peter nohrnberg knows who i am! before i went into his office i did not know he even knew i existed! i knocked on his door and said "good morning professor nohrnberg (how comforting to say the name aloud, even if this is a different member of the clan!) i'm one of the new graduate students..." and before i could get to the next part (which was: you wouldn't know me but i went to college at uva and had studied for several years with your father...) he said "are you minzeee?" that was very embarrassing (as always is, when suddenly you found out that someone knew more about you than you thought they did) and yet very cool at once because one is professor-idolising at heart and when a professor knows one's name it's cloud nine for the rest of the day. (the other day i went around the english department building with my new friend rikita and started hyperventilating over all the names of doors.) if he were not in his office i don't believe i would have recognised him and in fact, suffered a moment of doubt as i knocked on his open door, for he wasn't the least like his picture - he was tall (well how can i know that from a headshot?) and wore glasses (he was photographed without) and i didn't think he looked like professor nohrnberg his father, although he did have the same eyes (this o noticed when i was talking to him) - only his are far more brilliantly blue. he has a resonant voice that might be even called booming, and that too was unlike his father. he was very kind and pleasant and did not throw me out right away, which was much better luck than i had with my own advisor, whom i had just that same morning waylaid in a most impolite and thoroughly undignified way. my advisor has his office not in the english department but on the 7th floor of widener, making it nearly impossible for me to drop in to say hello. after trying for two days i was coming out of the english department after my meeting with the dgs when i saw him walk purposefully out the door, and rashly enough i raced after him, for it occured that i might never be able to run into him so casually again, and that it was best to corner him now and introduce myself and set up an appointment. perhaps he was even on his way back to the office and i might be able to walk with him! so i went thudding after him around two bends and three corridors and finally as i caught up with him i called out his name and he turned to see who was the impertinent git and as i skidded to a stop i see that the moment is less than opportune he was not heading out of the building but into another office where the receptionist and quite a few other people were staring at me and i felt extremely foolish and started stammering and what came out was "er...were you...on the way to somewhere?" and he was in fact on his way to give an examination. dear god it was mortifying. i muttered sorry i'll come back and fled. and i hadn't even told him who i was, so that when i do show up in his office after making a proper appointment, he may throw me right out for a stalker, or, retaining this bad first impression, receive me coldly. i think the only thing left for me is to cut my hair and put on different glasses and hope that when i do manage my meeting with him he will not recognise me for the woman who was chasing after him in madcap fashion. oh well.

and i passed louis menand on the stairs today. he was talking to someone so i only bobbed at him and went on my way but i still think he is hot, so there!