2005-01-18 - 5:11 p.m.

||traveling in the right direction||

This morning was special. The city was in a deep freeze, but it didn't stop people from creating the kind of magic I have grown to love. It's the reason I can't possibly live in a smaller city. It's public displays of human awkwardness

In the seat closest to where I was standing on the streetcar there was an old woman dressed completely in black manically counting the rosary and muttering to herself. Because of my years at catholic school I know how to read the rosary and understood what she was doing. I know enough to know that she was counting way too quickly to be fulfilling the required amount of "hail marys and our fathers" to complete each bead.

When she was finished she gave herself the sign of the cross repeatedly and kissed her rosary. I wondered what the urgency was and then I heard a woman screech

"Patrick Stewart"

An obviously delightfully disturbed woman was sitting 2 seats up. After realizing Patrick Stewart was nowhere to be found she started on another selection.

"Hurst and hurt, hurst and hurt, hurst and hurt, hurst and hurt"

Over and over she filled us in on the workings of her mind. When this was completed she shook her hand wildly until it looked like jelly and she could barely lift it.

Sometimes I wish my commute was longer.

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