This morning I realized that a LOT of people live in a vaguely Groundhog Day-like existence. This came to me this morning when I was walking my usual 5-block route from the bus stop to my office. The guy who sits outside of Rite Aid and tries to sell you cookies? Check. The young man with the Ricki-From-American-Beauty hat who works in my building and always catches up with my route two blocks from our destination? Check. The little girl with the backpack and her mother who stand on the kitty-corner from the library waiting for something (a bus, the father? I never find out)? Check. The man in the big red coat who sells Real Change outside my building? Check. If my make the 7:45 bus, I see these people every morning at the same moments without fail. On my way home, it’s a similar story. The bald Goth (I really want to know where he works) who is perpetually on his mobile gets on the 5:05 #10 bus with me every day. Our bus driver is a surly (but funny) black man who takes shit from no-one. In a way, knowing I will see these things every day is comforting. I feel a vague connection to all these people, knowing that even though we are in somewhat of a daily rut, we are in it together. In another way, I find the whole thing creepy and off-putting.
Regardless, when I leave this job, I will have to work my way into a different routine. Wonder who I’ll meet then…
Effed by the Wind 