Wednesday, September 15, 2010

A day at UMASS

Some weird shit happened yesterday when I was at UMASS:

A woman I don't know and I were getting into the elevator on my way up to the Graduate Assistants' office in McCormick hall. As we got into the elevator, 5 maintenance dudes piled in behind us stinking like booze and jabbering about alcohol addiction:

Medium-sized guy: Are you a full-time alcoholic?

Tall guy: No, part-time... I smoke crack full time though

I looked at one of them, an older black man, and we both laughed. He stepped up close to the woman I don't know, who had edged herself to the front near the elevator door. "I'm with her," he said. She looked stiff and uncomfortable. They maintenance guys all got out behind the girl on the third floor. I continued up to 4.






Later in the day, about an hour after lunch:

Professor C. sent me on an errand to deliver some mail. I set out across campus. In the depths of the Quinn Administration building, somewhere on the "Lower Level" amidst the twisting bowels and humming machinery of UMASS, I found the mail room. On my way back I came to a door labeled "rooftop access only," but I was underground so I didn't go in. Retracing my steps I found my way to the "Upper Level" (one level below the surface) and as I turned the corner out of the stairwell I heard some scuffling and grunting down the hall. Two Asian men were on the floor, locked in combat. They saw me and rushed to pick up the mess of papers, books and a book bag that was on the floor. One hustled past me with his face down, holding up a yellow slip of paper. His face was bloody but he was smiling. What was that all about?

2 comments:

  1. Did you ever find out what that was about?

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's damn obvious what those Asian dudes were up to and I'm not supposed to talk about it.

    ReplyDelete