On a crisp Monday morning at 7am, I rode my bike to the Washington Street bus stop. I put my bike on the rack, and stepped onto a fairly empty bus. The bus driver greeted me with a "Good mornin' dah-lin!" Great first words of the day, right?
A couple minutes later, iPod in ears, a guy sat next to me. He said something but I couldn't hear him through my morning dose of Phil Wickham. I removed one small white earphone. "What's that?"
He said "Would I offend anyone if I sat here?" "Um, no." Slight smile.
"Do you mind if I talk to you?" "Uh, no." Bringing purse closer to my body.
"It's just that you're really beautiful." Oh stop. Really, stop.
"I'm a musician, I pay all kinds of music all around San Diego." Pulls out business card. It has his name, the word "Musician" and his phone and email. He tells me that the best way to get a hold of him is "just to call".
"Can I take you out for a cup of coffee?" I say, "I'm headed to work." He chuckles and says, "Well not right now..."
There's no kind way to put it. "No, thanks." He says, "It's been a pleasure, keep the card."
This is the 2nd time this has happened. The random business card pick-up... only the first time it was name, "Mattress King", phone and email. I wish I were kidding.
When will things move beyond Mattress Kings and Musicians?
Just moments after the musician moved back to his seat, an old Chinese couple boarded the bus. I offered them my seat in the front. The old woman responded with a confused face and "Wo ting bu dong." (basically "I don't understand"). I responded in Mandarin, which resulted in 5-7 minutes of excited conversation between us. I looked back at the Musician mid-way through the convo and he was wide-eyed and staring. The old Chinese man ended our conversation with "I like the look of your teeth".
All of this happened before 8am on a bus in San Diego. I'm convinced that if you want a foreign country experience, get out of your personal car and take the bus. You, too, can get great morning greetings, coffee offers and practice your Mandarin.
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4 comments:
These things only happen to you! You have this aura that attracts the unusual attentions of strangers...maybe it's the teeth.
Wow! The Musician seemed very interesting. I say... collect every one of the cards you get (there will be more) while riding public transit. Then all at one time invite every Musician, Mattress King, and (Insert random occupation here) to ride the bus together to a common destination. When you reach the destination have everyone exchange business cards with each other. Then join together in singing "we are family....I got all my sista's with me). End with somersaults, freestyle walking, and writing letter's to the President.
Who are you...Anonymous? Letters to the President? ha ha.
You know that was Rachel....
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