(no subject)
So I'm at the bus stop on 4th and Taylor. There's this girl. There are also a couple pigeons.
I ignore the pigeons, because I've lived in Portland for 22 years and they're ubiquitous. The girl, however, starts making a WIDE BERTH around the pigeons as they wander closer to the bus stop. She's got her cell phone out and is taking pictures. She's wide-eyed and staring, and laughing this little half-panicked laugh. Her attempts to avoid the pigeons actually take her a full lane into the street, right where the bus will be once the light a block away turns green.
At this point I'm looking at her like "Umm. What exactly are you doing?"
She finally gets back on the curb, comes right up to me and laughs "Oh my GOD. Aren't you scared of those birds? Do you know what kind of birds those are?"
At this point I figure she *must* be a recent transplant. Honestly. Ubiquitous. "Um. They're... pigeons."
"Really?? Wow. I am SO scared of animals."
All I can think of to say is "... Oh." And shrug. And walk away because the bus has come.
Actually, that's a lie. First, I wanted to say "You poor, insane person", but I knew that that would be rude. Then I wanted to say "It's ok, just think of them as rats with wings", but that would probably have just freaked her out more. What I *should* have said is "Don't worry, they don't care about you. All they do is hang around and eat discarded french fries." Really. They're downtown's first line of defense against its own trash. Even if they are gross, disease-ridden rats with wings, without them downtown would be a lot grosser than it is.
Why oh why did my computer have to die *now*, at midterms? Not that I should be spending my time at home fiddling with the internet because I ought to be studying, but the things for which I need a computer - i.e., most of my homework and my research project - I am confined to the computer labs and libraries at school. And yet, since I don't have my internet at home, I can't help but feed my Email/LJ/Twitter addictions when I do find myself at a computer. ::siiigh::
At least the temptation to read fic is low. Not that I haven't read smut on public computers in the past, but... not when I really was supposed to be working on something.
Like my test corrections.
They're sitting right here, honestly, and the word document is open. ::sigh:: I should have gone to recitation to ask Dr Ken about what I got wrong. I thought he'd marked it, but... I guess not... ::siigh::
I ignore the pigeons, because I've lived in Portland for 22 years and they're ubiquitous. The girl, however, starts making a WIDE BERTH around the pigeons as they wander closer to the bus stop. She's got her cell phone out and is taking pictures. She's wide-eyed and staring, and laughing this little half-panicked laugh. Her attempts to avoid the pigeons actually take her a full lane into the street, right where the bus will be once the light a block away turns green.
At this point I'm looking at her like "Umm. What exactly are you doing?"
She finally gets back on the curb, comes right up to me and laughs "Oh my GOD. Aren't you scared of those birds? Do you know what kind of birds those are?"
At this point I figure she *must* be a recent transplant. Honestly. Ubiquitous. "Um. They're... pigeons."
"Really?? Wow. I am SO scared of animals."
All I can think of to say is "... Oh." And shrug. And walk away because the bus has come.
Actually, that's a lie. First, I wanted to say "You poor, insane person", but I knew that that would be rude. Then I wanted to say "It's ok, just think of them as rats with wings", but that would probably have just freaked her out more. What I *should* have said is "Don't worry, they don't care about you. All they do is hang around and eat discarded french fries." Really. They're downtown's first line of defense against its own trash. Even if they are gross, disease-ridden rats with wings, without them downtown would be a lot grosser than it is.
Why oh why did my computer have to die *now*, at midterms? Not that I should be spending my time at home fiddling with the internet because I ought to be studying, but the things for which I need a computer - i.e., most of my homework and my research project - I am confined to the computer labs and libraries at school. And yet, since I don't have my internet at home, I can't help but feed my Email/LJ/Twitter addictions when I do find myself at a computer. ::siiigh::
At least the temptation to read fic is low. Not that I haven't read smut on public computers in the past, but... not when I really was supposed to be working on something.
Like my test corrections.
They're sitting right here, honestly, and the word document is open. ::sigh:: I should have gone to recitation to ask Dr Ken about what I got wrong. I thought he'd marked it, but... I guess not... ::siigh::