~Monday~ This morning I actually remembered that I left my thermos at work on Friday before I put the coffee on.
I drove to the Food Lion Park & Ride this morning to catch either the #1 Avent Ferry Wolfline bus or the #9 Greek Village bus, both of which terminate there. I didn’t see anyone at either of the bus stops I passed on the way, which usually indicates that I just missed the bus.
When I turned right onto Avent Ferry Road, the #1 bus was headed inbound, so I missed that one. As I pulled into the Food Lion, the #9 was pulling out, so I missed that one. As I parked, the #11 city bus pulled away from another section of the parking lot. At that point, it started feeling like Candid Camera or something. I checked the Transit Visualization System to see when the next one was coming. Love that system!
The #1 Avent Ferry bus was the next to come and I hopped on that one. In a very rare occurrence, as in I don’t think I’ve ever seen it, off to the right and in the upper rear section, a young girl knitted the entire ride.
A girl to my left had had a big white canvass backpack that she held in her lap and rested her chin. A girl sitting across from me had on a blue coat that seemed to have glitter on it, which made me think of Anna, Sarah, and Kim—the girls of salon.
Mercifully, today’s bus did not get crowded like this route usually does at this hour. Way more often than not, it’s butts to nuts at this time of day.
I had a lunch meeting with my boss’s boss today to discuss the “personnel situation” of last week.
We, meaning my salon friends, have always had “rhetorical issues” with Mitch’s menu(s). Today was no exception:
Really??? Can you just stick any word in front of “as a cup of soup” and make it so?
Afterwards, I caught a bus over to the university’s Electronic E-cycle Event, which went from 10:00 – 2:00 today. I missed it last year, and I’ve been waiting all year for it to come around again. (Read: that shit’s been sitting in my house in a bag for a year.)
By the time I got off the bus and walked to where the event was they were closing up shop. I yelled from across the street, waving my phone, “Wait just a minute. I have some stuff. I have 1:59!”
Heading home, I got on the #9 bus because it was there, and as I boarded I asked the driver what time he was leaving. “In 8 minutes,” he replied.
I got off that bus, and the #1 was arriving. When it stopped, I boarded and asked the driver the same question. “Right now,” he said.
“That’s my favorite time,” I said and took a seat.
Tonight was Salon XVI, and as always we laughed, we cried, it became a part of us. Kim was Skyped in from Salt Lake City. Here is the agenda with my responses included:
|
Salon XVI 1. Criteria for deciding whether something is worthy of a place on The Salon Agenda. [Kim] – Is this an intellectual inquiry? 2. “One minute with your pen” (no homework for this one, obviously) [Anna] Didn’t happen and permanently removed from the agenda. 3. What kind of gifts do you prefer for your birthday, Christmas (if you celebrate it), or special occasions? (e.g., presents, gift cards, the day in solitude, a tick mark added to one of your New Year’s resolutions) [John] – Gift cards first and foremost (generic, bookstores, Galaxy Theater, amazon.com, restaurants) 4. When did you know you were homosexual/heterosexual? We’ve heard from Anna about Shawn Cassidy… [Sarah] When I was seven, a boy messed around with me and I liked it. 5. ZIP+4 – Do you know yours? Do you use it in your return address? Do you use it in other people’s addresses? What is your impression of people who always use it? [John] Of course I know mine, and use it on everything. Whenever anyone gives me their address, I always run it through zip+4 and store it in my address book that way to use if/when I ever use it. I also wanted to capture two other things, one an observation and the other a sound bite: “No once cares about their zip+4.” and said by Anna about me with regards to this topic: “Your level of precision defies logic, but it’s adorable.” 6. Kim’s honeymoon: Skinny jeans, heeled boots, and tips on how to part a sea of communist protectors when one has an appointment with a holy man in a pink skullcap. [Kim] 7. Free Expression Tunnel: Discuss [Sarah] In one word: ambivalent. In more words: While I totally support its intent, I wonder if it’s worth it in terms of the disheartenment that comes out of exposing the ugliness and then the time, energy, and money spent doing damage control about it in the media and debating first amendment rights. In the end: I suppose if I were pushed to fall one side of the bad to good continuum, I’d fall one atom to the positive side. 8. Nakedness at the Library [Sarah] Interestingly the video I pointed to in my blog about this now says, “This video has been removed by the user.” I loved, loved, loved the allusion to one of NC State’s current PR campaign slogans slightly edited: “Locally responsible. Globally engaged. Publicly naked.” comment under the copy of the video I saw. 9. Turkle’s notion that adolescents have gone from, “I have a feeling; I want to make a call” to “I want to have a feeling; I need to send a text.” [John] I think this is so incredibly profound, but I’m not so sure other people do. 10. Turkle’s findings that people send e-mail to their work colleagues rather than call them, talk to them, or ask to see them because they don’t want to interrupt them. a) Is that your experience where you work, b) Do you do that, and c) Is “because you don’t want to interrupt them” your reason? [John] On average, my phone doesn’t ring once a week even. I don’t think it even rings on average once every two weeks. I think the State could save a ton of money getting rid of most of them. My order of “interrupting” my colleagues: 1) IM (AIM or JABBER), 2) e-mail, 3) in person, 4) phone call. 11. Turkle says that our “always connectedness” has introduced “new confusions” to us. What are some of yours? (My notes from Turkle’s talk are here for your convenience/reference: http://dailyafirmation.livejournal.com/2010/11/04/#turkle [John] – Whether to capture my daily blog notes in my notebook or on my phone. 12. Brad willing (& composer allowing), Eleanor’s song written for her “The Age of Innocence” project. [Sarah] |
This was so interesting with regards to Skyping Kim in this evening. At one point Kim was holding her cat on her lap, so of course we could see it. We were watching Kim on Anna’s large-screen TV, and her (Anna’s) cat saw Kim’s cat on the TV and just sat in front of it, turning it’s head, as if to say, “Huh? Hmmm.” So cute!
And finally, I learned a new phrase this evening their teachers across time immemorial have used, but evidently none of mine: “That’s going in the June box,” which is said when a teacher confiscates something from a student they shouldn’t have or be playing with in class.