~Tuesday~ Library Man was aboard this morning. He actually wasn’t in his element like he normally is, which is to say he wasn’t reading a newspaper or a trade magazine. Boring.
A lady with a head scarf sat to the right of me, and she held her cell phone up in her left hand the entire ride, occasionally glancing at the screen as if she were expecting a call or perhaps a text message. She had a full liter bottle resting between her legs—Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water. I can hardly think of bottled water any more without thinking about that “Overheard in NYC” entry about the lady pointing out the bottled water to a friend of hers in a convenience store, to which the lady replies, “Oh, I don’t like that brand. It’s too watery.” Classic.
At the McKimmon Center stop, a woman tried her dollar bill four times before surrendering to its unworthiness to be read by the fare machine, and dramatically swinging her backpack around to emphasize the enormous inconvenience of having to retrieve a worthy one, she pulled out a fresh, crisp bill that was graciously accepted by the fare machine. Drama.
There was an older, white businessman on the bus, which is a rare thing to see in and of itself. He had on a gray suit jacket, a green, knit sweater on under it, which made me sweat just to look at, and a pair of brown loafers with tassels on them. He kept falling asleep, which was evidenced by his chin slowly sinking down to his chest, and each time we’d come to a stop, he would open his eyes while jerking his head up, and look around wildly for a minute as if to say either, “Where am I?” or “Did I miss my stop?” Entertaining.
I had two work meetings today, one being our regular staff meeting from 9:00-10:00, and the other being one about a PR campaign I’m doing around the refurbishing of the Stinson Collaborative Commons. That one was with David and Susan, two of my favorite OIT peeps.
Our organization’s photographer shared some of the pics he took at the awards ceremony, and of course I’m going to include here the ones of me, me, me! (Well there are a couple of my colleagues, too.)
Being Handed My Certificate
Being Congratulated by My Brother From Another Mother
(Not really, that’s our Vice Chancellor for Information Technology)
My Boss’s Boss Receiving His Certificate
My Friend and Colleague Nick Named the First Award Winner
Me Named the Second Award Winner
I Love This Picture of my Boss
At 10:00, Xolani still wasn’t home tonight, and I hadn’t heard from him. I thought, “Well the last bus is at 10:15, so if he’s not home by 10:30 or 10:45, I’ll have to start worrying.
He arrived at about 10:20, and told me that they’d driven him (and his visiting South African colleagues) to Columbia, SC (which is about 225 miles from Raleigh) for a meeting and then drove back. They left here at noon to go! Wouldn’t you think they’d set out early AM on such an endeavor?
We caught up very quickly, and I asked him if I could upload one of the pictures we took of him and Duma on our lake walk on Saturday. Here it is. Xolani is in the red shirt and Duma’s in the blue one.
