I forgot to capture two things that happened yesterday while I was waiting for the bus to go home:
- I glanced over at three cars parked in the meter spots in front of my work building, and I saw a ticket tucked underneath one of the wiper blades with its ends flapping in the breeze . The meter readers are very consistent about nabbing people in these spots, so it didn’t surprise me to see the ticket. What did surprise me was watching the next person come out of my building, finding said ticket on his car, and seeing that he was a security guard. There just seems to be some inherent irony in that to me.
- In the span of about five minutes, two groups of students came to the intersection right by the bus stop. They were on the dressed up side; that is, all but one of the guys had ties on. It didn’t occur to me that these kids might be coming from the Baptist Student Center, which is right on the corner there as well, as the only activity I’ve ever seen associated with that place has been cars coming in and out of the parking area underneath the building. People are often standing in the middle of the driveway that leads in and out of that parking area, and have to move to accommodate those exiting and entering. But I digress…
Anyhow, at one point there was a group of about ten of them waiting for the light to change to cross the intersection, and three of them walked away from the group over toward those of us waiting for the bus. The pretty blond of the three walked up to me with a big smile on her face, and I thought she was going to ask me a question. Instead, she extended her hand and gave me a little—probably three-inch by two-inch—pamphlet whose title was, “5 Steps to Heaven.” Being a technical communicator, my first thought was, “Oh, the employment of the ancient rhetorical device known today as “the ordered list.” I gave it a quick scan, but finding nothing about love on it, eventually I left it—with love—on my seat on the bus.
I looked on the Web when creating this blog entry to see if maybe they had the five steps listed there, because of course, I’ve forgotten them, but I only found this section with four of the five, which I’ll sum up with verbs: Admit, Believe, Confess, and Invite. I remember those being four of the five, but it didn’t trigger any memory in me about what the fifth one was. It was interesting to me, however, that on the Web page, they employed the sister rhetorical device known as “the unordered list.”
They seem big in general on lists. Over in the Church > Help Articles section, there’s a list item called, “Eleven Steps to Follow.” I will give them “clever points” for the third item in their “contact us” list:
- You can locate just about anybody by having a look at our directory.
- If you want to contact the North Carolina Baptist Campus Ministries Main Office you can click here to get the info.
- If you would like to get in touch with Jesus Christ, click here.
After work, about a dozen people from the area in which I work met over at Mitch’s Tavern for some adult beverages and young adult snacks. It was a nice time and the kind of “team-building” that won’t happen in the office.
My boss was there, and she was kind enough to give me a lift down to Helios, where I met @hughlh and @renee79 for some coffee. I met Hugh at the last Triangle Tweetup, where he mentioned that he’d been reading my blog for a while, and whom I liked immediately.
We had some great conversation over 2+ hours that just flew by. I mentioned “the curious case of the Baptist girl,” and he shared a story with me about an experience he had with that Baptist Student Center regarding both the former and present owners of Reverie coffee shop.
In talking with Hugh, it was obvious to me that he was passionate about two things (among others I’m sure): working with—and for—the homeless and gay rights issues. I asked him how these issues had become important to him, and I loved the story of his journey. I won’t give it away here, you can book him as a speaker if you’re interested. 🙂
I also enjoyed Renee’s and his stories about the local, downtown “politics” of hot dog stand vendors.
I walked from Helios on Glenwood up to Sadlack Heroes on Hillsborough Street, where I caught the 9:13 city bus home.
At home, I found a UPS envelope on my doorstep, which turned out to be from Phyl and containing the paperwork for Jeanie-baby‘s 2008 taxes, and a heartfelt letter that gave me a new viewpoint on a topic with which I struggle to have empathy, and ended with an affirmation: “I truly appreciate you doing this for Mom and for me. You’re a really wonderful person, for so many reasons.”