~Monday~ I did about 30 minutes worth of work before leaving the house this morning, as I wanted to get something to my boss before a 9:00 meeting she was going to, and I wanted her to receive it with time for her to synthesize it with her own thoughts on the subject.
To that end, I caught a Wolfline #1 Avent Ferry bus too close to the top of an hour, of 9:00, which meant that, once again, it was standing room only when I boarded at only its second stop. No one offered “the elderly” a seat.
There was a new driver in training at the helm, which you know because there’s another driver standing in the front beside him as a mentor. He kept speeding up and slowing down way too abruptly, such that those of us who were standing had to hold onto something to keep from being thrown back and forth or lose our balance.
As part of the training, I think they should require each new driver to ride as a standing passenger and experience why it’s so important to accelerate and decelerate as smoothly as possible.
I had a busy day at work, and didn’t have any meetings. As it should be, world without end, amen.
I had the best time tonight having drinks with one of the few readers of my blog who wasn’t already a friend of mine when they started reading it. Ann read, and occasionally commented on my blog as “anonymous” for many months before surprising me on the street and outing herself as a reader on May 21, 2010.
We had drinks at Mitch’s Tavern and since she knows just about everything about my life, I had questions prepared for her, all of which she most graciously answered.
The conversation was so easy and enjoyable that—before we knew it—an hour-and-fifteen minutes had flown by. Realizing that it was about 6:10, we both squealed (well, I squealed, and Ann exclaimed) and rushed to our mutual bus stop to catch our respective buses.
It was raining lightly when we first exited Mitch’s but by the next block, it was pouring, and so windy that I chose to close my umbrella and get wet than to risk a Mary Poppins liftoff. We laughed as we hustled the last block to the covered shelter, where her bus arrived first, and mine followed shortly behind.
Thanks, my friend, for such an enjoyable time. We’ll have to do it again, maybe when it’s nice enough to sit outside somewhere.
When I reached the front of my townhouse, I thought, “Oh shit,” as my car was not in its spot. All caught up with Ann and the rain, I’d completely forgotten that I’d taken a Wolfline bus in this morning, and my car was way the hell over by Gorman and Avent Ferry. As soon as the rain let up, I walked and retrieved it.
With my car in hand, so to speak, I went to the gym armed with The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, where I continued what’s become my routine now, of exercising on the stationary bike for an hour while reading.
When I got home, I kept on reading, and guess what!
Three days ahead of schedule. Who’s counting?