~Wednesday~ I woke up feeling much better this morning, but definitely not 100%. I guess that expired soup was okay, as I saw no ill effects (literally) from it. By the time I finished packing my laptop back it was part technology toter, part lunch bag, and part medicine chest.
Something has happened to the dead bolt lock on my front door, as my key will no longer go into it without a lot of wiggling, which feels like it’s either stripping the key or the lock. I have some graphite that I need to remember to try and put in it.
I waffled between taking the university bus or the city bus, eventually deciding on the city bus. I actually got to the bus stop at 8:10 for the 8:15 bus, which finally came at 8:24. Who’s keeping track?
It wasn’t cold, per se, this morning, but there was a cool breeze, and the sky looked menacing. There was a warning of possible overnight severe weather, tornado-spawning type weather, which didn’t happen, but this may have been the tail-end of it passing through.
House ads on the bus this morning included the schedule change for the Christmas and New Year holidays—no service on Christmas Day or New Year’s Day, and reduced schedules the evenings before. I thought about the communications person, probably someone in DOT, I’d guess, whose job it is to produce these signs—and I wondered about their rhetorical decision to use clipart on them.
At the McKimmon Center stop, a little girl in a pink ski-coat, and mittens to match, jumped up and down with excitement as the bus approached. She boarded before her mama, and flew down the aisle with a squeal to some coveted seat in the rear of the bus.
At one point during the work day, a comment was made not unlike one I made a few months ago, and about which I was “counseled” that it could have been considered a “sexual harassment” type comment, and I wondered if the one today was going to be addressed as well. I have a sense that everyone thought it was okay, because it was “all guys” present, although the comment I made was only “between guys,” as well.
Speaking of comments being made that could lead to potential counseling, I was in the elevator with three (male) colleagues, and because we’re in a secure building, you have to wave your employee badge in front of a scanner in order to activate the floor buttons. One of our colleagues, out of habit, took out his badge and swiped it even though someone had already swiped theirs. When someone noted that, he said, “Sorry, I’m used to just taking it out and using it.” Crickets. Then snickering all around, as each person manufactured a mental image to match that ejaculation.
I decided to check out the annual lighting of the WRAL TV tower at the corner of Western Boulevard and Avent Ferry roads. An announcement I’d seen last week some time said the event started at 5:00, but it didn’t actually start until 6:00, with the lighting of the tower, specifically, happening at 6:15.
I met my friend, Bob, there, and even though I had on long pants, a sweatshirt, and my ski-jacket, it was chilly. A couple of people actually walked up in shorts (but with jackets on at least), and I thought about them what most people think about me wearing shorts all winter, although I do have the good sense to wear them only when I know I’m going to be indoors somewhere. Just sayin’.
There was a huge, roped-off, brightly lit area with quite a large, high-definition TV monitor in it, and where people started gathering, not unlike the group outside the Today Show studio in New York. Standing there with those bright lights in my face, watching a TV, and in a crowd was the last thing I wanted to do.
I mostly people-watched from the perimeter, particularly enjoying one man, whom with my short, quick assessment (Do I make any other kind? I am an ESFJ, after all.) I could only describe as an attention-whore. He had a Dachshund that he’d put a red Santa Claus outfit on, which was just adorable actually, although he let it run around off-leash, and it wasn’t that well behaved—meaning it didn’t “come” right away when he commanded it to.
When the novelty of that ran out, and until a new round of people came with whom he could put on another show, he walked back to his nearby-parked SUV and flipped a switch that lit it up like a Christmas tree—complete with huge white snowflakes across the grill, and colored lights covering the top and some of the sides. Uh, we’re here to see the tower lit up, you megalomaniac.
Dancing was fun tonight. We had a good number of dancers, and I got a ton of exercise in. Bob, my friend and Tupperware Queen Extraordinaire, was there and after having seen my recent reference to my amazon.com wish list in my “column,” on the way out, he ran to his truck and returned to present me with the one Tupperware item that was on my list. How sweet, and thoughtful. Thanks, Bob!
I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some cheese, and I saw Butter Pecan Ice Cream Sandwiches. OMFG. I love butter pecan ice cream and ice cream sandwiches. I bought a pack and ate one as soon as I got home. It’s now my new best 180-calorie friend. De-fucking-licious.
Speaking of de-fucking-licious, did you know that that’s a tmesis, which was today’s A.Word.A.Day. It’s a noun for stuffing a word into the middle of another word. As an aside: I learned from one of the examples they gave that that’s what “a-whole-nother” thing is. I’ve always wondered what a “nother” was, but now I see that it’s the second syllable of another. Sweet.
And, finally, on my way home I heard one of my most favorite holiday songs, and as I’m always on the lookout for blog fodder, I got the idea to try and include one of my favorites in here every day now through Christmas Day. It’ll be at the end, so if you’re not interested you won’t have invested any time in it. 🙂
While this one played in my car ride home, I noticed the big lit-up star on some tree-top or building-top on the Dorothea Dix property at Boylan Avenue and Western Boulevard, and it was still playing as I reached the still-lit WRAL TV tower. It’s the first of December and it’s officially “Christmastime,” in spite of retail having said so since October.
Coming tomorrow, a favorite country holiday song. Any guesses? What’s yours?