We're open today!

That was what the Korean couple told me when I got my coffee from them this morning. Yesterday was a bad day, I told them.

So then later, for lunch, I was able to get what I wanted. A Super Squeeze:Pineapple, banana, protein, and ginseng. And probably other things I don't remember right now.

One of my very few African American students told me today that because she feels "OK" with me (a white person), ironically she thinks having gotten to know me will make it even more difficult for her to get by in the real world. She knows the white people she feels comfortable with are few and far between and chances are she will always be disappointed. And somehow it's worse to know it's possible to get along with a white person and then never have it happen again, than not even to know of the possibility.

Her compliment made me happy. But what she said is completely upsetting, I think. And I have no doubt she was telling the truth.