~Friday~ Xolani and I caught the 7:45 bus this morning after a brief exchange of notes in the night that confirmed our mutual departure time. A few minutes after taking my seat, the lady behind me made a phone call, “Sherell, could you pick me up at 9:15 instead of quarter ’til?”
A man got on with a $5 bill and asked if he could get change to pay his fare, which of course you can’t. “You can put it all in and your card will be credited with that much and you can use the card for future trips until the balance reaches zero.”
The lady in front of me was on her cell phone, and I couldn’t hear a thing she was saying. As much as I’d’ve loved to have eavesdropped, I was grateful for the rare incident of people actually knowing how to talk on their cellphones in an enclosed, public place.
Li’l Dino boarded with another lady, whom I think might have been her daughter.
A lady sat up and to my left, and she had a baby so small with her, that I didn’t even see it at first. It was in a little—solid blue butt area and a blue-and-white checkered back—pouch-type thing with the brand name Sungli® on it.
It was good to be at work a little earlier than usual, and I got a bunch of stuff done before my standing 10:30-11:45 Student E-mail Meeting for which I take minutes. As is usual, we had more agenda items scheduled than we could possibly cover, but we ended the meeting pretty much on time anyway, just stopping where we were at the end-of-meeting time.
I ran to Mission Valley Cup A Joe for a short lunch with the lovely Anna and Sarah, and Jonah with the beautiful eyes and eyelashes. Oh yeah, and Brad joined us, too.
After a brief discussion about the pronunciation of Focaccia, which Sarah, Anna, and I all pronounced differently, and of which Anna’s was deemed correct, I enjoyed a Turkey and Swiss on Focaccia Sandwich. I chose one of their Milky Way something-or-other coffee drinks, which I experienced the exact same way I did the last time I had it. The name sounds better than the taste.
To get back to the office, I walked down to the Wofline bus stop on Avent Ferry in front of Burger King, where this kid in a wife-beater walked up. He was cute in the way that only youth can win over flaws that might otherwise be held against you. He walked up shaking his head.
“Man, it’s been a bad day.”
“Oh yeah, why’s that?” I asked as he’d started off the sentence looking at the other person standing with us, who had ear buds in and made no indication of hearing him, and had ended up looking at me when he finished.
“I just got fired from my job,” he said
“Oh, that sucks, man,” I offered.
“Yeah, I was on the way to Myrtle Beach with my friend, and they called me on my cell phone. Said they needed to speak to me. Now. So we turned around and I came in to talk to them just now. My ex-girlfriend’s a nut job. She drove up outside of work last night, and just kept leaning on the horn and yelling all kinds of nasty shit out the window toward the store. They said that that wasn’t good for business, so they were gonna have to let me go.”
“Where’d you work?” I asked.
“Right up at that Cup A Joe,” and he indicated the direction, and coffee house, from which I had just come.
“How long you been working there?” I asked.
“Ever since I got to Raleigh. About six months now. I came up from Miami. I liked working there, too. But, they were real nice about it though. They said they’d even give me a reference for another job. They’d say they just had to cut back on hours. So that’s good.”
“Well, I’m sorry to hear it, man,” I offered. “You got another place in mind to apply?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m gonna try the Dunkin’ Donuts. Someone told me they’re always hiring.”
“Oh the one over on Hillsborough Street?” I asked.
“No, up on Six Forks Road,” he said, and then, “There’s one over on Hillsborough Street?”
“Yes,” I said, “Over by the Jimmy John’s.”
“I’ll have to check that one out, too. Thanks, man.”
“Okay. Good luck, man,” I said as the #1 Avent Ferry bus pulled up and we both boarded.
I got back to the office in time for another meeting, this one from 2:00-3:15, which also ended on time. Yay for calendar integrity.
A group of us on the (Google) Student E-mail team met at Mitch’s at 4:15 for a little celebration of a long project coming to fruition. I sat next to Sarah and we kibitzed like a couple a yentas. At one point, I showed her the I’m-thinking-about-my-husband, I’m-thinking-about-my-boyfriend wine glass joke.
I had intended to catch the 6:00 city bus home, but that didn’t work out, and I just missed the #9 Greek Village Wolfline bus, which takes me closest to my house of the two university buses. So, I ended up taking the #1 Avent Ferry Wolfline bus, which meant I had a little bit of a walk when I got off at Avent Ferry and Gorman. It’s so not a bad walk, and I so wouldn’t mind it, if the combined weight of my laptop bag and my soft-sided brief case bag didn’t weigh down my shoulders so.
Once home, Xolani and I headed down to Great Clips for a haircut, each armed with a $6.99 coupon, where I heard something you never want to hear your stylist say. She put the #2 clip on and dragged it across my head a short ways, and then said, “Ooops.” Not loving that. Turned out her cord had just caught on the arm of the chair.
Xolani wanted his head completely shaved, but they don’t do that, “A zero clipper’s the lowest we can go,” his stylist said. I paid for my $6.99 haircut, and when he went to pay for his it was $11-something even after handing her the coupon.
“His coupon isn’t good?” I asked.
“Yes, his haircut was $6.99, but he got a shave, too, and that’s an additional $5.00.”
After dropping by home for a quick shower, we stopped by K-Mart to buy some screws fro new handles for my laundry closet doors, and then had dinner at Two Guys.
Xolani ordered the Grilled Chicken Calzone and I had their Pepperoni Stromboli. Each came with a house salad, which we each had with Fat-free Italian Vinaigrette Dressing. Those things take a little while to cook, and then one of the waiters accidentally gave Xolani’s to someone at another table, so we had to wait for them to cook him another one.
I meant to capture this totally awesome affirmation yesterday from my friend Joe, which came in response to his reading about my award on Tuesday:
| John-John,
I just read your blog entry from Monday. Congrats on the award! Awesome! I wanted to tell you that I think it’s wonderful how you make a difference in people’s lives. Obviously you “shine” at work just as you do in your personal life. I don’t tell you enough how I appreciate you as a friend in my life. Your perspectives on the ENDLESS topics we talk about and your words of wisdom have affected me in so many positive ways – you will never know. I SO appreciate that. Love ya, |
My heart is full.
At 10:00 I arrived at The Borough to meet Phil out. He arrived at about 10:30, and I moved with him from standing at the bar to two seats at the other end of the bar. We had interesting conversation on a lot of topics, and eventually made our way over to Flex, where it was Alternative Night.
Among and betwext gay and straight people alike, we spent a good portion of our time there using one dollar to play a slew of Word Dojo games, because we kept “winning,” the two of us furiously typing out balls of words against the timer.
