February 15, 2001
Thursday
"I expect to pass through this world but once.
Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness or abilities
that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now.
Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."
- William Penn
his name is james. the alternate driver of the 51 bus route. we got to exchange names the last time i rode the 51 because i've seen him frequently. we have pleasant conversations every time i ride with him as i go to harding elementary school. he's been driving buses in the bay area for 12 years now! before that he was in oregon driving big rigs and trucks...by the time i get off the bus, i'm usually in a "i want to say hi to absolutely everyone i see" mood. so if i see the cross-walk lady right after i get off the bus, i say to her "hello! how are you?" and i smile. then i go into the office to sign in. if i run into any parents, i smile at them and say "hi". i proceed to greet the office ladies "hi! how's it going?" and then i make my way to the library.
i'm usually not like this. i have a friend (sarah) who's really like this. she used to work in the pharmacy department at this one hospital and i went on runs with her once and she said "hello" to just about every single person who passed by us. in the beginning, i kept asking her, "do you know him? do you know her?" and she would be like "nope." and i would be like "oh my! you're so funny."
do you know what else she would do? if we went to the beach or something and she saw people fishing, she would go up to them and say, "hi! so, are the fish biting today? have you caught a lot yet?" and me and friends would be like "Ugh. there she goes again." haha!
once, we were in mcdonalds and she saw the couple in the next line and she told me that she had seen them playing tennis before. so she said, "i'm gonna say hi" and i was like "sarah! no!" and she was like "why not?" and then she leaned over to the next line and said, "hi! do you play tennis at cpe?" and they were like "yeah!" and so she just struck up a random conversation.
once, we were in downtown LA driving to her apartment and we were making a right turn so we were close to the curb. she saw this grandma with a few shopping bags and said "how sad! she's walking with all those bags!" but by that time we had already kind of turned. the grandma looked korean and so she starting thinking of her own grandma so she was like, "i'm gonna go back". and i was like "what?" so she made a quick right, then another quick right and guess what? that grandma was still there...she was waiting for the bus. so sarah pulled over and we called out to the grandma in korean and she came up to the car and so we told her to get in and we would take her to her home. and that was that. the grandma kept saying what nice girls we were for having come back after seeing her, especially since we had never seen her before.
i'm not much of a random acts of kindness person. i wish i could be. and i don't mean kindness in the sense of GIVING material things...i mean, in a way, just having a conversation, or even just saying "hello" and offering a smile makes a difference...
i remember we were on the bay bridge...i think it was me, michelle min, susan, and susie or something like that and what happened was when we got up to the toll, the toll person was motioning for us to pass but we were offering the $2 and the toll person said that the person in front of us had paid. keep in mind, we didn't know the car in front of us. but do you know how happy every one in our car was? we had these ridiculous smiles of amazement simply because of $2.
200 cents made 4-5 people very very happy.
=)
anyways, about my Teach In LA thing...basically, i think all i have to do is pass my MSAT and my CBEST and then i can be hired...the interview thing went okay i suppose...it was more like a personal info session where she told me what i had to do...i think what happens is they offer you employment that is contingent upon you fulfilling certain requirements. so i think i'm employed in the Teach In LA thing once i pass those 2 tests. i'm planning to take them both in April. um. yeah, i really hope i pass the MSAT. i don't think i'm applying for Teach for America anymore...
by the way, i DID notice that the socks were gone but i thought i might have put them away somewhere that i forgot about...(i'm answering a question if the rest of you are confused...)
i watched bedazzled today. that part where he was sensitive was sooooo funny.
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