I make friends!

[madmoisellestar]

New guy at my bus stop this morning asked about the schedule, and we wound up talking most of the way to work. He's an addiction counselor at the hospital who's only been in Baltimore six months. He's tired of angry heroin addicts and paperwork, and likes the Ottobar and good beer. Seems like fun. I'm tempted to say 'like a nice kid' even though I know from conversation he was the same year in school as me. Also reasonably cute. Anyone looking for a cute boy? This one seemed pretty okay. Picked up many points for not seeming disinterested in talking after I mentioned my husband a bunch. (I feel like that should get special emphasis, because it's a whole thing. If I talk to a guy my age for more than about a minute, I start looking for ways to gesture with my left hand and work My Husband into conversation. You'd be amazed how many interactions that kills cold.) I hope he did not get desperately lost, because he didn't seem to know where the bus was going.

While we were talking, I noticed one of the other regular commuters looking at us with interest. She's young and middle class with cartilage piercings and funky shoes, and gets off at my stop. We've made friendly eye contact before. Chatting with someone else apparently pushed me into approachable territory: she struck up a conversation as we got off the bus. I didn't catch her name, but she's also new in town and wanted to know who cuts my hair. (Thank you, Bethany. Having a recommendation-worthy stylist is more social currency than I ever expected.) She works right around the corner from the law school. I both hope and suspect we will chat more.

Not a half bad way to start a morning.