You may now return to your previously scheduled blog...

Okay, I know that I have been remiss in posting for a long time now. I've even had a few friends helpfully remind me that I've been a slacker this fall. (Hi, Patrick!) But, hopefully later really is better than never. My plan going forward is to fill in some of the gaps, to catch you all up on what's been happening, and hopefully I won't fall behind again. My sincere apologies for the interruption. I also apologize in advance, the timing/order on the next few posts will be vague at best. I know that the events happened in the past few months, but can't remember precisely when.

sad news...

Kristi gave her two weeks notice yesterday. She's found a van that leaves from closer to her home and her last day will be the 22nd.

I'm torn about whether to mourn the loss of entertainment or celebrate the lower levels of crazy with which I'll be dealing. Only time will tell...

Do the Puyallup?

Last night I got a call from my friend who rides the bus to work in Tacoma (from Seattle). She had accidentally gotten on the wrong bus, fallen asleep, had just woken up and didn't know where she was. She was panicked and I was totally panicked for her.


Like anyone (I hope) who's commuted with a metro system, I've gotten on the wrong train many times and had the same "oh shit" realization, waking up to the sound of the wrong station being announced. I've also had my fair share of getting on the right train to have it become the wrong train without my knowledge (usually late at night, when I'm not at my problem-solving best). But there's something different about taking the wrong bus, especially buses that go from one town to another. I imagine it would be much scarier. (Maybe an "oh fuck" realization as compared to the aforementioned "oh shit" realization experienced on the subway.) Buses don't run very often in general, but when you're talking about commuter buses there's the real possibility that there might not be a way back into town until the morning commute. Luckily, my brilliant friend got off the wrong bus at a Sounder train station (in Puyallup), was able to catch a train back into Tacoma and could then catch a later bus back into Seattle. All in all, my guess is that it probably added 2+ hours onto an already long commute, all because of a simple mistake that all of us have made before.


I guess I'm lucky that this is not really a possibility with the van...

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Writing this entry reminded me of another transportation mishap that this particular friend & I shared: we got on the wrong overnight train in Thailand. The conductors then kicked us off the wrong train at this tiny, deserted train station in BFThailand, and told us to wait for the next train, which came along an hour later. Seriously, I think that the only structure at this train station was the men's room that we had to break into to use the disgusting facilities. Thankfully the lights didn't work, so we couldn't see exactly how disgusting they were. That did mean that not only did we each have to stand guard for the other, but we had to use the facility with the door open, to let in some navigation light. What do you do when you're stuck at a deserted train station in the middle of the night in nowhere Thailand waiting for a train that may never show up, with only one person with which you can hope to communicate? Pick a fight, of course.

nucking futs

Last night we passed a car that had a bumper sticker that read "I'm going nucking futs!". Here's Kristi's response:

Kristi: Nucking futs.
Kristi: Nucking futs (laughter).
Kristi: It says 'I'm going nucking futs'.
Kristi: I'm going nucking futs.
Kristi: Nucking futs (laughter)
Kristi: Nucking futs (much, much laughter)

And how.

Clearly Kristi liked that bumpber sticker. Here are some of my favorites from the road:

• Jesus is coming, everyone look busy.
• I'm pro life jacket and I boat.
• A black ribbon (like the yellow support the troops or pink breast cancer ribbons) that read "sex, drugs, Rock 'N' Roll"

get out of my dreams, get into my (van)

It's official, the van has entered my subconscious. That's right, Saturday morning I had a dream that featured Jim from the van. Let me be clear this was a totally PG dream, thankfully. Basically, I was in the Olympics, lining up for the opening ceremony and being interviewed by a magazine about my thoughts about being in the Olympics (I have no idea what my event was). All through my interview, Jim was standing next to me and answering the same questions (although it didn't seem like he was a competitor) and I kept thinking, "he's totally stealing my thunder."

Naturally, I'm concerned about how large the van looms for me, if my fellow vanpoolers are showing up during my REM cycle. I'm concerned about the dream for some other reasons, but I'm really focusing on the van aspect.


Get in the back seat baby...

vanpooling, it's a gas...

You know how people all around us are talking about how one of the good effects of the horrendous gas prices is that people are taking alternate commute options to work and isn't it great? Yeah, well, if you're one of the people who has been taking such an alternate commute option for a long time the gas prices mean that there are consistently a lot more people joining you in your alternative commute-style. My van is a twelve passenger van, there have consistently nine, ten, or eleven people on the van for the past few weeks (and that's with a holiday weekend and some drama diluting the pool).

Yes, it's probably better for the economy and it's certainly better for the environment. And yes, Al Gore would be happy. But, here's an inconvenient truth for you, I'd like some more personal space, please.

Vanpool of another flavor

Another friend of mine rides in a vanpool to Everett everyday, about 30 miles from Seattle for all you out-of-staters. From my conversations with her, it seems like she *likes* the people in her van. It's left me wondering whether 1) I'm terribly judgemental; 2) the people going to Everett are less grating than those going to Olympia; or 3) I'm just a keen observer of the idiosyncrasies and oddities of those around me. Since I like number three the best that's the one I'm going with, although I have a sneaking sensation that number one might have something to do with it as well.