It was spring or early fall, and the lot of us spilled onto McKeldin Mall, laughing and teasing. We were on the way to Plato's Diner for dinner, perhaps -- I know longer remember. There was a giggle and a charge, and then a weight on my back and shoulders. With no particular thought, I dropped my center of gravity, turning forward and aside just so -- and the weight was deposited in front of me on the grass.
I remember the smell of the grass. I remember she looked up at me
from under a tumble of red hair. I don't think I've ever been so
humiliated,
she said. Have you ever tried to read an ambiguous
expression on a face turned upside down? I'm not sure whether she was
serious; but a moment later, she laughed, and we all continued our
tumble toward whatever our destination might have been.
Nine years later, idly contemplating a laughing gaggle of undergrads sitting at a table across the room in La Burrita, it all came back. It was a minor incident, an acquaintance I saw little in my later undergrad years, and never since I graduated. I don't recall remembering it since. But for a moment, I smelled grass instead of salsa, and I remembered.
Memory's a funny thing.
On an unrelated note, the rdesktop protocol is pretty cool. My desktop at the office runs Linux, and I like it that way, but every now and then I have to work with Word documents or PowerPoint presentations. But since the department runs a Windows 2003 server that supports the rdesktop protocol, I can open a window that acts just like a Windows box. I'm restricted in what I can run on the server, so I can't use it to compile my codes for Windows; but even so, it's mightily useful.
- Currently drinking: Black tea scented with caramel and memory