~Monday~ Right Way William (the bus driver formerly known as Wrong Way Willie) was our driver this morning.
I took the seat behind a woman who was dressed flawlessly—at least from the neck up; I couldn’t see the rest of her. She had on a black knit blouse with a thin rim of white around its collar. She had on a knit hat of alternating black and white circles, each about an inch-and-a-half thick, and prescription eyeglasses with black frames in the front and white frame earpieces. And she herself was black. A study in black and white.
I was surprised when Li’l Dino got on at her stop, as the food courts at the university (one at which she works) are closed as the kids are all away on winter break. I said hello and asked for confirmation that she was off, and she said, “Oh yeah, baby, until January 6th. I’m just out and about this morning.”
At the McKimmon Center stop, a young kid got on with a huge afro that immediately reminded me of Jermaine Jackson (in his hair’s heyday) for some reason. He had on a charcoal pullover sweater, black pants, and shocking red tennis shoes with bright white shoelaces.
At the next stop, a man got on and took a seat in the rear of the bus, talking loudly the whole way to his seat. He used some cuss word, and all of a sudden a recording of a lady’s voice came over the bus intercom that said, “Please, there’s no profanity allowed on the CAT bus.” It was the same voice that comes on when we’re turning the corner off Hillsborough Street onto Beryl Road: “Please remember! There’s no eating, drinking, or smoking on the CAT bus,” which is then repeated in Spanish, the only part I understand being, “…autobus de CAT… por favor.”
This recorded profanity reprimand made everyone on the bus laugh as it was totally unexpected, and I wondered if the bus driver was able to push some button and make it play at will. I’m guessing it must be the case, but if it is, I’ve certainly never witnessed any other driver doing it. Perhaps it’s a new feature. It reminded me of the “Lunk Alarm” at Planet Fitness, which is a big purple light that lights up and swivels along with a warning sound indicating that someone has either:
- Grunted or groaned to impress everyone around them that they’re lifting weights 1000 times the mass of their brain
- Dropped said weights, because they were bearable only long enough to trophy them around (yes, I did just make a verb out of that noun) over their head, but not long enough to put them down without potentially precipitating a crater in the gym floor, or…
- Made a judgmental comment about the amount of weight someone else was—or was not—able to lift.
A few days ago Brad told Salon Entelechy about a website his daughter found called Save The Words! (Yes, me! Hello! Pick me! Pick me! Over here!) Today, I adopted this one:
Speaking of words, this fantastic quote pointed out by Salon Entelechy member Anna was in today’s A.Word.A.Day e-mail:
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A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke. -Arthur Plotnik, editor and author (b. 1937) |
It was a fairly quiet day at work, as a good number of folks—particularly the ones with years of service working for the state—are off for the rest of the year.
I gave my officemate a Christmas gift of about 12 varieties of soap, which was timely in that on Friday I told her about the technique I learned some time in the last year about how to not waste the end of soap bars. “This is a little something with which to practice your new-found skill,” I told her as I handed the gift to her.
This evening, I made a run to Trader Joe’s—I may have to buy some stock in that company—and then made a stop at Lowe’s for a gift card.
When I returned home, it was my move in all four of the Scrabble games I’m currently in the midst of:
With Will
With Kevin and Ricardo
With Will and Kim
After making my moves, I spent some time instant message chatting with Robert, then with Joe, and then putting together some gift bags.
After making a hotel reservation in Virginia Beach for a two-day, right after Christmas trip with Joe, I got to bed at a decent hour.