Around Christmas, I was checking out at my usual grocery store.
“I hate this time of year,” the checker sighed.
“Oh, yeah, its awful,” I commiserated. I’ve worked retail during the holidays. “People are just losing it, or what?”
“They just don’t have money,” she replied.
I think about this conversation all the time.
I’m walking down the street, and two young dude-presenting people are shooting the shit near a couple of trucks that may or may not be theirs.
“Your last day was yesterday?”
“Nah,” the second one says, halfway to morose. “It was today.”
“Your last day was today and you did THAT?”
I wasn’t about to ask, but I really want to know.
While I was putting my toddler back into his car seat, I watched two people wander around the trunk of a car parked in the middle of the road. Why the car was parked there, I had no idea, since there was plenty of free street parking directly next to it. I wasn’t sure I could pull out with them there.
“Do you need help?” I asked. Kind of passive aggressive, sure, but maybe they did need help.
“Do you know where 2720 Clinton is? It should be right here, right?”
“I don’t know. Why are you parked in the middle of the street?”
“I’m a Lyft driver.”
“…there’s plenty of parking right there.”
He moved the car.
I had the kind of morning that could have set me off the rails.
We got a slow start because we had to go pick up the car. I decided to work at bakery by the car place, but the wifi wouldn’t connect. There was a big hunk of hazelnut shell in my pastry.
“It’s fine. I’ll make a positive out of this.”
I went to read my book, but a dude across the room kept piping up with loud comments every 30 seconds while his companions chewed:
“This place started on Kickstarter! If you gave money you got like, a loaf of bread.”
“Granola is very good.”
“Brazilian bread is like, this ball of cheese and bread.”
So I gave up, and decided to go for a walk. Walks are almost always the right decision, so I decided to hoof it to the library 10 blocks away.
I pulled out my sunglasses, and they were missing a stem.
Somehow, I still feel okay. I’ll get some work done. Nothing is ruined, other than my sunglasses.
I’m firmly on the rails.
On my way to taking the kids to the play place this morning — because I’m so cool, I guess — I passed a dude wearing a t-shirt advertising the neighborhood cannabis shop.
“Huh, does he work there?” I wondered.
Then I realized the dude was carrying a small brown handled bag.
When I was younger — remember grunge? Back then, or thereabouts, it was impossibly unsophisticated to wear a band’s t-shirt to their concert. This guy is wearing the —cannabis shop’s t-shirt on his morning weed run?
So uncool.
Sometimes my two-year old says he wants something: I want cat family!*
Sometimes he says he needs something: I need help with blankets!
But sometimes, he wants he want needs something. I want need breakfast!
What’s the difference, kid? The world want needs to know.
*That’s a Richard Scarry Best Word Book Ever.
When I saw the woman trying to cross the street ten feet away from a marked crosswalk this morning, I was annoyed, but not surprised.
This happens ALL THE TIME, I thought to myself. The city just re-did a major thoroughfare in my neighborhood, complete with protected bike lanes, curb extensions, and crosswalks with lights.
I still see people crossing ten feet from the crosswalk. Yesterday, a dude weaved through traffic in front of me just a few cars away from a very busy intersection. While holding a tiny dog! Think of your dogs, people!
While I was thinking about this, feeling very self-righteous and wondering how the heck you teach people to use the infrastructure you’re building for them, a middle schooler zipped across the street in front of me. He looked back, and there was an adult man in a car, smiling and waving.
An adult man, sitting in traffic on the busy street. Who could have pulled over to the side street and dropped this kid off safely, but instead just had him jump out at a red light and cross wherever.
So that’s where the kids are learning it, I guess.
I’m meeting some for the first time to talk about pro bono gig/volunteer opportunity. When I get to the busy coffee shop and get settled, I send her a quick email: Hi, I’m here! I’m wearing a striped shirt and sitting by the wall.
A few minutes later, a woman walks up, and asks the woman next to me, “Are you Kelley?”
She was wearing a striped shirt, too.
I’ve been walking more lately, for transportation. Trying to cut down on my single-passenger trips and fossil fuel consumption. You know the drill.
I didn’t have a car until I got married at 25, so I used to walk a lot. I’m remembering how much more city life you experience when you’re on foot, for better or worse.
On my way to a friend’s birthday party:
I never would’ve seen the snake out a car window. I’m nearsighted anyway.
