The Long Walk Home

[susandennis]

There's a shop that my bus drives by every day on the way home that looks like it has some really interesting painted furniture in it. Plus across the street is a large drug store.

Yesterday on the bus on the way home I decided to hop off and check out the furniture and pick up a tennis elbow strap at the drug store.

The furniture was not nearly as interesting up close - I'm glad I found that out. And I scored big at the drug store. Got the strap, plus some stuff for my teeth that countess_shell turned me on to. I could have walked home but got lazy and figured I'd hop over to the corner where I know there's a bus that stops 1/2 block from my house. When I got to that stop, I discovered that the downtown license renewal office had moved to that very spot. My license expires next Monday. Talk about good karma! I popped in and $25 and 10 minutes later I have a nice new temporary license and a promise of a real one in the mail in 10-20 days. (Plus, the guy didn't like the first picture he took - he said it wasn't flattering - so he asked me if I minded if he took another one! That was a little surreal, I have to say.)

Then out to wait for the bus. The #54 goes over the bridge to West Seattle - not where I want to go. The #55 goes to West Seattle but it stops at my house first. This has been so for the 12 years I have lived here. Nonetheless, I hopped right onto the 54 and when it turned onto the bridge realized my mistake. 15 mins later, I got off at the first stop, walked across the street, stood in the sun which was not cool and waited for a bus back home. I had 4 chances. I did not know then, but I do know now that I actually had a 50/50 chance of getting it right. I hopped onto the #55 which came by after I'd been standing in the sun for about 15 minutes. Wrong - o. The #21 and the #22 go right by my house. The closest that the #55 and the #54 stop is Pike Place Market which is about where I started near the license renewal place.

So, then, back where I had started, I gave up on buses and walked. Stopped by the barbecue place on the way home and got dinner. I walked in to my condo just at 5. My serendipitous bus tour took an hour. No biggie but I'd have been happier if that fucking sun hadn't been frying me.

Today I learn that my problems with the Treo headphones that I've been having for a couple of days are more than likely the Treo and I will, more than likely, have to get it replaced - again... So today or tomorrow, I'll likely have to redo the whole adventure. I think I'll skip the bus tour this time.

Comments

[unzeugmatic.livejournal.com]

(Plus, the guy didn't like the first picture he took - he said it wasn't flattering - so he asked me if I minded if he took another one! That was a little surreal, I have to say.)

Just as a small aside here: ID photos of all sorts are notoriously bad, so I always try to do what I can to make them not so scary -- after all, these are the photos you have to look at hundreds and hundreds of times. On days when a work or license photo is going to be taken I make sure my beard is trimmed and my hair is neat and I'm wearing a crisp light-colored cotton shirt and either a simple dark-toned tie or an open dark vest, and then I concentrate on a relaxed happy expression and on sitting properly centered. I know that can seem like absurd vanity, but it's really just trying not to look like a humanoid monster.

So I'm impressed with your license photographer. It sounds practically like a Minnesotan thing to do. (Did he offer you a little snack?)

[susandennis]

I used to do all that for an id photo as well and then when I got old and fat, I gave it up. Yesterday I was old, fat, tired, hot and my hair was a mess. All that made his caring even more amazing.

And, yes, Minnesotan is the perfect way to describe it. Well, Minnesotan sans hot dish.