murmurs and handouts

last week, a stylish white haired man murmured to me on the elevator, asking whether my bike's frame was steel or not. a young guy with a stroller, hoping to get on the elevator, got upset with bianchi and told me to move my bike sideways, but that would have smacked and then crushed a number of people, so i said i couldn't. the young man decried me. the elevator door closed. and the white haired man quietly defended me, and murmured that the young man could have asked nicer.

tonight, an old korean woman sat on a small latino child who only took up about half his seat. so she squished him over, and then patted him brusquely, thanking him in strained english. his mom looked beningly on, scootching the child closer to her and smiling calmly at me.* after the korean woman was settled in, she started passing out "where will you go?" and "there is a better way!" tracts and pamphlets to those sitting around her, including the very young child whose seat she was sharing. "no eng-erish?" she asked. the small child looked wide eyed back. it was an interesting interaction. then as i was getting ready to get off, she smushed her arm between me and the pole to hold on, too short to grab the hanging strap. personal space is clearly not a hangup of hers :).

the bus is weird when it rans, it gets so foggy and crowded and steamy, like a greenhouse. blech! but, better than biking in the rain, which equals water being sprayed directly into my pants. nice to be more connected to the weather though.



*i have to say, i have am extremely impressed with the calmness of a lot of the latina moms i see. grandmas sitting on your kids, filthy stinky people with huge bags bumping up against you, people who are out of their mind and shouting curses, old white grandpas curmudgeonly griping and shoving at everyone. all in stride.