Fearful of the decapitating Canadian riders as I boarded the greyhound, I armed myself with David Sedaris' new book and the accomadatingly packed breakfast from the nicest B&B people in all of Ashland, Oregon. When I saw that the woman across the aisle from me was a Pamphlet Reader, I decided to jot a few notes down about what I observed. Her pamphlet was called: Failure is not an Option and I would occasionally catch a phrase as she studied each page intently: The hardest thing you'll ever have to do is try and save your family. The first crisis to be conquered is our attitude. So what do you have to loose if you try God's way. With glimpses of these gems and allusions to the Apollo ride and B-list celebrities circa 1973, I thought that I was collecting good fodder for a witty little character sketch. Her plastic baggies full of assorted snack foods and her white velcro sneakers, with back-ups in the other plastic baggie made me chuckle while I kept my hip-new American Apparel sweatshirt on to avoid the dirty grunge of my well-used seat. As I listened to my ishuffle blaring music of what you might call the emo-variety, I impudently thought of how lucky I was to be surrounded by such fodder for stories. Then, I watched Pamphlet Reader carefully open yet another ziplock, this one full of hallmark cards addressed in scrawling penmanship to Nurse Wanda at the Sisikyou County Jail. She lingered on every mark on the cards, even if it was just a signature after the pre-printed joke that involved cute bears. She caressed the words with her eyes and the tips of her finger. She stared at the particulars of each card and safely returned them each to envelope, to baggie, to the gift bag that stored them all. Lovingly appreciated, her each precious action scolded my snooty tendencies and my ridiculously superficial approach to capturing the world around me.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
The greyhound and a phoney smile
Fearful of the decapitating Canadian riders as I boarded the greyhound, I armed myself with David Sedaris' new book and the accomadatingly packed breakfast from the nicest B&B people in all of Ashland, Oregon. When I saw that the woman across the aisle from me was a Pamphlet Reader, I decided to jot a few notes down about what I observed. Her pamphlet was called: Failure is not an Option and I would occasionally catch a phrase as she studied each page intently: The hardest thing you'll ever have to do is try and save your family. The first crisis to be conquered is our attitude. So what do you have to loose if you try God's way. With glimpses of these gems and allusions to the Apollo ride and B-list celebrities circa 1973, I thought that I was collecting good fodder for a witty little character sketch. Her plastic baggies full of assorted snack foods and her white velcro sneakers, with back-ups in the other plastic baggie made me chuckle while I kept my hip-new American Apparel sweatshirt on to avoid the dirty grunge of my well-used seat. As I listened to my ishuffle blaring music of what you might call the emo-variety, I impudently thought of how lucky I was to be surrounded by such fodder for stories. Then, I watched Pamphlet Reader carefully open yet another ziplock, this one full of hallmark cards addressed in scrawling penmanship to Nurse Wanda at the Sisikyou County Jail. She lingered on every mark on the cards, even if it was just a signature after the pre-printed joke that involved cute bears. She caressed the words with her eyes and the tips of her finger. She stared at the particulars of each card and safely returned them each to envelope, to baggie, to the gift bag that stored them all. Lovingly appreciated, her each precious action scolded my snooty tendencies and my ridiculously superficial approach to capturing the world around me.
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1 comment:
Glad you enjoyed your people watching. I love your blog, I can "hear you" reading it to me, in my mind of course.
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