We don't have reliable internet access at our apartment, right now. Madison has city-wide wireless, but it functions about as well as you'd expect. As Patrick said, "In Soviet Russia, you take what you're given." Being disconnected from the world at large is not an option, so I've been spending a couple hours every morning at the Starbucks on Capitol Square. Safely ensconced behind my laptop, drink in hand, I can watch and laugh at my fellow city-dwellers.
Someone just pulled a fire alarm inside the capitol building, so the square is flooded with people in suits, enjoying some time out in the sun. (There couldn't possibly be anything suspicious about a false alarm, pulled just before lunch time, right?) The fire trucks are gone and it looks like they've given the all-clear, but very few people have gone back in, yet.
There's a homeless lady who just came in and ordered a Venti latte in two cups, and the jerk on a bike who keeps riding through her pile of belongings. Sometimes I feel like such a sheltered, small-town girl. Despite having lived in a good-sized city, I am constantly shocked when I see the numbers of homeless people around here. Were they just better at hiding in Fort Wayne, or are there just that many of them here? I'm inclined to believe my hometown to be superior in all ways, so I'm going to say that this liberal Utopia of Madison is just a deeper hole.
A guy has been sitting two tables down from me since I came in. He's on his third iced coffee in an hour and looks wired enough to right every wrong complained about on the bumper stickers covering his laptop. He'd probably get along well with the father and toddler son duo riding around the square, their bikes bedecked with "TAX THE RICH!!!" flags.
In the same vein, there is a group across the square on a long-term hunger-strike. Their placards don't tell us what the strike is about, just that they're angry and hungry. Speaking of which, the Italian beef and Chicago dog cart just outside Starbucks has been taunting me for 3 days. I have food at home, I have food at home....
Busy-looking career women are everywhere, in their serious slacks and cardigans. Mostly I just make fun of them because I want so desperately not to be one of them. I'm perfectly content to sit here in my jeans and Cap'n Curt's t-shirt, looking forward (LOOKING FORWARD!) to vacuuming my apartment and doing more laundry when I get home.
8 comments:
Keep it up. You must blog daily. It helps keep your mother from being too lonely. Plus it's entertaining.
What your mumsie said. I imagined I was sitting next to you and snickering along. I miss you!
Yep, it is entertaining to read your daily happenings and musings, Bethany. You especially hooked me on that last paragraph -- I was nodding emphatically and saying, "Yes! Yes, that's it exactly." :)
Yup. What they said.
Y'know, I read these things you write, and I just sit here and think afresh, "Boy, I sure do like this gal!!!"
Madison can be entertaining in small doses. But living there with all those liberals, it's going to be weird.
I have been told that the homeless people in Madison are different than homeless people in other cities. Having never lived anywhere else, though, I couldn't say.
I'm not sure that there are any more here than there are in other cities, but they do tend to congregate around State Street.
Give me a call if you get sick of the liberal doublespeak. I'd be more than happy to entertain you for an afternoon.
Another ditto from this corner. I love reading your blog :)
Have I mentioned lately that I love you :)
In the early days of marriage, I loved the simple tasks of taking care of OUR home. And I still do, fifteen years later.
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