The old Monday morning commute

Two things of interest on this morning's bus ride:

1. As of last Monday, the city set up my bus route with some nice new buses, replacing the stanky old ones. On these new models, there is a step up to get to the back of the bus, somehow creating more room. I don't know how they do it. Anyway, the shallow for this step is parallel with the first set of seats on the risen back part.

This morning, I sat in an aisle seat in this first row of the back. The girl next to me kept fiddling with her stuff, which is bus sign language for "Get up and move now, this is my stop." When we finally did come to her stop, I shuffled together my two bags and the book I'm reading (Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, which I highly recommend). I went to scoot out into the aisle to let her pass - her name was Jen, I saw it on her work ID badge - but neglected to account, spatially, for the sunken step and almost twisted my ankle right off.

"Ooops," I said in a high-pitched kind of way, as I scurried to get out of Jen's way so she didn't miss her stop. I think I clocked the woman across the aisle with one of my bags in my hurry, and amidst all this I giggled a little at myself and how ridiculous it was that I had almost fallen on that step. Unfortunately, I didn't notice anyone else laughing. If you want a little icing on this picture's cake, I was wearing mid-calf rubber wellington boots that are black with big white polka dots.

2. The second bus event happened after my little display of Monday morning grogginess. As I settled back into my seat, I noticed a man directly in my eye line. I noticed this man because he was playing with a pretty old model of a cell phone, and the phone was emitting a series of loud beeps. Due to the beeps, and his slightly disheveled appearance, I wrote him off as a bus kook.

The bus stopped, and a girl sitting next to the man got off the bus. I saw him ask the girl in the third seat a question, then jump up and yell at the driver so he could exit the bus at that stop. He hurried off, but didn't let go of the door and yelled, "Miss! You forgot your wallet!"

I looked down at his hand, and saw a wallet, then looked up at her surprised, thankful face. What a nice thing for him to do. He got back on the bus, and things continued as usual. If he hadn't done that, the best case scenario for that girl's wallet would have been getting turned in to the bus driver or something. That scenario seems unlikely to me. Almost as unlikely as some guy leaping off the bus to return someone's wallet. We'll see if that remains the highlight of my Monday.

Classes start back up tonight with "Text and Image," a combined section class which is both a writing class and a new media studies class. I got an email from the professor last night which requested that we bring a scissors and glue stick to tonight's class, if we had them. Apparently, I'm going to be responsible for designing things. Though many who know me are aware that I don't really like doing things I'm not good at, I guess grad school is about pushing one's boundaries. I'm actually getting more and more excited for this class as the day goes on. Tomorrow night I have a sure-fire winner: The Essay. A whole class, essays, and the infamous Prof Sirles, who referenced drug use during the MA in Writing Qualifying Exam earlier this winter.

Spring has sprung! And on Opening Day, no less...