a placeless world

With the minutes on the display of his miniature cell phone ticking up to test time, Andy Deesing is a tad frantic.

But the 20-year-old history major is still fairing better than many of the other university students crowded into an Einstein Bros. Bagels shop on this sunny Friday morning. And none of them had their notes pilfered a week before finals.

Car break-ins are a staple annoyance of city life. Not unlike pigeons, panhandlers and base jumpers. Thieves snatch stereo equipment, cash, trendy items of clothing — or whatever they can find. In Deesing's case, that meant a pair of sunglasses, a Beta Theta Pi fraternity checkbook, some fishing gear — and his class notes.

"With everything that was gone, I didn't even realize it at first," says Deesing, who sports a short blonde beard over an easy-going smile. "But when I got home, my mom said, 'It could have been worse. They could have taken your school books.'"

As the loss of his notes dawned on him, Deesing cussed in front of his own mother.

It may not have been a devastating blow to students of other ilk, but history majors are veracious note takers. In the one book thieves didn't get, Deesing's notes are meticulous: scripted in tidy capital letters with page numbers in the upper margins. There are no doodles.

"The good news is that everyone's been really great," Deesing says, taking a sip from his grande iced coffee — his second cup of the morning.

The bad news, he says, is that class notes are a personal thing. Sitting alone in the only corner of the bagel shop not yet soaked in morning sun, Deesing is surrounded by photocopies of other students' notes — some of which might as well be in Arabic — and may very well be.

He thumbs through the class text, "A Concise History of the Middle East" — concise at 600 pages. Deesing's first exam is a three-essay review on colonialism, nationalism and independence in one of the world's more complicated regions. On Monday, he faces back-to-back examinations on Vietnam and Soviet Russia.

He looks down at his phone. Test time. He stands and stuffs the notes into a brand new satchel. His smile fades just slightly.

"Here goes," he says.