle, if that makes any sense at all. Like a hyena who lost his voice. WEIRD.

* The title of this post comes from a song aptly entitled "Ice Cream Man" by Jonathan Richman that is super fantastic and highly recommended.

1 comment:

Susan Harris said...

Ice cream man!! Oh my god he was fabulous. See, this is why I sometimes wish I was at UCLA this year. So I could have jfranco and ice cream man interactions with you.