Good Morning!

1.
There is a girl I see most days on the bus, who gets on at the same stop downtown as me, and then gets off again in the same place to transfer. Thankfully, our ways always part there, and I always let her get on and off first. I don’t get in her way.

What is it about this girl? She is always nicely dressed, clearly puts thought into what she wears, brushes her hair, puts make up on. But otherwise, the resemblance between her and some of the more unbalanced homeless people in this city is striking.

You know that guy who stands in the middle of the street, with the matted hair and the smell that hits you like a fist from 15 feet away? The one who’s yelling things at uneven intervals about how it’s not his fault but yours! Your fault! But thankfully he never seems to be blaming you directly.

It’s kind of as though this man has taken up shop in this girl’s body. She’s got none of the smell, none of the directionless-ness, but all of the unadorned hostility towards her surroundings. This girl’s anger wafts off her like the former’s aroma. I have seen her mouth incredible things at buses that had the nerve to be other than the bus she wanted. A couple of weeks ago I saw her make the most obscene gesture I have ever seen a woman make. I don't mean to be sexist here at all, but obscenities etc. still pack more punch when they come from a girl. I can't help that we're still conditioned that way -- when I saw her flipping off a car that had turned in front of her crossing the street, then slap her crotch roughly twice and bring her hand back up to blow the driver a kiss, I couldn’t help but stare. And those of you who are staring now I am not even remotely exaggerating.

This morning as she went ahead of me to get off the bus where we transfer, I could see her mouthing “move, move, move” at the backs of people’s heads in front of her, and I just thought, “My god. How does she draw breath?”

I’ll be honest here, I’m no stranger to feeling exasperated intolerance towards some of the people I encounter on a day to day basis, but I just can’t imagine living with such a constant rage at the entire world. I also find myself completely at a loss as how to react to this creature. I can’t decide, should I ever formally be introduced, whether I’d want to hug her, or slap her – or give her the details of a good anger management program. No matter what I actually would want to do, I am certain I wouldn’t do it. Her reaction to any of those attempts, like all her reactions I’ve observed so far, would most likely be unpleasant.

2.
I got off the bus at my stop still thinking about the young woman's rage. I often get a little sad when I see her doing things like that. It lets the air out of the morning a little. And I was already late for work.

Hurrying up the hill, I was stopped by a garbage truck (not one of the city's obviously) blocking the sidewalk at the entrance to the toxic alley. One of the shirtless garbage men was taking the opportunity of the traffic in front of him to examine and prod at a zit on his back in the sideview mirror. He was leaning halfway out the window. Seriously? Seriously.

When the truck finally trundled out of the way the smell from the alley made me gag twice in the three seconds it took me to run past. Awful.

3.
I got to work and there were TWO messages from TM in my inbox, and he had sent me this! He is pretty good at resetting the day.