And the door just slammed shut in front of me

Side view of Harvard Lampoon

So yesterday I went into the main office to do the HR paperwork and meet and greet with various office types. It was nice, they were nice, it was all very nice.

Since the job is in a lab environment (my college chem teachers would be so....proud...incredulous is probably more like it) and I can't wear my favorite summertime shoes..my black flip flops, I had to do some shoe shopping. Some of you know how much I LOVE my black flip flops and some of you can relate when I say there aren't many things that can compare with HAVING to buy shoes. Here's the deal...the only other pair of shoes that are even moderately acceptable for summer and meet the closed toe/closed back lab rules, are my clunky black clogs, I tried them Monday and it's just not going to happen. So, Alex and I set out yesterday in search of an acceptable, comfortable, pair of shoes I could wear with just about anything. We found a nice pair of Puma's that fit the bill, so I wore them to work today and my feet felt pretty good and I still felt summery and not all hot and clunky and nasty.

The picture of the building with the purple and yellow door is the Harvard Lampoon building where they write the Harvard Lampoon. It's a really cool building and during Halloween they light it up to look like a jack-o-lantern. Here's some info on it.
http://www.harvardlampoon.com/history.html


So today I'm on the bus on my way to work and my stop comes up. The bus starts to slow down, I stand up and say excuse me to the nice young girl with the Fendi glasses, sitting next to me, she gets up to let me out, and as I am trying to make my way through the crowd of the still sleeping passengers, the freakin' doors open and close in the blink of an eye...I couldn't get the oblivious man standing between me and sweet freedom to move his ass out of the way...so as the doors are slamming shut in front of me I shout out, "I NEED TO GET OFF"! Well everyone applauded me for my need and I just stood there red faced and pissed off, praying the next stop wouldn't be too far away.

They didn't really give me a round of applause...no one here notices anything about anybody...not a bad thing necessarily..just the way it is. It actually has its merits; I have figured out if I don't look directly at anyone the beggars in the their $150 shoes stay away and I guess it would be tiring to greet and smile at every single person you pass on the street or in the bus...so you just look at nothing...into the void...or make sure you have reading material. Sometimes though I make eye contact and smile. And people here really are friendly once they warm up to you, I haven't met a mean person yet I don't think.

At any rate, the next stop wasn't too far away and so it wasn't a big deal but I did feel pretty stupid yelling..I need to get off to no one in particular. I was told by an experienced bus rider at work that what you're supposed to yell..."REAR DOOR" I don't know which is worse, so I've decided to get off two stops earlier when it isn't as crowded and I don't have to worry about being stuck or having to yell anything.

A window at "John Harvard's Brewhouse"
& an interesting entrance. Alex took all four pictures in Harvard Square yesterday.