This morning I took the train, for a change it was late by about five minutes at my station, which was soon explained by the fact that it kept stalling. It firstly died in Sainte Anne, then slightly before Montreal West, twice.
The metro was also having trouble, I suspect that raccoons got into the engines and broke them.
I got to work half an hour late, but I digress.
In the train, the air was very romantic, the wagon I sat in had no lights, nor heat.
A few stops farther, a young girl took a seat facing me, about three rows up.
She immediately huddled herself in her jacket and shut her eyes, with her arms crossed upon her chest, elbows resting on a large red duffel bag. She had dark hair tied up under her hat, perhaps in a ponytail or a chignon. Right as she closed her eyes I noticed a bunch of boys taking the seats directly behind her.
One of them discreetly set a Hershey Kiss down on the seat next to her and ducked back in his group.
She was sleeping and didn't notice the boy, nor the Hershey Kiss, I started watching a Frasier episode on my iPod, but kept on glancing up, naturally curious to see if she would notice the gift.
A few other passengers who had witnessed the scene, were all keeping tabs as well.
Eventually she woke up long enough to wrap a mesh scarf around her neck, but failed to notice the chocolate delicacy, instead she cozied down a bit farther in her jacket and pulled a hoodie over her head.
As we neared her stop she yawned, opened her eyes and stretched. Picked up the duffel bag and laced the strap over her shoulder, then spotted the Hershey Kiss.
She had a slight double-take when she first laid eyes on it, but quickly caught herself and kept cool. She got up and walked away with the boys in tow.
The Hershey Kiss remained lonely, on the seat. Perhaps someone else picked it up but as I left, it was still there.
I exited the car by the rear and completely lost sight of her and the boy. I suppose they went to the same school, perhaps taking the same class. From all appearances they were high-school seniors or first year college students.
I couldn't help but be reminded of my own courtship with my wife. At the time she also chose to ignore me, sometimes cruelly, yet, here we are.
Here we are.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The 7.10$ glass of milk.
Today I had lunch later than usual, normally my lunch at work is around 1PM. Today, because both the other guys in my team failed to tell me they were going to lunch later, I went out to lunch at close to 2PM.
So I headed down to the food court, at that time it wasn't very busy, even though it's Thursday. I decided to eat there instead of bringing it back to my desk.
I hate eating at my desk, because I'm scheduled to eat at 1PM, lots of co-workers don't realize that when they come and ask me questions for projects etc I'm actually on my lunch hour, which is of course not paid.
That is a pet peeve of mine.
At any case I was having some chicken breast and Greek salad when I noticed the pretty red-head who makes the best milkshakes in the area walking by. I've always found her attractive, partly because she is exactly my type, and partly because it's a well known fact that the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach.
Lots of women wrongly assume the best way is through the ribcage, with a knife.
She is much younger than I am, probably in her early twenties, not that it makes a difference these days, my sister is about to marry a man who is not only one of the nicest persons I've ever known, but also about 20 years older than she is. She's never been happier.
Me neither, my wife makes me quite happy. But the sight of the milk-shake girl, who besides the fact that she has red hair, also happens to be curly -I'm a sucker for curly hair on women- reminded me that I hadn't had a milk-shake in a while.
So I decided that after my chicken was finished, I'd go walking in the interconnected malls for a while, then go for a milk-shake to bring up to my office.
I finished my meal, got up and started walking aimlessly. I was looking for a gift for my wife in occasion of our upcoming wedding anniversary/Valentine's day.
I failed to find anything interesting, at first I wanted to look at jewelry, but my wife, who is impossibly allergic to gold cannot wear earrings.
It was all triggered by a navel piercing she got after ignoring my advice telling her not to do it.
Also because of her job where she's not allowed to wear jewelry I prefer to give her something else, besides I gave her a diamond ring last year.
I walked through a couple of stores, shoes, purses, pens, perfume.
I decided that I'd get her a certificate for a massage.
I'm actually going to find someone who does that in your home, I'm sure it exists.
If not I'll just go down to MATIS and get her a gift certificate there.
On the way back up to my office I stopped at the milk-shake place and the red-head wasn't there. I suppose it was her day off. Instead there was a girl, four times her size, who for 7.10$ made me a 500ml glass of milk.
So now that I've got my wife's anniversary gift under control, I can only hope she gets me what I really want for mine: A threesome.
I think I can talk the red-head into it.
So I headed down to the food court, at that time it wasn't very busy, even though it's Thursday. I decided to eat there instead of bringing it back to my desk.
I hate eating at my desk, because I'm scheduled to eat at 1PM, lots of co-workers don't realize that when they come and ask me questions for projects etc I'm actually on my lunch hour, which is of course not paid.
That is a pet peeve of mine.
At any case I was having some chicken breast and Greek salad when I noticed the pretty red-head who makes the best milkshakes in the area walking by. I've always found her attractive, partly because she is exactly my type, and partly because it's a well known fact that the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach.
Lots of women wrongly assume the best way is through the ribcage, with a knife.
She is much younger than I am, probably in her early twenties, not that it makes a difference these days, my sister is about to marry a man who is not only one of the nicest persons I've ever known, but also about 20 years older than she is. She's never been happier.
Me neither, my wife makes me quite happy. But the sight of the milk-shake girl, who besides the fact that she has red hair, also happens to be curly -I'm a sucker for curly hair on women- reminded me that I hadn't had a milk-shake in a while.
So I decided that after my chicken was finished, I'd go walking in the interconnected malls for a while, then go for a milk-shake to bring up to my office.
