Month: May 2008
Screeeeeeeech
: cue the sound of screaming brakes :
Today I flipped the page on my calendar. Yes, I know it’s the second of May. I’m always a tad behind on such things.
And in flipping the calendar, I had a mental hundred car pileup on the heavily trafficked highway of my mind.
I have a birthday next week. No, not a major milestone, but getting *awfully* close to a milestone.
Generally I tend to get real dramatic about a birthday well in advance. Not so this year. Maybe I was subconsciously trying to forget. But nooooo! Time marches on. B*tch. Won’t let you forget.
I guess age is one of those things you can’t do anything about. One can fight about it. One can also shout in a hurricane. Neither is gonna do a lot of good. But it may make you feel better.
I suppose it all comes down to something about not going gently into that good night…with all apologies to Dylan Thomas……
Ah well, I face plant into a cake with buttercream frosting and forget my sorrows. Until the next day when I’ll lament my waistline.
For today, someone done broke the cake:
New kid on the bus
So as documented here in these pages, I’m a commuter, taking a combo of CalTrain and shuttle bus to get to work each day.
With the move to the new office location this week, I’ve been driving. I’ve had to haul things back and forth and that made it necessary.
Today was my first go at taking CalTrain which meant I needed to ride a different shuttle bus to get to my new location in the Silicon Valley back forty.
I felt insecure last night knowing I had to learn a new route. I knew the kids on the old bus. We had our deal. We knew who sat where.
What would they be like on the new bus? Would they steal my lunch money? Would I have to sit next to nose picker guy (cuz no one else will)? Would I get beat up? Mocked? I just didn’t know what new challenges awaited me.
So my train arrived at the station this morning, I stumbled off, backpack hiked up on my shoulders, nervous. There are a LOT of buses there waiting on kids like me. All the local businesses are making it easier for employees to commute.
I wandered around, looking for not easy to read signs on the variety of buses, big and small. I did finally see the bus I needed, a little bitty bus (insert all short bus jokes here) and I climbed on. I did a quick survey of the crowd and realized most of the people on the bus were mainly the test engineers that moved over to the boondocks about three months ago.
Engineers! These are my people!!!
I wasn’t the nerdy kid, suddenly I was COOL! I stood a little taller and swaggered to the only open seat at the back of the bus and sat down confidently.
But…
Do you know what sucks? Sitting in the last seat at the back of the bus. It has the most sway. I was literally popped up out of my seat each time the driver hit a bump. I arrived at work a little green in the gills, but I arrived. Lunch money still in my pocket. Feeling a little more confident.
Ok. What’s next? I feel like I can take on the world today!
