A Way Too Long Entry About a Most Fantastic Day
Yesterday I had an amazing day.
About halfway through it, I killed some time at a Starbucks and wrote about what a day I was having.
Here's what I wrote:
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What a fantastic day I'm having.
Does anyone know what it is about just feeling better that can make everything in the world look different... and brighter?
It's strange that everything in my life seems so good right now. Not that I have much to complain about anyway. A few days ago I know I felt pretty good and I remember thinking, There isn't anything wrong in my life.
But yesterday I wasn't feeling as... on top of the world, and I tried to remind myself that there "isn't anything wrong in my life." I mean, obviously I'm not where I want to be in life yet, but I think I'm in a good place to get there. Anyway, it was hard for me to listen to myself, I don't know why, but I was just feeling kind of down.
Today I'm in Dallas at Mockingbird Station. Jordan has an extra ticket to the USA Film Festival and earlier this week she invited me to go to one of the shows with her. I decided I would ride the train (read April 23 post, to find out about my new obsession with the DFW rail transit system) out here early and just spend the day in Dallas.
It's been wonderful!
I got off the TRE (Trinity Rail Express) at Union Station and wandered around downtown Dallas for a few hours, listening to music and looking at all the great buildings and sites (reunion tower and jfk memorial, and a whole bunch of other cool looking buildings I don't know the names of).
It was strange to think about how much it felt like visiting a whole new place thousands of miles away. I've been to Dallas several times before, but always for something specific, never just to see it. It was like being a tourist in my own backyard.
I had a late lunch at this fantastic little deli... what was it called... oh yeah, Schlotskys... I'm telling you, those places should be in every major city (okay so it wasn't that exotic, but I still had a great time sitting out there, eating, listening to my MP3 player, watching people and drinking raspberry lemonade).
After a little while I finally decided to head back to Union Station and hop on the DART Redline to Mockingbird Station. BUT I was on the wrong side of the tracks (literally) and couldn't board the northbound train.
I was pretty confused, so I asked a girl standing near me about it while I showed her the printed out train schedule I'd brought with me. She told me to be on the platform on the other side and that the next train would be by in about 15 minutes.
Not too bad.
Actually it turned out to be a very good thing because, at that moment, I realized I needed to use the restroom (mightn't shoulda had that 3rd cup of lemonade). So I went inside, admired the simplicity of Union Station (and the fact that they have real paper-towels in the bathroom (call me un-ecological, but I'm not a fan of the hand blow dryers)), then came outside to wait for my train.
Well, I was waiting on one of a pair of railside stool/chair things. And this very hip and attractive girl and guy wandered over to where I was sitting and the guy offered the girl the available seat next to me. So I, in turn, stood up and offered him my seat so that they could sit together.
This took them both by surprise (I'm not sure why) and they (in very good spirits) refused to take either of the seats, and encouraged me to sit back down.
As I said, I was mostly listening to my MP3 player, so this was all a wonderful, comical pantomime to me. I finally took out one earbud and told them they might as well sit down, because I wasn't going to, and this way they could sit together.
The girl shook her head (and shoulder length sandy colored hair) and said, "No, you're too cute, you need to sit down." (not sure about her logic, but there probably wasn't anything else she could have said on this already great day, to make me feel better).
Then I noticed the guy nodding in agreement. I took this time to also notice his jewelry choice and keen fashion sense.
Never before in my life have I been relieved to have a guy say I was cute. But it meant this couple of hipsters, wasn't a couple at all.
I lied and said I'd been sitting all day and would be happy to stand (I really was happy to stand, but I'd been walking around downtown, most of the day, not sitting).
As we all continued to refuse the seats I put my earbud back in and someone walked between us and took one of the seats. We all looked at each other and did our versions of a half-shrug/smile-chuckle thing.
I think the guy who'd just sat down noticed this, and it freaked him out, because he hadn't been sitting 5 seconds before he got up and went to the other side of the platform--to which we all lifted our eyebrows in silent suggestion that the other take the seat(s)... BUT right then a heavy, older woman dragged herself and her bag to one of the seats. She was followed by two other women and a man, who filled up that small area around the seats pretty quickly, and I could no longer see my new friends.
So, I walked around this new obstruction of humanity and went over to the hipsters.
We talked about what I was listening to (which was pretty funny timing, because right then Pat Green and Willie Nelson came on singing "Threadbare Gypsy Soul". A great song, but not typical of my listening genre) and we each brought up a bunch of bands that the others hadn't heard of (I excused myself as not being very hip with the music scene; they excused themselves as being pretentious (we were getting along just fine)).
It was fun, and shortly after, the train pulled up.
As we got to the door I stepped to the side to let them board first, and much to my amusement (though not to the amusement of those in line behind us) they also stepped to the side to offer me the same.
This time I conceded (because I sensed a heavy, older woman pushing her way through), and we ended up sitting near each other (this time there weren't two seats next to each other, but there were two one in front of the other, so I sat down, he sat in front of me, and she sat sideways on his lap and turned to face me).
Thinking this is where people might typically just sort of zone out on the ride until there stop came up, I looked out the window... and started to zone out.
"You're still very cute."
I looked up at the girl and she was nodding. (I realized that the day could, in fact, get better.)
"You're making my day. Thanks." I say.
They laughed. (hopefully because they thought that was funny)
At the next stop the pair of seats behind me opened up, so they jumped up and claimed them.
