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July 20, 2001
Procrastination!
Ah... it's a beautiful thing, procrastination. I still have a pile of work to do -- gearing up to do the Last Big Project, the one that's half my grade in both classes (which, happily, I can turn in for both classes, hurrah!) I know I need to be doing a lot of research, but... well, I just couldn't make myself do it tonight. I did finish some homework tonight -- an essay evaluating three website about dinosaurs for children. Now I just have the one project to go, and this hellish semester will be over.
Last night, my class met at the art library at Boston College. I had never been out there -- it's all the way at the end of the B subway line. It took me ages to get there. I tried to read on the T (To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, on a recommendation from Joanne) and fell soundly asleep instead. When I woke up at the end of the line, I was completely disoriented and could very well have spent the rest of the night wandering around lost, except I ran into a guyn in my class, who had a car parked nearby and gave me a ride to the library.
The library -- what little I saw of it -- is beautiful. It's an old Gothic building, with lovely stained glass windows. I thought we were going to have a tour, look at the collection, fun stuff like that... instead, we sat in a little room and watched a three-hour Powerpoint presentation. I was bored stiff, and cranky, because we could have had the presentation in Boston, rather than travelling all the way to BC.
It took me an hour and a half to get home -- an hour on the train, and then a half-hour on a bus driven by a complete lunatic. I've ridden buses driven by this guy before, and I am convinced that he's crazy. He is very loud, often yelling things that make no sense at all, and he really likes to turn on the microphone and sing off-key snatches of songs... last night, when I got to the bus stop, the bus was already packed. It was ten o'clock by then, and I didn't want to wait around until 10:30 for the next bus, so I squished myself onto the front of the bus, followed by two guys who ended up pressed against the front doors all the way to Chelsea. Even though the bus was full beyond capacity (they aren't supposed to let people stand in the stepwells) Mad Driver kept opening the doors and yelling to the people still at the bus stop to climb onto the roof, then cackling like... well, like mad. We finally left the station after ten minutes or so of this, and headed over the Tobin Bridge to Chelsea. One of the guys squashed against the door said "Man, I hope he doesn't open the doors" and Mad Drviver heard him. For the rest of the trip over the bridge, he kept yelling "Like this?" and making motions like he was going to open the door and dump the guy, and the rest of us in the stairwell, out onto the road. The first couple of times, the guy who'd spoken laughed uneasily. Then he looked worried, and tried to find something to hold onto. Finally he said "Look. Stop that, okay?" The driver just laughed. Once we got to Chelsea, the driver felt the need to stop and yell out the doors to random people on the street. At one intersection, he sat and talked to a woman on the corner for about five minutes, while we waited for him to move along so we could all get home. He drove away from the corner with the doors open after a passenger yelled at him, and, since he was watching his friend instead of the road, he took a wrong turn. He didn't notice until people starting demanding to know where the hell he was going -- then, when he did notice, he drove around the same block several times, laughing and yelling "There's a nutcase behind the wheel!" into the microphone. A man at the back asked to be let off -- he said he lived nearby, but I think hge just preferred to walk. I didn't blame him. The driver ignored him. We finally got back onto the bus route, and he sang into the microphone all the way to my stop. I bit my tongue to keep from calling him a jackass when I got off -- and today, since I was still annoyed by it, I wrote to the MBTA and complained. I don't expect anything to come of it, but... I was scared last night. It takes a lot to scare me, but I hate being around someone who acts so crazy. He was paying no attention to where he was driving, and he could have caused an accident. Plus, I was damn tired, and just wanted to read my book quietly until I got home. Not too much to ask.
Because I am shamelessly mimicking Monique, I have more Sims updates. (Hey I said procrastination was a beautiful thing!) When we last checked in, Russell Crowe and MaryEllen had just had a bouncing baby girl. Yesterday, after a mere three days of infancy, baby Claire turned into a little girl, in a shower of daisies.
As we see here, MaryEllen and Mom Sim didn't even take any notice. Also, Claire is wearing an odd hat, for no apparent reason.
After a few minutes, MaryEllen noticed how grown-up her daughter had gotten, and they shared a touching moment:
Later, Claire chatted with Bob. I think the Speedo might make this an unhealthy environment for a child.
Still later, Russell explained his alien conspiracy theories to little Claire:
Posted by Mary Ellen at July 20, 2001 10:16 PM