~Monday~ On my way to the bus stop this morning, I checked my mailbox for potential mail from Friday and Saturday’s deliveries, but the only thing in it was a sales flyer, which I promptly left there. Those things go directly into my recycle bin anyway.
I arrived at the city bus stop at 8:16 and I waited on the shady side of the street, as it was quite warm this morning. The bus arrived at 8:22, and you-know-who was not at the helm. Getting giddy about that.
There were only three other people on the bus, a mixed-race couple about ten rows behind me and a black lady to my left and one row back. The lady in the couple said something about “having a warrant out on him,” and the guy with her uttered, “That fucker.”
The lady then said, “Well, I have a warrant out,” and at that point the other lady, the one close to me turned around and said, “It don’t work that way. You can have a warrant out but that don’t mean they come get you. If you wanted nationally, then they get you.”
At this point, we were at a “sync stop,” so waiting just a minute to leave, and the bus driver put down the ad flyer she was thumbing through and turned around. I thought, “Oh lord, she’s not gonna get into this conversation, too, is she.”
But much to my surprise, she looked back toward the couple and she said, “I don’t know if you know it or not, but you can’t curse on the bus. I don’t want to have to throw you off, so please stop cursing.”
The girl said something, I wasn’t sure if it was trying to apologize, but the driver said, “I was talking to the gentleman.”
I now like this driver for 3 reasons: 1) She replaced Hot Mess Driver, 2) She believes in air-conditioning, and 3) she’s an enforcer.
A new cabinet for my office, which I was recently allowed to order, arrived today and I spent a good portion of my afternoon unpacking and filling it up.
I had a box that I brought from IBM in September of 2008, which I hadn’t emptied due to lack of storage space. It was good to finally be settled in after close to three years.
Tonight was salon, and as it always is, it was a pure delight. Kim was in town, so we didn’t have to Skype her in in two dimensions, and we met at Mitch’s, home of our first salon meeting in January of 2009 and now affectionately referred to as “Salon Headquarters.”
Tonight’s agenda, and my responses where appropriate, included:
June 20, 2011, 6:30 PM
Salon Headquarters
- Do you remember a song (or songs) that marked the beginning of your own musical tastes as opposed to being an extension of what you grew up around? (John)
- Choral and classical music after being in the chorus and band in high school
- Country music when I started line-dancing in 2003
- Are there things from your childhood that were (or still are) unsharable? (A simple yes or no is enough, if that’s all you want to say.) Have you learned of any “then-unsharable” things in any of your friends’ life that have since come to light? (John)
- Yes, my knowing I was “different” (gay) since the age of 7
- Yes, I’ve learned of such things from two people I was very close to in high school
- Favorite father memory in honor of Father’s Day (Sarah)
- His return homes from his one-year stints in Vietnam, both at the airport and then later with all the stuff he’d brought back
- My examiner.com experience (John)
- Applied for a “Grammar Examiner” position
- Accepted in a “Raleigh Academic Writing Examiner” position
- Wrote my first article, which I titled: “Puns and Inferences for $200, Alex?” and their editor changed it to: “The Use of Puns.”
- Lost two aspects about my article: that it’s not just about puns, but inference, too, and the allusion to Jeopardy, which was germane to the article
- Didn’t run the change by me before publishing it
- Told me I had to write in their person
- Pay is minimal, seems to be a minor MLM aspect to it
- Job interview experiences—best, worst, most creative and relevant techniques. (Kim)
- I did a search on the organization I was joining and found a list they’d made of five or six projects they’d prioritized earlier that year, and at the interview I asked them for a status update on them.
- I zeroed in on the skill in their job description that they emphasized as most desirable, which was “audience analysis and awareness,” and I brought three items from my portfolio that showed off that skill.
- I brought my Will & Ned poster as a portfolio item, both to showcase its audience considerations, as well as as a “coming out” vehicle
- Screwed by the town of Cary (Sarah)
- http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6946450 from 2009
- It’s an ethos issue
- “They don’t know that water runs down hill”
- Unwilling to negotiate beyond, “Buy my house”
- http://www.townofcary.org/Departments/Administration/pio/News_Releases/2011_News_Releases/reconsiderbowden.htm from Feb 2011
- I like that the issue turned into something more substantial with the constitutionality of Cary’s sign ordinances debated.
- http://www.carynews.com/2011/03/06/29510/behind-the-sign-bowdens-quest.html from March 2011
- More ethos issues with “Oh, and by the way, now I have lung cancer…”, he sought a lawyer to sue, but his first choice turned out to be a jerk, he said.
- I appreciated learning the idiom, “I have the patience of an oyster,” which I’d never heard of before.
- Cary man at center of sign battle dies: http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/9678481/
- Although I hate reading those GOLO comments, but I think this one kind of sums it all up: “ I bet, if his daughter approaches Cary, they will help anyway they can. Including the offer they gave to David. David tried to bully people to get his way. If she does, you will see a Town of Cary backhoe out there fixing this problem. The last two years of his life wasted fighting over a sign. Good Grief.”
- The rhetorical elements of “The Plate.” (John)
- I like the quick, high-level message that about half your plate should consist of fruits and vegetables, and that you should a little more grains than protein.
- Using a plate instead of a “pyramid” just makes sense.
- I like the subliminal etiquette message that the fork goes on the left when setting a place at the table. (Is that an international standard? Does everyone know about the 4:20 silverware signal?)
- Have you ever Googled an “Ex” and what did you learn? (If I use Google as a verb, I guess it shouldn’t be capitalized?… wait, I think that is another agenda item!). (Sarah)
- Not until this agenda item.
- Nothing on “Bobby”
- Only a real estate record for “Rob,” whose Google results changed to Robert Luis Stevenson by the fourth entry.
- Donna, who was only to be found as mentioned in her late brother’s obituary.
- Would you break the law to save a loved one? (John)
- I wouldn’t have thought so, but when the opportunity presented itself, I was going to, but it turned out not to be necessary.
- The Book of Mormon: The Musical—thoughts heard, thoughts had, and reaction to the song “Turn It Off.” (Kim)
- I recently had lunch with someone who went to NYC for the weekend and saw the play, and from her description, I would totally see it
- Now I keep hearing about it everywhere (e.g., Amazon $1.99 digital book special, its multiple Tony Award nominations, and then this agenda item popping up)
- “Turn it off” triggered a lot of thoughts:
- My constant struggle with an inability to empathize with a lot of mental illness
- The notion of “The more you look for something the more you see it”
- The Eminem/Rihanna song Love the Way You Lie (“I like the way it hurts,” “I love the way you lie.”
- As far as the whole “gay” part of the song, I’d really have to know the context (and audience and purpose!) of the song to pass judgment on it.
- Milestone ages: Do you care? (Kim)
- I think I’m pretty much done with them
- I “blew it out” with my fiftieth, and I don’t see myself doing anything like that again as 60, 70, and 80 approaches.
- Truthfully, I’d be perfectly happy not seeing any of those…
- Some people conflicted about sex never …,” really? Haven’t we all done versions of these things? (Brad)
- I wasn’t sure if Brad was being tongue in cheek with that question, or he misunderstood what the author was saying, as it was a very odd wording, if I understood it correctly.
- Either way, Brad so rarely suggests an agenda item (which is fine) that I had to include it. 🙂
- We’re out of scheduled Salons. Bring your calendars, and let’s try to schedule July (Salon XXIII), August (Salon XXIV), and our silver anniversary, September (Salon XXV)!. If we can’t resolve it there, I’ll initiate a poll afterwards. (John)