It is 6:45pm on a Wednesday evening and I find myself at the Hughes Middle school Invention Convention. Invited by the oldest of the kids that I babysit, I arrive before he and his parents and brother. I browse through many of the 6th grade inventions. (The Invention Convention is this year's substitute for a science fair - with IPOs and entrepreneurship running wild these days.) There are many interesting inventions - pet feeders, collapsible hangers, brother keeper-outers, backpack alarms, a combination spoon/fork called a spork, various alarms, various skateboard devices and attachments, automatic plant waterers, and a fair number of light and remote-finder devices. My favorite is called the Lost Item Finder. It consists of a keyboard where you type in the name of the item that you lost. It (magically) tells you where the item is. (The invention, or demonstration, was not active.) One of my other favorites had a model of a proton and a neutron in close proximity and I forgot what the invention did. Probably because it did not explicitly utilize antiprotons.
Eventually I give Nopey his medicine (antibiotics and anti-inflammatory) and go to sleep.
I want to make an impression at the bar. Now usually, when heading out for a night on the town, I would be "dressed to get laid" in stylish, yet conservative black attire. But this is a different occasion because I just want to speak with Ta-Wei and get home. I dress to be left alone. I select a pair of orange pants with green sidestripes, a fluorescent blue nylon shirt, intentionally mismatched shoes (one yellow and one white), and a red bandana that I picked up at a recent demonstration that has Schrodinger's equation stamped on it in white.
Finally Ta-Wei makes his way to the microphone, grabs it from the DJ, and announces "Quit hassling my boyfriend or I'll slit your throats". I turn red. As red as my bandana. Ta-Wei is not one to hold back. We are left alone.
"Oh, I just looked through the phone book and found a place at random halfway between us. Do you like it?"
Ta-Wei talks about the funding partners, the motor controllers, the sensory modules, and the learning algorithms. I explain to him that we are on hold until August. There is no extra time in the day (or night). He is disappointed but he understands. I convince him to go back to the partners and sell it. He agrees.
"No. But thanks. I think I need to go home and get some sleep. Me and the teddy bear." I leave - my pillow hits the head at 2:53am. A full three hours of sleep before it all starts again.