Three buses, two BART* rides, and another two friends to get me back and forth to Oakland for the English class I teach at Laney College. Lots of Drivers du Jour . . . and one conversation worth noting:
Scene I
Me, on a bus in downtown San Francisco, to a woman wearing a coat in the seat across the aisle : “Are we far from the BART stop?”
“No, I’ll be getting off there. You can follow me,” she responded with a condescending smile at my much more abbreviated costume [culottes and a sleeveless top].
“I imagine we’ve had our three days of summer,” she continued. It had been in the 100′s for the first time this year.
“It was warm and sunny in Novato,” I said, thinking that with all the driver/ride juggling, I hadn’t thought of checking out the various microclimates where 20-30 degree differences are common.
“I work in the city, and it’s been like this all summer. We haven’t had it much better in Mill Valley. Very aggravating. It’s just not right,” she said.
This drip of conversation may seem too mundane to waste time or thought, but it’s important for context:
1) The woman lives in Mill Valley. Most of the citizenry there look pretty ordinary to me. But Sarah Palin would undoubtedly label them “elitists.”**
2) Last week one Novato friend mentioned how a Mill Valley woman had told her “how lucky she was to live so near Marin County.” Daaah, Novato is in Marin County. Get the picture?
3) There’s the whole weather thing.
Scene II
Me to my new “friend” across the aisle: “This busing into the city and BART-ing under the Bay is quite new to me. As a result of a fainting episode, I can’t drive for three months, and now my life is arranging rides and waiting for them.
“Like yesterday when I couldn’t sleep the night before because I was scheduled to give a presentaton at a 7 am meeting, and I worried that my ride wouldn’t be there to pick me up at 6:30.”
“That’s a lot of unnecessary stress. You could have called a cab,” the coated Mill Valley lady said.
“But I don’t want to spend that much money. It would probably stress me out even more.”
“WELL! Some people you just can’t help!”
You can probably imagine the harumph!*** as she turned her head and body away from me. It was colder than the air.
I like the challenge of turning someone around if I’ve done or said something that unintentionally annoys them, so I simply said, “Perhaps I do need to figure out better ways to handle my stress.”
She turned back towards me with that smile and said:
“Don’t sweat the small stuff. It’s all small stuff.”
And then we were at 8th & Market to catch the BART train.
ONE MORAL OF THIS STORY:
Someone else’s problem is small stuff.
Notes
*BART = Bay Area Rapid Transit
** I know some great people living and working in Mill Valley, but there are those who have “arrived” simply because they live there.
***HARUMPH: “Interjection An expression of disdain, disbelief, protest, or dismissal; a huff, grunt, or snort. [from the Urban Dictionary]
****BTW, white crepe coulottes and blue/brown print smock [if you must know] 
Now here’s the deal with comments. Of course, I’d like to hear some “small stuff” from you below . . . but even more, I’d love to have you post a comment on the first article to help me get to 500 comments — my first mini-goal on the way to my maxi-goal of becoming Rich&Famous.
Obviously this woman is a LION in Anti-Social Media.
It took me a second or two to get the entire drift of the LION reference, so for those who don’t know: LION stands for LinkedIn Open Networker. These are the people who accept everyone one who asks to be connected.
buses are great aren’t they. I usually take one if i need to go far…and wear my mp3 player in my ears to block out the crazy people…ahahahah
I “used” to do that, i.e. play Pandora on my Droid. But suddenly “technical difficulties” are getting in the way. Any help out there?
Uncovered your web site via msn the other day and absolutely liked it so much. Continue the great work.