She asked if it would be weird for me to turn sideways in my chair so that I could talk to them.
So I turned sideways in my chair so I could talk to them.
The girl started to ask what my stop was--right as I noticed a very old woman wandering down the aisle. I glanced around and didn't see anymore available seats.
The boyscout in me rose up (actually I didn't make it past Webelos) and offered the old lady my seat (I'm sure she said thank you... in her own way... as she took the seat).
I went to the front of the bus where I could hold on to something and as the train started to move again it got really quiet so I said, loud enough to talk to my new friends.... halfway down the train-car, "You were saying?"
I'm surprised by how many people on the train laughed. The hipsters included (whew).
About that time, the old lady noticed someone she knew and got up and inched her way over to see them.
I said, "Uh-uh, somebody had better sit in that seat I gave up." More laughs (this experience has made me wonder if people, even complete strangers are always looking for a way to connect with each other).
Then the girl made too loud "PSST..." "PSST..." noises while waving, and loudly whispered, "ooh ooh, sit here!"
Most of the people between me and the hipsters seem to be getting a pretty good kick out of this by now. I ask, "Is it okay? I mean, the train's moving..." I was only half joking, because everything was going so well that I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to lose my balance and fall on my face while trying to reclaim my seat from an old lady (sort of).
But I go for it, and didn't fall on my face or anything else.
People still seemed pretty entertained by my efforts (honestly, by now their amusement is starting to confuse me).
Finally, sitting back with my friends, we can just talk to each other (and not for the benefit of the rest of the passengers).
The guy was telling me about riding the train everyday and the girl interrupts him to say, "You are absolutely gorgeous."
(We've established that I was having a good day, but I now have a practical, first-hand understanding of what the mathematical term "exponential" means.)
I say, "Thanks." (I think I successfully managed to sound cool when I said it, but I think the goofy grin on my face ruined the effect.)
She wants to know where I got my T-shirt. I tell her "thrift shop." "Awesome," she says.
I tell them that I'm enjoying the train thing and that I think I'll do it more often (of course if they read my 4/23 blog they'd know that) (of course, after this entry there's no way I'm going to tell them about my blog).
And they start to tell me about all the great things to do in Dallas, and at each station they mention what you could do and where you could go if you got out at that stop.
Then the girl tells me an interesting story (she actually introduced it with, "Do you want to hear an interesting story?" I did).
I'm not sure how interesting it was, but it was definitely entertaining.
My stop is before theirs, so they help me by telling me when it's coming up. I give them my email address as I jump off the train (that's a cool image, but actually I hand it to them as I walk past them to the door, and then step out of the train). I wonder if they'll write...
When they were telling me about Dallas they told me to go to the Coldstone Creamery when I got to Mockingbird station and have the strawberry-blonde ice cream.
I did.
It was awesome. I'm not even a fruity ice-cream fan. But this was good. I wandered through a lot of the Mockingbird shops and then came to Starbucks, got a bottle of water, sat down, and started writing this.
It's been a hugely successful day.
I can barely stop myself from smiling and I still haven't even done what I came here to do.
But it's getting pretty close to when I'm supposed to meet Jordan.
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It was about 20 minutes or so after that, that Jordan made it out there. We went straight up to the Angelika and got in line for the festival.
We saw the movie Crash.
It is amazing. For starters, it has some of the best dialogue I've heard in a movie... ever. It was so fun and interesting to hear the characters relate to each other. It's one of those everybody is connected to everybody else kind of movies.
The movie is about racial intolerance and it handles it in a way I have never seen before. It was so good. It wasn't about black and/or white, it was about so many ethnicities, and how none of them (us) have totally come over it. So it managed to make fun of everyone's prejudices while also being a very sincere and serious movie. It can be pretty hard at times, but it's always pretty genuine. I think it's being released next week.
See it.
Lorenz Tate was there for the viewing and he stayed after for a Q&A session. It was cool to hear about his experiences with the movie and working with the all-star cast (seriously).
The last part of my day was as successful as the first. Jordan is hilarious and not very good at crossword puzzles. And she loves her Mavs. It was fun. We ate fish and chips at the bar of some restaurant there at Mockingbird and she was coaching me in the viewership of the basketball playoffs.
(When we left the restaurant, the Mavericks weren't doing so good, but by the time she'd dropped me off at my car, they seemed to have really turned it around... I think they won.)
That was a very culturing(?) day, and I am now a very cultured person... or at least a more cultured person.
Thanks Jordan.
It was the perfect close to a perfect day. (And I wouldn't have even had it at all if she hadn't invited me to the festival.)
I encourage everyone to have as good a day as I did.
3 Comments:
wow... that was well worth the 30 minutes it took me to read it! You are one of those people that can write or talk about something and make it seem like THAT is were life is. (I prefer to look at it as a gift on your end rather than a lack of luster on mine. It's a good thing - it helps me make movie moments in my own world). So forget about CO - I'm moving down to Dallas. and by the way... "You are absolutely gorgeous!"
You've made my day. Thanks.
nice. one of the best days I've ever read about. and I think that girl might have been into you. I read once that if she flips her hair or her feet are pointed at you that she's interested. oh and the repeatedly telling you how cute and gorgeous you are...if you can decipher these subtle signs...I think it means she's keen on you.
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