People

I noticed something yesterday as I was walking back to my car after work.  You can basically categorize people by the way they cross the street.

 I never really wait for the little white walking guy or the chirping bird to tell me it's safe to cross a street.  I learned how to watch for cars when I was a child, so I'm pretty confident in my ability to see that if nothing is going to maim or kill me when I cross, then that orange hand shouldn't be a deterrent.  I'm not the only person like this.  There's a lot of us that cross when we feel safe enough and don't idly wait for a sign to tell us it's ok.  Maybe it's because we're the ones that always feel like we're rushing.  Not enough hours in the day, so why wait for the orange hand to change to the walking guy when we can better use that minute doing something productive.  But, I like to think that we're the first category of people.  The ones that rely on our own judgement and not someone or something else to make our decisions.  We take responsibility for our lives and our actions.

The second type of person is the one, that no matter what, will not set foot on the street until the bird is chirping and the walking man is lit up.  It doesn't matter if it's 4am and the streets are deserted, they won't cross.  These are the people that are so entwined in the rules that they just can't bring themselves to step outside the box (or the crosswalk) regardless of what the circumstances are.  They are the ones that will stand at that corner, even when everyone else is crossing the street.  The "rules" say wait for the bird to chirp, then you can go...so that's what they do.

Which leads me to the third type of person.  I was pretty anxious to get the weekend started, so I was in a hurry to get to my car.  As I approached the first intersection, I noticed a woman standing waiting for the light.  There was a red light two blocks down, which pretty much meant that there were no cars crossing the intersection at that moment, even though the light was green.  She was just standing there (the orange hand was lit), so I looked both ways, then stepped around her and crossed.  She followed me.  She is the person that won't make the decision that goes against the grain, but if someone else does it, she'll follow.  A lot of people do this.  Cross only when someone else does.  Personally, I think it's dumb to be like this.  I wouldn't trust someone else to make safety judgements for me.  But, it was pretty obvious we weren't going to get run down.  That makes it even funnier.  She was afraid to cross, but if I showed her it was ok first, then she was willing to go.

Moving on.  As I was leaving the parking garage, I pulled in behind another woman.  She was having trouble with the ticket eater thing.  She was pushing the button for the attendant to come help.  I don't know where she was, because I've found her to be very helpful in the past, but for whatever reason (maybe she was in the bathroom), she wasn't coming.  Luckily I could get around her and get out.  Well, every Friday there's some sort of JW conference at the Convention Center (across the street from the building I work in).  I'm pretty sure I know what JW stands for, but don't want to get into it here.  Anyway, they post these guys around downtown on Fridays.  They wear their JW badges and hold signs up at every parking garage and lot around town.  I don't know why they do this, because the parking in the city is pretty obvious, but maybe they give people directions to the convention center.  Anyway, these guys are at their post in the morning and are still there (or there again) in the afternoon.  One of these guys was at the garage, standing pretty close to the woman who was having trouble with her ticket.  He was on his phone and watching her, but he wasn't helping her.  Now, I know he doesn't actually work there, but what is his purpose of standing there?  I've had one of them hand me a ticket in the morning, so I know they aren't against helping people with their tickets.  But he didn't walk up to her and see if he could get the machine to eat her ticket and the attendant was nowhere to be found.  I felt sorry for her.  Not sorry enough to help though, so I'm no better than the JW guy I guess.

I went to Vickie's mom's house after work. Roger is still renovating the kitchen and was texturizing (is that a word?) the ceiling yesterday.  That took a long time, so I decided to go and pick up Kaelyn, who hangs out there while he works.  I was happy to see that Vickie was there too.  I don't get to see her as much as I used to now that Kaelyn is here.  She pointed out how less than a year ago, she was just something that we were anticipating, she didn't even exist a few months before that, and now, my life totally revolves around her.  So true.  She's ten months old...I can't believe my baby is almost one!

We hung out there for a while, waiting for Roger to finish his work, then left for home for our normal Friday night.  Pizza and TV.  After Kaelyn went to bed (around 9), Roger and I sat outside by the fireplace and just hung out.  It was nice.  Our attention was focused totally on each other.  We don't get that very often as there's normally some distraction...either Kaelyn, a movie, or a friend, that prevents that kind of focus.  I think I'm going to tell him that we need to dedicate more time to just being together. 

He's making me breakfast right now.  We'll eat outside.  Kaelyn is napping and when she wakes up we're going to the Railroad Museum then to the Ice Cream Safari at the zoo.  Vickie is coming too, which is awesome!  Fun day...