Being earsprayed and fishing on the bus, a good day at work, and Geromy’s swan dance…

~Wednesday~  The 7:45 city bus was on the late side, arriving at about 7:58. Who’s keeping track?

When it pulled up, I noticed that its front and center sign that alternately displays the route (#12 Method) and the direction (Inbound or Outbound) indicated outbound. However, when it gets to my stop, it is inbound. I’m not sure that the bus driver took my comment as trying to be helpful, as opposed to being critical, when I said upon boarding, “Good morning. Your sign still says outbound.”

Two single people had children with them on the bus, which is just a little bit unusual at this hour. What was more unusual, though, was that one of the kids was with his father instead of his mother.

Two people got on at Gorman and Burt, both of whom were breaking the rule of “No cell phone calls while boarding,” and one of whom was Li’l Dino. Unfortunately neither of them sat down within hearing distances of their conversations. ‘Cause you know I would’ve listened.

At the next stop, a young guy got on wearing earbuds with music so loud that he was getting earspray on me from across the aisle and up a row. I thought of the article, “Headphones and Hearing Loss: Is Loud Music Making Teens Deaf?

A man sitting in the very front, on the right side in one of the center-facing seats, played with a fishing pole during the ride, casting no doubt on the fact that you’re liable to catch a glimpse of anything on the bus. Badumpbump. We’re here all week folks, try the grilled trout.


I had a great day at work, although it wasn’t without its stress. I realized in the shower that I hadn’t yet done the minutes of last week’s Student E-mail Initiative Implementation Team meeting, and today’s meeting was at 1:00, with my morning pretty much consumed with something else. As soon as I got into work, I gussied those up enough to be read by my boss’s boss, who uses them to glean potential agenda items for the next meeting.

That out of the way, I set in on my main focus of the morning, which was getting ready for the 10:00-11:00 University Information Technology Committee meeting, which is the bi-monthly (definition #1) meeting that I run from an administrative perspective for our university’s Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer.

Both it, and the student e-mail meeting, went off without a hitch, for which I was thankful.


I ran to K-Mart after work, where I picked up my Nexium prescription; bought a going away card for Geromy for the group to sign tonight; tried to buy 8 oz. of cream cheese, but they don’t sell it in their limited food section; and I purchased a personal fan, one which runs using a UCB port or electricity, which totally excited me, as it’s for my desk at work.

I stopped by Food Lion on the way home to get that cream cheese, and once home made up a batch of the phenomenally delicious Harry & David Pepper & Onion Relish Cream Cheese Dip. The line-dancing boys just love that stuff, so it made a good snack for Geromy’s going-away night, along with some most delicious chocolate fudge cupcakes that Michael made and brought.

In a play on the poster for the musical Wicked, alluding to a Wicked t-shirt that Geromy often wears to dancing, Van (our DJ and graphic designer extraordinaire of the Early Design Group) created and posted this one around the bar:

Van also created this poster for me for my 47th birthday, many moons ago now:


It was a fun night of dancing, and I got in a ton of exercise, so yay for that. I had a bittersweet final two-step with Geromy to “our song”—meaning it’s the one we usually dance to together—Mandy Barnette’s Planet of Love.

I hate to see Geromy go. He’s a great dancer, is always reliable in terms of attendance, is intellectual (just recently earning his PhD, which is part of the reason for his moving), is easy on the eyes, and he’s a nice person, to boot. I’ll miss him.

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