Daily Archives: November 2, 2006

l-o-v-e

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When I got on the bus tonight, I noticed a man right away who looked like a peculiar cross between Napoleon Dynamite and Paul Bettany.

Weird… but cute? Mostly just hard to describe.

He was wearing a tan cord blazer, a burgundy v-neck over a white button-down, a green professor scarf, and jeans. His eyes were small, but his glasses were cool-nerd glasses.

He reminded me of my first English lecturer in university, whose name was Neil. I can’t remember his last name, though for all the world I wish I could so he could find himself here if he went a’ Googlin’.

Anyhow.

I’ll call him Neil.

He was flipping through a local weekly free paper with some degree of intensity, as though he were looking for something someone had recommended, or something he’d written.

Then he became completely and totally distracted.

A girl — probably four or five years younger — dropped into the seat next to him with a weary sigh and the clatter of her umbrella hitting the floor. Her hair was pulled back, but tendrils rain-curled around her rosy face and fell in her giant brown eyes.

The craziest brown eyes I’ve ever seen, really.

I wouldn’t have noticed them if she hadn’t looked up into the ceiling lights. They were the exact colour of the darkest brown in a tiger’s eye stone. And lovely.

Did I mention they were big?

She was all tight jeans and curves and young-woman-vivacity combined with tiredness and bus-tinged resignation.

And he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

It was one of those things. You know those things.

Where someone clearly feels something and you almost want to shout, “I know! I know! How awesome is it that she sat down next to you?”

The best part of the whole thing was that Van Morrison came on my iPod with “Brown Eyed Girl”.

Which made me want to laugh out loud, and also blog.

I watched the two of them look at everything but one another, inches apart, until he practically flung the paper in her lap.

I paused the sound on my iPod.

“Uhh… do you know if there are movie listings in here?”

She smiled a devastatingly sparkly smile at him — at this, I saw the old guy next to me smirk — and opened up the paper.

“I think so. But I don’t know where. Let’s check it out.”

With his golden excuse to lean in given, he peered over her parka’d arm at the pages as she turned them, trying not to look too excited.

His toe was tapping a 6/8, though.

“Sorry to bother you. I just thought I might see a movie tonight.”

“Oh no, no… no bother. Here they are! Awesome!”

I thought the bus would break into song.

Because we were all watching. That’s what buses do.

Instead of handing him back the listings, though, they looked through them together, discussing the titles and expressing their opinions about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

He didn’t really have any.

He was staring at her knee.

I popped my iPod on at this point, content that I knew enough about their chance meeting to make me smile for a good few hours.

Not just because they were two people on a bus who chatted.

Not just because they were young and slightly startled and glowing.

But because he took the chance. And whatever else might happen, he had his time in those brown eyes.

At the end of the day, can you really ask for more?

The second question for November is…

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(And no, Mark, they won’t all coincide!)

You guys were AMAZING with the first question. I LOVED reading your answers, and I happen to know a lot of other people (some who commented, and some who lurk on… ) did, too.

Here’s today’s question, which is going to involve more imagination than memory…

I want to hear about your perfect day. Not a day you’ve already had, mind you, but an amazing day you plan right here.

Money is not an object, but time is… you only have 24 hours.

I want to know:

  • Where you would go
  • What you would do
  • Who you would take with you
  • What you would eat
  • … and some of the soundtrack for the day, if you can manage it!

Don’t sell your imagination short! Give us all the detail you can.

This is an exercise I once did with a classroom of ninth grade English students. I was in twelfth grade and had to occupy them for two hours as a part of an assignment for another class — I don’t even remember what class anymore. Now, I was a camp girl, so I wasn’t intimidated by the kids in the least (even if I was still less than five feet tall.)

But trying to keep them going without any curriculum or media? Yikes.

So I came up with this assignment.

I wrote all the things I wanted it to include on the board, and put them to work.

There was a bit of whining and discussion at first, but eventually the classroom became funeral quiet while everyone sat and thought and wrote. Even kids who had given me blank looks in the beginning put pen to paper.

And what they turned in at the end?

GOLD.

I learned a lot about their hearts from those pages, and I don’t even think they knew they were sharing them. After all, it’s just a list of stuff you like and enjoy, right? What can that possibly say about you?

Heh.

People have such a hard time picking “favourites” because they like so many things. But I find picking favourites interesting because it forces you to prioritize a little and look at what grabs you the most. I think there’s usually a lot we can figure out about ourselves at the end of that tiny little journey.

I’m totally going Hallmark again. Dammit.

Now, I know YOU don’t have two hours to do it — maybe just two minutes — so I’m not expecting an essay. But I’d love to hear whatever you can get down. And if you like, you can post it at your own blog, too!