Then, at the last minute, a friendly middle-aged doctor waves me in.
A test result was late, and the patient, a friendly, middle-aged man, jokingly asked his doctor whom he should yell at.
Instead, the Europeans ended up snubbing Elisabeth Sickl, the new social affairs minister, a friendly middle-aged former school principal who says her values are "humanist".
Although he has the aura of a commanding officer, he also exudes that of a friendly middle-aged man.
Andy was one of the brightest presences in North Rosedale — a big, friendly middle-school math teacher with a gift for fun and a tendency toward self-effacement, although secretly he was one of the engines who made the neighborhood what it was.
"What you told me the other night," he said, "about enjoying your job… you weren't serious, were you?" Here was an employed, friendly, middle-class 36-year-old Spaniard and he had never, ever had wind of the notion that someone might feel enthusiasm for what he did for a living.
There was a middle-aged Bihari couple who, he gathered from overhearing their conversation, had just married off their eldest daughter, and a friendly, potbellied, middle-aged Bengali businessman wearing a suit and tie, by the name of Ghosh.
The DJ, a friendly, tan, middle-aged man, is blasting Top 40 radio hits; "Blurred Lines" comes on as a slew of young contestants giggle and gather on the dance floor.
When I visited Healthway Natural Foods in Tenafly, N.J., and inquired about flaxseed oil, the friendly, middle-aged man behind the counter, who identified himself only as Ray, led me to an aisle stocked with dozens of supplements.
And yet as the snapshots from domestic gatherings across several decades flicker by, it is the god of chaos that seems to rule in the comfy parlors of these friendly middle-class folk.
No one was in costume, except for two friendly middle-aged women wearing t-shirts that read "District 12 Tribute," which they'd gotten at the Columbia bookstore, and a man inexplicably dressed as the Harry Potter character Severus Snape, but there was a buzz of excitement in the air.
