out and back

Everyone's up.
Yes, that's a nine.
59 in the kitchen doesn't make it much better.



Salt. On the floor of the train. Don't drop your pashmina! Oh, you did? Well, we'll just wash it out later. (Go ahead, Australians, laugh! In MY world? 9 = Uggs.)



Wicked cold. But pretty.
Not a bad ride. The newspaper, the iPod. (People have been very chatty lately on the train. I don't like it. I want quiet.)
At the station, I see the same people every day.
A lady with a thick head of shiny silvery hair, talking to a young woman whose deep green coat has little felt flowers sewn on it. She wears a pink scarf and drapes the ends over her backpack and walks past a woman with a big black coat cinched tightly at the waist with a wide black patent leather belt. The man to their left used to wear one of those surgical shoes and have a cane, but he's better now. Two stops after mine, a little girl and her mom get on the train - they have the same curly hair and chat softly every day.

On the way home, things are more hurried. I still run, sometimes, to my train. I still hate the 5:12, and I've been liking the seat on the aisle. It feels less claustrophobic





It is a little funny to see guys in suits playing video games.

I am thrilled to have been taught - by a seat-mate, how to do a logic puzzle.



We had been riding along when he mentioned that the crossword was kind of hard for a Monday (they are increasingly harder as the week wears on) and I agreed and then teased and told him not to copy my answers. He decided to move onto the number puzzle and I told him that I COULDN'T EVEN UNDERSTAND THE INSTRUCTIONS. And, because he was not my husband or son or mother, I let him show me how to do it (it took some patience, though - I don't like to be "taught") and, without too much effort, I GOT IT.



Still cold. Dark too. (Do you know that bridge joke?)





That's my "wry" face. See me being wry? See my saggy neck? Do you think I can wear a scarf or turtleneck all summer?



Home to the dinner rush, and chatting with the boys and clearing up and checking email and the whole other half of things.
Still cold.