Dooooooooooooooowntown

You can always get it dooooooooowntown.

I started my new job yesterday (btw people I'm not that flaky on jobs I'm just a temp worker) and it is immensely better than my last position. And even cooler I'm working DOWNTOWN Minneapolis which is a pain to get to in the morning, but oh so worth it. My last position was also in Minneapolis, but in the ghetto and not near anything cool. Here I'm in the thick of things, surrounded by cool bistros and sky scrapers with endless possibility of fun times. If only my husband were here and working in the same area, so many places for us to explore. I even have a Starbucks on my walk from the bus stop to my work, which is a blessing and a curse all at the same time.

But really, really? I went last night to buy a bus pass thinking its gotta be cheaper than paying cash each time I got on, only to drop $76 for a 31-day pass. Sweet mother of Daisy! I sucked it up and figured it was cheaper than driving (definately cheaper than parking downtown) and good for the earth. Whats $76 when you're cutting your carbon emissions?

Only to get on the bus this morning and be told I need to pay 75 cents extra because its an EXPRESS bus.

....

I was pissed. Luckily I walk right past a transit office on my way to work as well so I slipped in there only to find that if I wanted to by a 31-day for the express bus I needed to cough up $104 not $76.

I might have turned purple at this point. I'm not sure.

$104 for 30 days. Are you serious? That comes to about $4.52 each day (weekdays yo, I ain't about to come down here on the weekends on the bus) which ok, so thats an average of $1 less a day. Still.

My pocketbook hurts.

And, just to add some insult to this injury, prior to this job starting I was thinking that if I was going to ride the bus at least this position would be spring and summer so I'd have some beautiful weather to be tromping around the bus stops in.

Yea. Yesterday we had a freak snowstorm that dumped six inches of snow on us. Snow (mixed with sleet as the temp hovered at 32/0C all day) and slush I had to slosh through- in my inadequate mary janes- to get to the bus yesterday evening and dig my car out of.

Not cool. But, the upside was that I was not the one driving through the slush and traffic to get home. Nope, I had an insane bus driver to do that. And now, I know that buses are (almost) the biggest thing on the road, but the way the driver drove made me think he considered himself the godzilla of 35W. He was driving one of those accordian buses and as he flew past a tiny two-door car (who was driving quite sanely for the condition- blinding sleet/blizzard) he cut over in front of them so close that I could almost imagine the tail end flinging that little car off the road behind him. Around about the time he played chicken with a semi and dropped one side of the bus off the road I just closed my eyes, turned up my ipod, and imagined I was someplace else.

It was an adventure.

If only I could figure out a way to drop down the price of riding the bus.

And hey, I just want to put a proposition out there for the powers that be:

If you're gonna raise gas prices and thereby raise the price of EVERY OTHER THING ON EARTH, do us a favor and raise our salaries as well.

kthanxbye.

*wink wink nudge nudge*

I just had a patient call to ask what time his appointment is this morning and where we are located. As I am explaining it to him I can hear doors closing, faucets running, and children laughing in the background.

At the end of the call he tells me, "I'm stuck in a traffic jam so I might be a little late."

Uh.... sure you are.

Apparently I was born yesterday.

****


After my past few, very serious, posts and their subsequent publishing/accolades I tried to convince myself that I would make this a "serious" blog with "serious" topics. (On my off-days I dress like Jorge Ramos and stand in front of a mirror discussing world politics.)

Then I remembered that its very hard for me to be serious two days in a row.

So for those of you coming to my blog expecting deep and profound thoughts, I apologize.

It will just be an extension of me:

Weird. Random. Usually absurd. And only occasionally on the mark.

Anything else is a fluke of nature and/or heavy medication.

****

I just got this wiff of memory from the last elections when I was in my community college.

The Republican Students Association (or whateva it was called) brought in someone to campaign for the Reps about a week before the elections.

The only thing I remember about the delegate was the fact that he was wearing foundation and blush, and that he had quite obviously gotten hair plugs put in because his scalp was sprouting tufts of hair in a perfect 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch grid.

Why did I remember this?

I have no idea.

Gag.. And in other news

Drug reps are slimy!

Drug reps are slimy!

Drug reps are slimy!

They make me want to take a bath whenever they are within 5 feet of the front desk.

Their lizard smiles, the soul-less eyes, the I'll do anything to make you buy my drugs attitude.

They're like legalized dope dealers but with less conscience.

I do like the pens and the coffee mugs though and they bring us food all the time.

I feel dirty now.

In other news:

I caucused last night. Minnesota had a record-breaking turn out this year and the Dems definately beat the flood-water pants off the Republican party. I think something like 200,000 Dems turned out to caucus while Reps could only muster a pathetic 70,000. I know my own Rep mother went home without caucusing because she would have had to miss "The Biggest Loser" *dramatic gasp* if she went to vote.

It all goes to show that the Dems are much stronger in this state than the Reps. The Dem candidates have won this state every presidential race since 1972.

Yep, I'm a proud Minnesotan.

Sound off.

And in one more random turn of topic, the "No" calls have stopped (alhumdulillah for arabic). Woot.