Today’s buscapades are about problems. I have no idea how the different (physical) buses are assigned to each route, but every once in a while we get a bus that has something wrong with it. A case in point was the one yesterday with the broken stop cord. Today’s problems included what I guess would be the equivalent of shot shock absorbers in a car. For every bump the bus went over, there was a loud noise that sounded like metal flapping against metal. It was really loud, and there are a lot of bumps on some parts of the route.
That happens on and off, but that wasn’t today’s biggest problem. Today’s big problem was a unique one—at least in terms of the time I’ve been riding the bus. For about three stops in a row, the door wouldn’t close after everyone got on at a stop, and the bus driver had to get up and pull on the door to get it closed.
Let’s just say that by the third time, she was fit to be tied. Actually, it was quite cumbersome for her to get out of the high, deep seat, and she had to undo and redo her seatbelt each time, which seemed to irritate her. I guess you could say she was fit to be untied, too.
Making it three for three this week, I had a 9:00-10:00 meeting, and for a special treat today, another one that overlapped it from 9:30-10:30. I was the minutes-taker for the 9-10, which is going to be a rotating responsibility on this team of about 10, so I’m off the hook now for another nine or so weeks. 
I joined the second meeting in progress, which was the department meeting of department who is going to be on my “beat.” My department (Information & News Services) has divvied up our eight organizational units and we’re each going to have responsibility for providing our services to our respective units, using the old newspaper analogy of beat reporting. This is a fun department, and I’m happy that they’ve been assigned to my beat.
Later in the morning I got a call from a good friend of mine to tell me that he’s gotten a milestone promotion at work, which hasn’t yet been formally announced, but that he wanted me to know about ASAP. Woohoo! I love when good things happen to good people.
Dancing was a ton o’ fun tonight, in spite of Carl and Bill’s absence. Geromy wasn’t planning on coming, but I was delighted when he did show up. In addition, Ernie was there along with Wayne, Steven, Chris (I think that’s his name—a friend of Carl’s and someone who used to dance a long time ago), and Joe (Judge).
Ernie tried to teach a dance to Kenny Chesney‘s Beer in Mexico, which he had a hard time remembering, and we had a hard time learning. I appreciated him trying to teach it, though, as it’s a dance they do in Charlotte, and we would have been able to do it at The Stomp, which is quickly approaching.
Speaking of The Stomp, I got an e-mail from the hotel we’re staying in saying, “As part of our Hoedown offerings, we raffle off complimentary hotel upgrades to any registrant who registered for The Queen City Stomp prior to March 15th. You were chosen as the recipient of one of these upgrades. Since you already reserved this type of room, your room rate will be lowered by $10/night. Let us know at registration if you have any problems getting this room rate. Congrats!” Lovin’ all that.
A guy who I’ve met before with Joe (not Joe Judge, but my good friend Joe), but whose name I can’t recall, though I have an inkling he’s yet another “Steve,” was talking to this guy named Timmy (who I know, but am not friends with). He caught me as I walked by him and said, “I was just telling him (indicating Timmy) how much I enjoy watching you dance. You’re so good, and it’s obvious that you love doing it.” Sweet! It’s always nice to hear that. He also said that he liked my shadow dance with Joe (Judge), and that Steve and Rob (who were there earlier, but had left) had said that it was very erotic.
My observation about that previous paragraph is that it contains a plethora of parenthetical phrases. And this one, a lot of alliteration. But I digress…
All in all a fun night, when we thought it was going to be tragic without “the Mr. & Mrs.” there. For posterity: They’re on their half-straight half-gay line-dancing cruise this week.