Open Letter

Dear Shaggy-Haired Hipster Boy Who Made Eye Contact Twice, No, Three Times with Me on the Bus This Morning:

It's amazing how we can sniff each other out, isn't it? How we're able to locate another person in a crowd that we know we'd probably be friends with if we had the chance? I'm sure you were listening to something interesting on your iPod; should I hazard a guess? Death Cab? Iron + Wine? Or something vintage, like The Clash or Iggy and the Stooges? I admire your boldness for going with that neon orange messenger bag. It was just like Kate Winslet's hoodie in Eternal Sunshine. Did you glance my way on accident? Were you just looking back behind you to see if there was an empty seat available or a better place to stand? Or did you notice something in me that you thought was interesting? My spiky hair with the fading purple streak, perhaps? My black plastic frame glasses? Were you wondering what I was listening to? (Alas, I can't afford to plunk down for an iPod right now, but it was Kurt Elling's Man in the Air in my trusty CD player. Are you surprised? Were you expecting Guided by Voices? The Mountain Goats? Gang of Four?)

Hipster Boy, I know I looked stressed out, and that's because I am. Aside from the fact that I'm not, and never have been, a morning person, and that my schedule was thrown off kilter because one of my roommates decided to take a shower at an unpredictable time while I was still in the midst of going through my prework routine, I've got a lot going on in my life right now. My poor little family is falling apart and I'm wondering what's going to happen to all of us. I had trouble falling asleep last night (a combination of the loud, beautiful thunderstorm and just too much on my mind), and I was feeling vaguely nauseated this morning, which is fairly typical of how my body processes undue amounts of stress. That's why I was scowling on the bus. I would have smiled at you, I wanted to smile at you, but I just didn't have one in me today.

I'm pretty assiduous about keeping to a regular schedule, so, if you are as well, there's a good chance we'll be seeing each other on the #66 again between 8:15 and 8:30 on weekday mornings. I hope things won't be awkward between us now that I've opened up to you like this. You probably just thought I looked like a girl you went to high school with, and I've gone and blown things all out of proportion. But I just wanted to say hi, and that I appreciated that you paid a little bit of attention to me. These days, it's the little things like that that make all the difference.

allison