~Monday~ “Wow!” I thought walking to the bus stop, “This is the first time in I don’t know how long that both of my knees are pain-free.” I then went into a great, dramatic false memory of walking down an aisle and up to an altar, and having my forehead palm-slapped while a perspiring preacher screamed, “Heal, brother!”
I arrived at the city bus stop at 6:45. Sadly, I don’t know if this is a weed or a flower, but it was near the stop and it caught my attention mostly because of how erect it stood:
It’s hard for me to understand how a bus can be late when it’s only the second bus of the day. Somebody needs to get up a little bit earlier.
It’s an interesting crowd on these early, early buses, probably mostly because it’s different people than I’m used to seeing. Three guys sat up front, sort of hovering around the bus driver and having the most animated conversation—with a lot of gesturing, and at one point all chipping in on the description of a girl they must have all mutually known. One of them said, as he ran his hands through his hair, “Yeah, she wear her sunglasses pull back in her hair,” and then they all agreed in unison as another making an hourglass figure in the air, said, “She got a nice shape on her.”
You could tell they were really enjoying each other, so much so that when one got off at the McKimmon Center stop, they kept talking even as he was off the bus and the doors were closing.
I had no meetings today, and thought it was suspicious that my calendar had zero, nada, zip meetings on it all week.
I’m still “living in two worlds” as the phrase goes these days while the university’s faculty and staff migrate from GroupWise to Google Apps @ NC State. Which is to say that right now I have both a GroupWise calendar and a Google calendar, and I have “rules” set up in GroupWise to forward any calendar appointments to Gmail, which theoretically, get added to my Google calendar. Well it works for the most part, but every once in a while…
Being suspicious of such a week sent from heaven, I checked GroupWise and when it was all said and done, I had two meetings on my calendar, and later in the day another one got added on for tomorrow.
At lunch time, I made the CAT #12 Method city bus loop, from my building back to my building, to drop off a card that needed to go out today at the Method Road post office, which the bus passes en route. It’s a “sync stop,” and it stopped there long enough for me to jump off the bus, put the card in the curbside mailboxes, and hop back on.
The guy in the seat behind me was hacking for so long and so loudly that I seriously expected to feel some sputum on my neck. Gross. Also, he was one of those people who you can hear every time they inhale and exhale, which makes me think of two things: 1) We take regular, healthy breathing so for granted, and 2) Thank god I don’t live with this person.
In the afternoon, my colleague Nick dropped by and asked me if I’d register for a few accounts of various services to do some testing over the next week or two, and when I went to get an account on Google Reader, I ’bout fell out of my seat laughing at the “CAPTCHA” word it wanted me to put in:
I was so tempted to put in “gaybutt,” just to see if it would take it.
I was working feverishly on our organization’s response to the EDUCAUSE Core Data Survey, which is a huge deal and involves extensive coordination among the eight units that make up our organization, and which has a due date of this Friday, when the highly-anticipated email announcing the due date extension arrived in my inbox. A 1.5-week reprieve.
Just then, Jen dropped by my office and offered me a ride home, and I jumped on it! Always a pleasure spending time with her.
I took an hour nap from 7:00 until 8:00, and when I got up, I ran to Family Dollar and then to the grocery store.
After that, I stopped by my office to deliver a couple of things so I wouldn’t have to carry them on the bus tomorrow, and I headed down to Flex to check out cheap ($2.25) well drinks and a little scareyoke.
Turned out there was a lot of scareyoke, with emphasis on the scary, tonight. One boy sang so off tune that, well here, my Facebook status said it succinctly:
Nikki, the emcee, had posted on Facebook that tonight was the very, very hot bartender Ron’s last night and to come by to say goodbye.
When I ordered my first drink, I said to him, “So are you getting out of town, or are you just getting out of this hole?”
To which he replied, “Everybody keeps asking me where I’m going. I’m just not going to be bartending on Monday nights anymore, but I still be here on Thursday nights and Sunday nights. Where did you hear that I was leaving?”
I indicated Nikki and said, “She posted it on Facebook.”
I only stayed for about an hour, during which time I watched two guys hit on a guy whom I was sitting next to and would classify as an acquaintance more so than a friend.
One of them was “Rico,” whom I met at The Borough, quite a while ago now, and who fancies himself as bisexual. I’ve mentioned him in here before. His shtick, and I’m sure it’s a nice one, is that when he wants a “physical connection,” he goes for men, but when he wants an “emotional connection,” he goes for women.
This is the third time I’ve seen him out now, and judging by how soon his hands were rubbing all over David after he sat down next to him and introduced himself to him, I’d say he was definitely in an Olivia Newton-John mood tonight.