Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Sunday, Aug. 20, 2006 - 3:09 p.m.

For one brief and shining moment today, there was blue sky. It was marvelous, my friends. I wish it would last, but tomorrow we are back to hideously overcast and grey skies.

When I was coming home from the Opera yesterday, I saw the nice Algerian lady who taught me how to use the washers at the laundromat, so I said hi, and she invited me up to her apartment and showed me pictures of her daughter's wedding in Algeria and gave me a box of petit fours from the wedding to take home. How nice is she? :) I like seeing her and I've talked to her in the laundry twice now, but it's a lot of work having a conversation with her, because she only speaks french. She understands a bit of english, but she never speaks it, so I really have to work to converse. She's really nice, though. She said next time she sees me, we'll go eat couscous together. :)

I have a new survey on photography posted. I would hugely appreciate it if you could take the time to give me your input. When I get home from here, I'm opening a site for my photography, and it would be helpful to know what you like. Photography is highly subjective. I know what *I* like and find interesting, but frankly, I've no idea what the vast majority of others enjoy. I screwed up though, and posted a question twice. The second one was supposed to be do you like pictures of animals, so if you fill it out, if you feel like subbing the animals question for the one that's there, that would be awesome. I think it's #6, 7, or 8.

I love the Metro, I really do. I would give anything if LA had an actual subway*, but there are some things not so desirable about it, frankly. Like, that certain stations - I'm lookin' at YOU, Opera - always smell spectacularly badly, be it the smell of urine, dead things, or godknowswhat. And you're better off not touching anything on the car, if you can help it, because every surface in there is a staph infection waiting to happen. Not to mention sometimes people leave uneaten food on the seats, so you have to look every time before you sit down. And uh, it's public transportation, so sometimes whack jobs get on the train with you, because sadly, they are public too.

Case in point, Friday night. I was trying to get to Carrefour before it closed, so I get on the train with like, 2 other women (and sit on some of that food I mentioned), and at the very next stop, this guy gets on and sits down opposite me. I am leaned forward, with my elbow on my knees and my head resting on my hand, because as I said, I like to minimize contact with train surfaces. My view is of the floor, so all I have looked at is the guy's shoes, which are dark brown Asics with beige trim, and the bottom 3" of his jeans. But the guy must sense, in the way crazy people do, that I am actually gazing at his shoes, because as he pushes the seat by the door down so he can fall sideways into it, he shoves the palm of his hand out at me in the international gesture for stop. Only he really stabs that baby out there, so that what it's saying is, "Stop it right now, goddamn it, before I shank your ass." This is rather surprising, so I lean back and look up at him like, 'what's the deal, dude?' and he starts muttering something and shaking his head at me and violently swings his hand at me like I am a fly he is just a little too lazy to lean over to swipe but which he finds really annoying, and worth a quick swing, nonetheless. So I decide the best plan of action is to sit straight so that I am not so easily within striking distance, and to keep my eyes trained on the floor so that I am not perceived as a threat. But the muttering increases in volume, and the dude continues to stay focussed on me, and he seems really agitated and pissed off about something, so at the next stop, I suddenly "discover" oh, this is my stop, by which I mean my common sense kicked in and I decided to get the hell off the train before the door closed and I had to ride one more stop with the guy. Which sucked, because I was on a tight schedule to get to Carrefour before it closed, and at that time of night, the trains are like 10 minutes apart, and I was getting off one station shy of where I needed to be. So by the time I got to La Motte Piquet, where I needed to change lines, I realized I was too late to make it to Carrefour, and I turned around and headed for home. And it's not that the guy was crazy that I objected to, so much. Crazy I can handle. Crazy and aggressive, not so much. And then by the time you stir up a crazy, aggressive, and pissed off stew, and you're lookin' at me like I'm the bread bowl, it's time to get off the train and call it a day. Know when to say when, people, that's all I'm sayin'.

*that podunk 6 miles of track does not count as a subway, and those of you who had actually been in a city that had one would know that, so don't bother pointing out the bit of track that runs from downtown hoho to noho to me like it actually means anything, because liberal, please. six miles of underground track does NOT a subway make. when i can get anywhere i want in hell-a by riding the subway, THEN we'll talk.

HEY! I just got email from JonnyC, and when he cleaned out his car yesterday, he found my lost RayBans case! The goofy thing is that we both looked in that car and didn't find it the day I lost it! JonnyC rawks!

The cable guy is supposed to come tomorrow, sometime between 1 and 6, which is between 4 and 9am Pacific time. Cross your fingers.

Okay, I have to transfer images from flashcards to hard drive and work on some, so I gotta scoot.

Peace out,
Katie

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Yesterday's News - Next Stop

In which Katie shares sad news - Wednesday, Apr. 01, 2015
In which Katie returns after a very long absence - Monday, Jun. 25, 2012
In which Katie pokes her head in and brushes some of the cobwebs away - Thursday, May. 06, 2010
In which Katie asks you to write your congressman again. - Monday, Jun. 02, 2008
In which Katie asks you to please click the link and send the message to protect the rights of artists - Wednesday, May. 21, 2008