Tight-Knit

This morning, sat next two two women, strangers, who were sewing and knitting. I inquired about the projects; the knitter was making a little cap for a friend's baby boy, the "sew-er" was stitching a bow on a first communion dress. I was amazed at their steady hands as the LR car shook down the tracks...

Loud & Begging on the Cell

The guy two seats in front of me was trying to pull out a tree stump earlier and fell into a stream with his phone in his pocket...and wants to know why his girlfriend isn't more sympathetic and doesn't have dinner ready!!! But can she give him a ride to work tomorrow, please, Babe? As usual, I know all of this now because the cell phone call echoes across the train car...

You Meet All Kinds...

It's standing room only on the train this morning...and the guy sitting "below" me has a bike chain lock around his neck, spindly, wild teeth that look like the Grinch's when he smiles, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head when he asked me, "what time is it in our world here?" Interesting fellow...

!6th Street Station: Transfer Point Between Humanity & Insanity

If there is a regional transit-place where cultures, tastes, habits - AND dysfunctions - mix, it is the 16th st. LR station downtown. Riders waiting to go east - and south; smoking cigars, dancing to an internal beat, arguing with a mate, chugging an energy drink...and even sending a big ol' hocking loogie to the pavement to mark one's territory! 16th st station is the crossroads of humanity and insanity...

First, a Boy and a Girl Love Each Other...

Precious young mother sitting w/ 2 toddler boys, talking about motherhood: "We had this one first, and then we had this one 6 months later.". "SIX months later?," I ask. "Yeah, 6 months. He's younger." I say, "Well, they USUALLY come 9 months apart." "Oh yeah. 9 months, I guess," she shrugs. "I don't really remember." Lord, watch out for this little girl + her little ones.

Wired for Transit

The guy sitting next to me is listening to his iPod, alternately texting and taking calls on his cell phone, and reading what appears to be (as I look over his shoulder) a Sue Grafton novel...on his Kindle! A 21st century man right there...

Light Rail Literaries

I LOVE doing a census of what people are reading on the train - a quick eye sweep shows books from Clive Cussler, Dean Koontz, Dr. Oz, the Daily Guideposts, and the lady next to me is reading an old library book called "Women + the Conquest of California." The chapter she is on is entitled, "Ladies Evangelizing While Crossing the Plains.". I'm reading along over her shoulder... :)

Аргумент перехода

A couple got on w/their bikes, sat across from each other and commenced arguing w/ each other (in what sounds like Russian), pushing their bikes against one other with each emphatic word. But in the last 15 mins, they must have made up, because bikes are together now, and the couple is now sitting next to each other, hugging and kissing. Ah, relationships...

Urban Bonding

I slump into my aisle seat, just bone tired and frustrated...but then I am cheerfully engaged by Michelle!, a homesick college student who went to class today, danced, went shopping, and LOVES Keith Urban ("no one understands my music!", she says) She really wants me to listen to his songs on her i-Pod. So we listen together with her ear buds. She is very sweet. :)

Having Cares...and No One Caring

I noticed her last Friday and she was on again this AM, across from me - a woman sobbing quietly into her Starbucks coffee mug. Today I ask if she is okay, and we talk - tales of broken relationships with family, and feeling like no one cares. And she wants to run away, she says. It's interesting what you can learn about someone in an intimate conversation with a stranger. I do believe the true opposite of all emotion is...apathy. That seems to hurt us the most, sometimes.

Cocked & Loaded

Young kid - clearly not in his right mind - wedges door open to get on train, and is running up and down aisle "shooting people" with his cocked thumb and then "shooting himself in the temple each time. And then screaming out loud each time. I notice he has very long smooth fingernails. Manicured or not, we're pressing the "emergency button" on this dude.

In-Security

Talking to Derek, wearing dark glasses, carrying a cane, security guard on disability. His life is all about SECURITY. He says he did security on the set of Denzel Washington's first movie ("I helped Denzel get his career started but he doesn't remember that"), and loves George Bush because "his first priority was SECURITY!" :)

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

The lady who reads the newspaper out loud is on the train AGAIN this morning! She cracks me up. THIS morning she is also "taking calls from listeners," soliciting other riders' opinions on the news of the day. Don't need to read the headlines myself with her around, tho her Fox News slant on today's report is not balanced journalism...