~Monday~ I caught the 7:45 city bus, and once on it, I sent an instant message from my BlackBerry to my officemate—who is in the process of becoming my boss—asking her what time a meeting was that she was attending today, as she wanted some input from me for it. I thought it was at 9:00 or 9:30, but it turned out to be at 1:30.
I was noting that in my buscapade journal:
that I write in on the bus every morning, when the lady sitting across the aisle from me to the left uttered close to the question I’ve often wondered how I’d respond to if it were ever asked.
That question is, “What are you writing in that little book?” However, what she asked was, “You keep that every day?” In fact, she asked it a couple of times, because the first time she did, I didn’t respond. She’d said a couple of things before that to an unclear audience, so I wasn’t sure she was talking to me the first time she asked it. Then she politely repeated herself saying, “Sir? You keep that every day?”
I looked at her and said, “In fact I do.”
To which she replied, “I thought I was the only one who did that. I got to have it written down. You write about your day then?”
“Yeah, and sometimes I jot down something I want to remember to do,” I added, although it’s rare that I do that.
I was heads down writing down this conversation that I just articulated to you, when someone coming down the aisle tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up in enough time to see Li’l Dino passing me and she said, “Good morning.”
There was a lady sitting up front, which was probably about five or six rows away from us, who had earbuds in and was fishing around in her purse. That lady beside me said to her, “You still tryin’ to find it?” I’m not sure the lady would have heard her if she hadn’t had earbuds in. She said it again to no avail. Then one more time, adding, “ma’am” at the end of the question.
A man sitting in a seat between us, but closer to that lady in the front turned around and said to her, “She can’t hear you. She got plugs in.”
Bless this lady’s heart. She just liked to talk. Pure and simple. At the next stop, the driver started driving away, and she yelled, “Somebody tryin’ to catch the bus! Lawt, he all the way to the other side. Car!”
The young man got on the bus, breathless and trying to put his fare in while talking on his cellphone and trying to clamp it between his ear and shoulder, and only partially blocking the sign above his head that said, “No cellphone use while boarding.”
As he passed us to take a seat in the rear, that lady said, “You gotta get off the phone, boo. You almost got hit. I almost got hit on the phone the other day.”
As I exited at my stop, I said to her, “You have a good day, now.”
“You do the same, sir,” she said.
I want to capture a few affirmations today: two from today, and one from last week that I didn’t mention. Two of them were professional and one was personal.
The two professional ones, one today and one last week, were asking my opinion about personnel type communications. The person last week prefaced their question with, “I just want to run something by you, because I value your opinion.”
The other, personal, affirmation was today, and it was in an e-mail from Donna, my ex-wife, regarding the sympathy sentiments I sent to her aunt on September 7th, and it said:
| And Aunt Mickey told me she got a card from you and was very pleased. She said the note was very touching. Thanks so much. |
As I alluded to yesterday, in terms of the traffic jam already forming at 6:30, Lady Gaga was in town for a concert.
I loved this review of it: Lady Gaga plays Raleigh. My favorite “sound bite” from the article is this sentence toward the end: “During the latter song, flames began shooting from her naughty bits.”
I started off my work day getting that information to my officemate for that 1:30 meeting.
I spent a lot of my day getting a survey filled out for our organization, which involved contacting at least 6 other people in my organization to answer some of the sections. Tedious. This is one part of my boss’s job that she’s turning over to me. I repeat. Tedious.
I also spent some time completing the minutes from last Wednesday’s e-mail meeting.
I almost talked myself out of going to the gym, but finally did it around 8:00. I did 30 minutes of cardio work on the elliptical machine, burning off 560 calories.
I listened to the beginning of a Fresh Air podcast, Secret Stereographs: Brian May of Queen Reveals A Pastime. This little “pastime” would be that the writer of the Queen megahit, “We Will Rock You,” has recently received his PhD in astrophysics! You can listen here.
I stopped in the grocery store next door to my gym after my workout, as I desperately needed coffee, and the guy in front of me in the checkout was this trim, tight little guy I’d had my eye on at the gym—let me put a look of surprise on your face—and he was paying for a precooked dinner of fried chicken, with a mac and cheese side dish, and a bag of white powdered donuts. So unfair.
At home I had a Lean Cuisine, and just to spite that guy in front of me at the grocery store, I added a slab of real butter on my fake mashed potatoes. Bitter? Party of one? Your table is ready.
I devised this blog entry, had a quick instant message with Robert who woke up from his nap just in time to go to bed for the evening, made a donation to a worthy cause, created a doodle.com poll for Salons XV, XVI, and XVII (in October, November, and December respectively), added our first item onto the Salon XV agenda, and made Scrabble moves in a couple of games I’m in the midst of.