I finished my meal, got up and started walking aimlessly. I was looking for a gift for my wife in occasion of our upcoming wedding anniversary/Valentine's day.
I failed to find anything interesting, at first I wanted to look at jewelry, but my wife, who is impossibly allergic to gold cannot wear earrings.
It was all triggered by a navel piercing she got after ignoring my advice telling her not to do it.
Also because of her job where she's not allowed to wear jewelry I prefer to give her something else, besides I gave her a diamond ring last year.
I walked through a couple of stores, shoes, purses, pens, perfume.
I decided that I'd get her a certificate for a massage.
I'm actually going to find someone who does that in your home, I'm sure it exists.
If not I'll just go down to MATIS and get her a gift certificate there.
On the way back up to my office I stopped at the milk-shake place and the red-head wasn't there. I suppose it was her day off. Instead there was a girl, four times her size, who for 7.10$ made me a 500ml glass of milk.
So now that I've got my wife's anniversary gift under control, I can only hope she gets me what I really want for mine: A threesome.
I think I can talk the red-head into it.
Monday, February 9, 2009
10 reasons why mass transit in Montreal sucks.
10- The douchebag that has no manners, runs everyone down, elbows his way passed old ladies and cripples while carrying a huge backpack, just so he can sit down and play NHL'07 on his laptop while on the train. This is not only rude, it is a can of whoop-ass waiting to open.
9- The annoying obese woman with the squeaky voice, the fur coat and the cell phone. All three are out of fashion.
8- People eating non-snack foods, just like the people at the movies who are having a burrito while we're all trying to watch The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, eating a full course meal in the train is heavily frowned upon.
7- Rude children who go to private prep high-schools, wear ties and suits but behave like complete asses. The parents deserve a slap on the head.
6- Gassy people, people who had garlic bread for lunch, keep burping, fall asleep on their neighbors shoulders, etc. YOU ARE IN PUBLIC.
5- The overall condition of the train/bus/metro cars. Where I live (Montreal) even the newest wagons are 5 years old, and they were rubbish even as they were being built, the doors don't close/open properly, the seats are designed for short travels and anything in excess of 20 minutes sitting down will put your ass to sleep, the windows are dirty to the point where you can barely see outside or they simply have graffiti embedded into them.
4- The scheduling. It sucks. Why is it that at the peak of rush hour we only get a metro every 5 minutes, sometimes you are standing on a pier and you have two empty metros go by the other way, stopping at the empty pier across the rails, while your side of the pier is filled with people and there is no metro in sight.
3- There is no shelter at the train stations and where they have shelter it is on the wrong side of the tracks so that in the morning when the pier is filled with people, they are forced to stand outdoors because the shelter is on the other side of the train tracks, where it is never used because that is the side used to DROP people off in the evening after work.
2- The shelters are too small, the average shelter can fit four adults, two if the obese fur coat/cell phone lady enters. There are also about eight seats available at train stops where on average 50 or more people are standing waiting for the train.
1- The trains are constantly late, and if they are not late you can bet your ass you'll run into one (or more) of the above douchebags in them.
They are late even and especially when the temperature drops below -15°C and/or it is raining/snowing heavily or there is a thunderstorm. Oddly though, they are on time on days where people don't all work, like half-staff days and the couple days before/after the Christmas holidays and the summer vacations.
If you look at their website, they have a STATE OF THE NETWORK link which of course is completely useless to us as we wait outside for an extra 50 minutes by -25°C with no Internet connections.
9- The annoying obese woman with the squeaky voice, the fur coat and the cell phone. All three are out of fashion.
8- People eating non-snack foods, just like the people at the movies who are having a burrito while we're all trying to watch The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, eating a full course meal in the train is heavily frowned upon.
7- Rude children who go to private prep high-schools, wear ties and suits but behave like complete asses. The parents deserve a slap on the head.
6- Gassy people, people who had garlic bread for lunch, keep burping, fall asleep on their neighbors shoulders, etc. YOU ARE IN PUBLIC.
5- The overall condition of the train/bus/metro cars. Where I live (Montreal) even the newest wagons are 5 years old, and they were rubbish even as they were being built, the doors don't close/open properly, the seats are designed for short travels and anything in excess of 20 minutes sitting down will put your ass to sleep, the windows are dirty to the point where you can barely see outside or they simply have graffiti embedded into them.
4- The scheduling. It sucks. Why is it that at the peak of rush hour we only get a metro every 5 minutes, sometimes you are standing on a pier and you have two empty metros go by the other way, stopping at the empty pier across the rails, while your side of the pier is filled with people and there is no metro in sight.
3- There is no shelter at the train stations and where they have shelter it is on the wrong side of the tracks so that in the morning when the pier is filled with people, they are forced to stand outdoors because the shelter is on the other side of the train tracks, where it is never used because that is the side used to DROP people off in the evening after work.
2- The shelters are too small, the average shelter can fit four adults, two if the obese fur coat/cell phone lady enters. There are also about eight seats available at train stops where on average 50 or more people are standing waiting for the train.
1- The trains are constantly late, and if they are not late you can bet your ass you'll run into one (or more) of the above douchebags in them.
They are late even and especially when the temperature drops below -15°C and/or it is raining/snowing heavily or there is a thunderstorm. Oddly though, they are on time on days where people don't all work, like half-staff days and the couple days before/after the Christmas holidays and the summer vacations.
If you look at their website, they have a STATE OF THE NETWORK link which of course is completely useless to us as we wait outside for an extra 50 minutes by -25°C with no Internet connections.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
