Still Alive

Ah, what a beautiful day, our narrator thought as she sat on the park bench waiting for the bus. The sun was shining, but not beating down on people, and the breeze was just enough to keep the skin cool. Clear skies and greenery all around completed the picture, but still there lurked the presence of evil outside our narrator's current frame of mind.

The bus came which would take our narrator around campus and back before heading out to her car, and because she felt like a ride, she stepped up and took a seat. She was greeted by a nice young man with a ready smile as the bus pulled away from the stop. And every departing rider received well wishes for their evening. Indeed, every stop the bus made was accompanied by a cheerful word or two from the driver, who clearly sensed the beautiful day just outside his windows.

The bus was empty except for our narrator as it completed this first circuit of its trip. As it pulled back into the stop, Travis and Mandy--recently reconciled--stood and prepared to board. They were deep in conversation already, and didn't so much as pause as they got on, Mandy coming first.

"Travis, you know," she joked, "that's what they called slavery."

Travis chuckled as he stepped up. "Huh, huh, huh. Yeah, we should bring that back. It would so help our economy," he seriously concluded over Mandy's ringing laughter as they made their way to the back of the bus.

The bus driver didn't get a chance to welcome them onboard, and no one else got on during the ride out to the Satellite lot. Our narrator frowned at the conversation, and was glad the rest of the it took place out of her hearing in the back of the bus.

Strangely, as the bus stopped to let off passengers, there was no polite or cheerful send off from the driver. Our narrator thanked him for the ride and wished him a pleasant evening, and received a tight-lipped nod in response.

Maybe it was because the bus driver, being a black man, took offense at that snippet of conversation. Our narrator, who has no such reason, certainly did. And she realized what she had forgotten momentarily due to the nice day. Racism is still alive and well, common human decency is shriveled and dead in some people, and no amount of kind words will make that bus driver's day end on a happier note.

Our narrator has never seen the joy sucked out of a person so quickly and harshly as during this bus ride.

To Peruse

Definition: "What, there's more than one of them?"

Said the Pot to the Kettle

Dick shoves open the apartment door, slams his bookbag into the carpet, and flops onto the couch.
"God, Barbie, like what is your problem!"
Barbie comes running from the bedroom. "Dickie baby, like, what?"
"Dude, you were like a total freak show last night. All the guys were talking about you."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah! And, like, what do you expect them to say; your bag is bigger than your frikkin' shorts. You're like a frikkin' embarrassment."
Barbie's lip quivers.
Dick slumps on the couch. "Even when you're sober."
Barbie's mascara begins to drip. "Dickie! That's not fair."
"Like yeah, it is. Dude, like, why'd you always have to act like such a tramp?"
"Oh my god. Like you don't even do the same thing. I mean we met at Travis's party."
"Yeah, and we're dating now, and you're not supposed to do that anymore."
"Like, oh my god. I can't believe you're saying that. That is, like, so unfair. You're such an *sshole."
"God, Barbie, you're so immature."
"Oh, shut up!"
"No, you shut up!"
"No, you shut up!"
"No, you shut up!"

Someone pounds on their front door. "Hey! Y'all just shut up! Damn!"

Overheard on the Path to Work

Barbie and Mandie were talking about a party they had attended the night before. Both were done up in Ho-Chic, with gobs of mascara clinging to their wilted eyelashes, goopy liner caked onto their eyelids, and roots of deepest brown crowed with a glory of "sun-in-the-bottle" brand hair color. And this is the conversation:

Barbie: Like, I was so wasted last night.
Mandie: My Go-o-d, I totally know what you mean. I think I was on the table some time. [Barbie laughs] And like, we all went to that one guy's apartment, and--
Barbie: [cuts Mandie off mid 'like'] And then I didn't even know who fucked me! [squeals in laughter]
[fade out as they reach the edge of earshot]

Let's recap, shall we? These two girls went to a party, purposely poured who knows how many gallons of booze down their gullets, went home with a strange guy, ended up doing crazy table-dancing, monkey sex with men they didn't know then, and who they don't know now. And this is laughable to them in a "wasn't that fun" kind of way.

Poor world. Overrun with Barbies and Mandies.

A friend once mentioned that, eugenically speaking, it was a wonder the human race had survived, given that it was propagated through bars and broken condoms. Such sentiment rings especially true in this case.

Howl

Truly the tumbleweeds are spinning cartwheels across our lives today, as the wind has not dipped below 22 mph since 8 this morning.

Sagebrush Soap Opera - Day One

In the beginning, the wind blew.

It blew several people into each other's lives, and it blew their tangled stories into this blog.

This is ... As the Tumbleweed Blows