Small things in the street

2002-08-30 - 3:14 p.m.

Today was...I guess it was average. First thing I did was go to a staff meeting at Del Paso, which is pretty silly because I'm only staff at Del Paso on Fridays from 8-12 and going to the staff meeting takes out an hour of that. I decided that next week I'll show up five minutes late or something so I can just get to work on their refills instead of getting sucked into the meeting. After the meeting I worked on refills. Donnie lets me do them all the way without having to be checked (unlike Princess who makes me let her check before I finish) which is nice, because at least I feel like I accomplished something other than keeping a chair warm. The only question I was asked today was a formulary question and I have a very limited idea of the county's formulary so I wasn't able to answer the question. It would be nice if I could get a copy of the formulary so that I can answer those questions. Maybe I'll ask Princess about that.

I left early again today. Felt a little guiltier about it today than yesterday, but still not too bad. I filled up my car with gas and then went to the library. The library wasn't open yet so I sat there and ate my lunch. Then I went inside and looked over the books. I ended up checking out three. I don't know if I'll have time to read them, but I checked them out anyway. I got "The Mammy" by Brendan O'Carroll which is just a short little book about Irish life in the 60's or 70's. It's the first book in a three book series and I just listened to the second book on tape during my commute last week and it was really cute. I also got "The Octagonal Raven" by L.E. Modesitt (I think that's his name), which was recommended to me by the guy I mentioned yesterday who is no longer talking to me. The last book I got is "Possession" by somebody Byatt. That's the one Gwyneth Paltrow's new movie is based on. I saw the preview and it looked decent, then noticed that it was based on a book so looked that book up on Amazon. It got good reviews and looked interesting so I looked it up on my library's website and they actually had it. After the library I headed over to my local Hallmark store and picked out an anniversary card for my parents. While I was there I also browsed the 99 cent card section and found some cute cards I can send to friends just for fun. I found one especially for Doodle too. On the front it showed a cartoon rabbit holding a big wooden mallet and, with a very discouraged look on its face, looking at one of those carnival games that you hit and the thingy goes up and rings the bell. On the inside it said something like, "We are all stronger than we think." Or something like that. Now I just have to get her address.

Today was a big day for little things in the street. First, as I was driving down Madison Avenue (a.k.a. Madison Speedway), a street on which the speed limit is 45 but if you go less than 60 you are likely to cause an accident, all of a sudden I saw a dove standing in my lane. It was just standing there looking at me. I swerved a foot or two in my lane and managed to miss it. I had just enough time to see it still standing and three-dimensional in my rear-view mirror before the sea-green black-license-plate-era F-150 behind me barrelled over it.

The other little thing in the street was slightly more distressing than a dove. I guess this story begins in the library. I had just checked out my books and was headed out to the parking lot. There is a little ante room at the entrance of my library. As I was walking through this I noticed a little boy standing there. I'm horrible at guessing ages, but I'll guess he was 2. He started looking around and then walked out the main door to the outside as I followed. I was looking around too, where were this kid's parents? When he got outside he started whimpering and picked up the pace. Then I guess he realized his parents were not around and panicked. He started bawling and screaming his head off and just took off at a 2-year-old sprint towards the parking lot. Meanwhile, here comes a big silver Chevy Silverado. Luckily, this was a library parking lot filled with library patrons who are generally more sane than the rest of the population. The driver of the truck saw the kid, and some woman getting out of her car in the parking lot had enough motherly instincts to recognize the panicked scream of a lost child and took him by the hand. He quieted a bit but was still bawling as she led him back towards the library. Before she got there she met his unconcerned parents coming out of the library. I was sort of pissed off at the general attitude of the parents. This was compounded by the fact that inside the library the father had been having difficulty with the concept of waiting in line and wasn't really warming up to the idea that the *back* of the line was a good place to start.

No wonder there all those Amber alerts these days. People can't even keep track of their kids in a library. There was another Amber alert today. They had it posted on the electronic sign on 80, which is a real pain because everybody slows way down to read it. But I guess if it was my kid I would want everyone to slow down and read it too, so I won't complain too much.

I almost forgot, I was going to post my dream here. Don't worry it's not even remotely gynecological! I've already lost most of the beginning of it but what I remember is that I was with my parents, my brother, and Teresa & Reece. We were going to some huge theater to see something cool. There were tons of people and we finally made our way inside. The theater was a huge dome with the screen starting at the front and then extending all the way to cover the inside of the dome. The seats went most of the way around the dome and had two levels. We had tickets for seats in the second level so we made our way up the crowded stairs. When we got there the person who was holding all our tickets handed them out to us. I saw the seat number on mine was B-17. I figured we were all going to be sitting in a row so if I found my seat I'd be finding everyone's. So I headed off and expected everyone would follow. I got quite a ways before realizing they weren't. I didn't know where they went, but I figured we'd all find our seats eventually and be together. So I found my seat. It was in a row about 7 seats away from the aisle, between two very large people and near some very rambunctious little kids. I started to try to squeeze my way to the seat but then realized that was seat B-117. Oops, sorry, and I headed down to another section of seats closer to screen. I finally found my seat so close to the screen that due to the curvature of the building I was actually facing away from the screen. It was also very crowded and I tried not to step on any toes as I made it to my seat. I scrunched into my seat and was unhappy with the situation. Everyone around me smelled like cigarette smoke and I couldn't see the screen hardly at all. As I was sitting there a bunch of waving arms caught my attention. It was the rest of my family and friends who, although they were not sitting exactly together, all had great seats directly in front of the screen. I grumbled discontentedly to myself as the show started. It ended up being some sort of a quiz show. There were these little clicker things attached to the seat and the audience answered questions as they appeared on the screen. Somehow they were going to find the smartest people in the audience and then bring them up to the front to compete. But I couldn't see the screen to read the questions and I couldn't really hear the questions being read because the people around me were so noisy. Finally the guy next to me gave up and decided to go outside for a smoke. I followed him out. He was balding and in his early 40's. We went outside to where the projector was and stood there enjoying the cool night air. I still couldn't see the screen very well because there were a bunch of trees in the way. Then Sarah Kageta came out. (Sarah was a teammate of mine on a volleyball team when I was a junior in high school. We were not particularly friends and I haven't seen her (or, in fact, thought of her, really) since 1996.) She was talking very enthusiastically and animatedly about something and she kept knocking the projector. I kept aiming it back towards the screen. At this point things start to get fuzzy. A bunch of elephants came out and we climbed to the top of a really tall tower to get a better view. The end.

Last thing, just for the sake of recordkeeping. Today I ran 5k in 36:16. Wednesday I ran it 38:18. Getting better!