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Thursday, August 27, 2009
Orange kangaroo
I’ve been traveling a lot lately. As usual, I have a couple
different things on the back burners. My latest adventure didn’t disappoint in the ‘incident’ factor.
I spent the day in Seattle a couple of weeks ago on a long layover from Calgary, Alberta to Denver,
Colorado. I wanted to do a quick tour of the city and check out the Space Needle. I did my research and felt that I could
get a glimpse of everything and a feel for the city in about 3 hours.
Now, my expensive
taste and grandiose delusions decided that a car service for the day would be the best course of action. I wouldn’t
have to worry about directions and the likelihood that my driver could play a duel role as my tour-guide seemed pretty good.
I figured a couple of hours would run me about 75 to a hundred twenty bucks…on Planet Stacey. When my Yankee self dug
up the real cost, my pocketbook led me to the public bus service.
According to the
gentleman at the information desk, I needed to catch the 194 bus in lane two. (Side note: I was dressed cute as a button in
my little gingham espadrille wedges and new vintage 20’s chapeau.) As I scurried out the door to catch my bus, I caught
a glimpse of the 194 about 50 yards down. As you know, I’m not new to running a little late nor am I averse to running
in heels. (I do it every morning roughly 3 minutes before my 8am sales meeting.) I put it in high gear and raced to catch
my bus. It waited.
According to my calculations, it should have taken approximately
40 minutes to get into the city. Thirty minutes after I got on the bus, everyone got off at a parking lot and my bus parked
behind another bus… Yup, wrong bus.
I’m not sure if it’s a blessing
or a curse that I feel comfortable chatting up just about anyone. The bus driver was a very nice man, named Richard, who happens
to be a basketball coach during the school year and a couple of his kids played in the NBA. His favorite player on the Celtics
is Kevin Garnett. We had a lovely conversation for about 15 minutes and he told me exactly what I needed to do once I finally
made it into the city. His shift ended en route back to the airport and a new group of passengers joined me.
A scruffy, Grizzly Adams type guy with a handle-bar mustache in his early 70s got on and parked
right next to me. Now, because I do genuinely like to chit-chat and I’m used to strangers sharing their stories with
me, I wasn’t at all uncomfortable when he leaned into me to let me know that was the first time he rode the public bus.
“Hmm,” I thought, “me too.”
I did, however, become a little unnerved
when he then proceeded to emphatically tell me he was “nuts.” He was heading to the psychiatrist. Then, I thought,
“Of course you are. Why else would I have gotten on the wrong bus… How much longer to the city?”
His name was Al and he thought I would like hear a magic trick. My inner voice said, “Not
really but, lay it on me.” He proceeded to ask me to “think of a number between 1 and 9, multiply it by 9, add
the two numbers together, subtract 4, pick a letter of a country that starts with the corresponding number” (I know,
right?), “take the last letter of the country, pick an animal that starts with that letter then take the last letter
of that animal and pick a color.” Phew! Then he said, “Okay, you got it? Are you thinking of an orange kangaroo
in Denmark?” “Um, no,” I said, “I was thinking of a blue giraffe in France.” The poor thing,
he was so disappointed and I’m sure he was wondering if I was crazy.
Can
I just tell you? Two hours later, I finally arrived at my destination and, as luck would have it, so did Al. I learned all
about his family, his 3 kids, his parents. He had lived in Seattle all his life and his mom used to split wood. I was actually
kind of sad to see him go.
I spent the rest of the day downtown following all of Richard’s
directions and still got to see everything even though my time was cut a little short. Great energy in Seattle, if you haven’t
been, you should go. Take the 194.
Thu, August 27, 2009 | link
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