As 2009 arrived, though, my card expired and I consequently rarely ride the bus. I drive to work (free parking!) and I would say that I've maybe ridden the bus a dozen times in the last ten months.
Seemingly irrelevantly (stick with me...) I am required, as a member of the Washington State Bar, to take a certain number of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits every three years. My reporting period is ending on December 31, so I am trying to get in the last bunch of credit hours before the end of the year.
I signed up for a big chunk of those credits in a two day conference today and tomorrow. It's about Technology Law, and I was lucky enough to have my employer pay for it as part of the education allocation I get each year. The content of the first day was a good mix of, "Yeah, I knew that" and "That's very interesting". But the CLE is secondary to the return home.
Remember a few sentences ago when I said I don't take the bus much? Well, I knew the bus charged money. I even knew that there was a "peak hours" cost. I rarely carry much cash (since losing my wallet in April after my return from Vegas) so I grabbed $3.50 before catching a bus to the downtown CLE location this morning. Fine, right?
Well, it's $2.00 peak. Not $1.75. So... I paid $2.00 for the ride there and figured I'd worry about the fifty cent shortfall later.
Later came and went, and I still was fifty cents short after the CLE finished for the day.
I knew I had some options. There is a "free ride zone" that would get me part of the way home. I believe that bus drivers can't resist if you just don't pay (although I know there are cameras to watch, and I'd hate to be disbarred over fifty cents). Jaywalking is always an option. In spite of the cold (about 30/-1 degrees F/C) I decided to walk the two miles or so home.
A few things occurred to me on the way home:
I should have charged my cell phone. While it might seem like eight hours of attorneys talking would be enough to keep anyone excited, but I relied heavily on my phone to take mini-breaks throughout the day. I failed to charge it the previous night, however, so by about 2:00 in the afternoon it was down to 1% power. I muted it and decided to keep that 1% around just in case.
But that meant no txting on the walk home. No call to my sister to see how her newborn son is. No technological aid to my trek.
I was left with the cold and the weirdos.
I don't often quote from movies, but this evening I made an exception. As I walked home, passing through parts of the city that I rarely walk through at that time of night (it was only about 6:00, but it seemed later because it was so dark) I thought of this line from Taxi Driver:"Some day a real rain will come and wash all of this scum off the streets."
Yes, that character was in a taxi, and yes, goes kinda crazy. I was on foot and have (to this point) retained my sanity. But I saw so many shady characters it surprised me.
I don't like to judge people, and I was a bit embarrassed when I saw one fellow who looked very suspicious, walking with his buddy. "Why would you judge him based on how he dresses," I asked myself, "Who are you to judge?" Then the guy pulled a syringe out and showed it to the other guy.
Maybe he was a diabetic and it was insulin, but I doubt it.
I am not used to the cold. In college in Evanston, IL, I would wear a heavy winter coat and shorts and walk around the snowy campus. I would look forward to my hair freezing into ropes after bounding from a building following a recent shower. It was exhilarating and I liked it. Now? It's barely below freezing and I was feeling pain in my fingers and discomfort in my toes.
I encountered reason #423 life is not fair. OK, yes. I am a white male with all of my limbs and much of my hair and reasonably straight teeth. I can't complain about TOO much. But life still sucks sometimes.
Case in point: I like dogs. I like to pet dogs and while I'm not terribly eager to own one again, I enjoy giving dogs--especially little ones--attention when I meet them.
I was walking home and saw a young woman walking two little dogs. They had sweaters on and one of them was doing his/her business, so the three of them were stationary. A perfect opportunity to say "hello" to the dog who was not engaged in vacating itself. BUT...But I couldn't. It would have looked like I was stopping to hit on the chick, and it would have been weird for her and I didn't want to make it weird for her. Not that I'm above talking to a woman on the street, but (a) it was too cold, and (b) she wasn't cute enough. It's not whether I wanted to or not, it was that I didn't want her to think I was. Which I wouldn't blame her for thinking.
Because of this, the dogs went un-petted and I went without expressing my admiration for the little pooches.
Forget human trafficking and other unfair stuff... I didn't get to pet those dogs. That is injustice.
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Eventually I arrived home. I plugged my phone in, heated up some food and jumped into bed for a short nap.
The walk was good for me, probably. I saved $1.50 and got this magnificent blog out of it. I still plan on bringing $4.00 when I go to the CLE tomorrow.
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