~Thursday~ Believe me, I’m about as bored with my morning bus rides as you probably are at this point. What can I say? It’s exam week. There aren’t many riders.
Instead of just observing, maybe I should start picking one person and making up a story about them. Thanks to a reader of mine (dan4behr), I’ve connected with a blogger (wwcitizen) who in one of his recent postings pointed to a blog called Subway Saints, in which the blogger makes up elaborate stories about a randomly particular person on his morning subway commute.
The introduction to the blog states:
| (UN-TRUE) Stories Inspired by NYC Subway Riders
The characters depicted here are candid shots taken on the NYC subway. I DO NOT KNOW THESE PEOPLE AND THE STORIES TOLD ARE COMPLETELY FICTITIOUS. However I am very grateful to these people for their inspiration. If you see yourself here and would like to be removed … just let me know and I will. Enjoy. |
I particularly enjoyed his story around this picture, which he entitled, “Michelle wanted to be a Bird: #1 Train to Nowhere.” Click on the picture to read the narrative he wrote about it.
I only had one work meeting today, and it was mid-afternoon and although scheduled for 1.5 hours, we stopped at just under an hour. Yay for that!
At lunch time, I ran across the street to the Atrium Food Court Li’l Dino Deli, which is closing after today for a few weeks until Summer Session I starts, and I asked Li’l Dino (bus character by the same name who works there) if she just has to take the time off without pay or if they send her somewhere else to work while this place is closed.
“Oh, I’m out of here for three months. I’m taking another job for three months, as I can’t afford to not be paid for three months,” she replied.
The other lady working the station said, “I’m moving over to Talley (the campus student center). That one stays open over the summer. I wanted to take a month off to be with my kids, but they told me I either work straight through with reduced hours or take three months off with no pay. I can’t afford to go without a paycheck for three months,” she echoed.
I ate my lunch real quick in the Atrium, and when I was done I stepped into the “North Campus Shop” branch of the NCSU Bookstore, which is closing for renovations and in which everything (except bottled water) was marked 40% off. Being the greeting card fiend that I am, and seeing a couple of stands of them marked down, I ventured inside to see what I might be able to use.
I ended up buying six birthday cards, one with flowers in a vase on the outside and no words (as well as being blank on the side), and two sympathy cards. One of the sympathy cards is generic, and by that I mean it doesn’t reference the loss of a particular person or their relationship to you.
The other sympathy card, however, specifically mentions “the loss of your father,” and I had an ethical debate about buying that one. There are actually a couple of people in my life for whom this card might be used, say, over the next six months to a year, and I wondered, “Is it bad to buy a sympathy card for a death that hasn’t yet taken place just because it’s on sale?”
I met Alex out at Flex at just after 11:00 for Trailer Park Prize Night. We had lots of laughs while killing time by people-watching while we waited for the 12:30 show to start. At one point, I texted Joe: “What’s that wReck’s name that has two names? Nick/Doug?”
To which Joe replied, “Brian/Noah?”
That’s the one, and he was out tonight, which is why I was asking. I never spoke to him, so I’m not sure if he was Brian or Noah on this particular evening.
Jackie O’Knight was hosting tonight, and she was her usual hot mess and outrageous self. I didn’t stay for the whole show, and I was unlucky in finding Alex to say goodnight on my way out. Oh well. I’m quite sure that he’ll pick up the shattered pieces of his life and move on.