My Garden State CD has basically become white noise in my car at this point,so I don't sing along much. Mostly, I just entertain my thoughts. That CD is great white noise/contemplation background music.
On the way to work this morning I saw two people, who I would never have given a second thought to had it not been for over-exposure to the news. Not that it's bad, I'm just making an observation...
The first was a man riding a bicycle. Living in Austin, I've seen this countless times before, but this year I followed the Tour de France for the first time and am very intrigued/impressed by Lance Armstrong and by the sport...which I never considered a sport until I watched the stages and realized how hard these guys work. So anyway, this guy on his bike was obviously hard core--all suited up and super skinny/muscular. We were at a red light and I just stared at him. I stared mostly 'cause I was trying to figure out if it was Lance Armstrong, but of course it couldn't have been him. Sorry, but all those super skinny, white biker guys with sunken-in jaws look very similar alike to me. If it was Lance, why was he riding alone? Does Lance always ride with somebody in a van or with biker body guards? I wondered why this guy was all dressed up and riding a bike in the middle of rush hour. I wondered if he got paid to ride, and if not, why wasn't he at work. Was he on his way to work? Did he start riding after Lance Armstrong made riding "cool"? Is riding cool? Did he get a lot of leg cramps? All those skinny stringy calf muscles looked crampy. If he's not a professional rider, what's the appeal? He's so skinny. What would he look like in regular clothes? Why can't he feel me staring at him? I always feel eyes on me.Then the light turned green.
Then I saw a lady walking near a bus stop. She was dressed from head to toe (literally) in black...a black burqa. She was walking alone, in Austin, TX, in a burqa...with a backpack. I wondered if I was the only person who, just for a split second, wondered if there was a bomb in there.
Then I thought about how screwed up it was that I thought that...too much news. I wondered what her bus ride was like and what thoughts went through the minds of the driver and other passengers when she got on. Did people pray and ask God for forgiveness, or call somebody to say I love you. I wondered if she went into stores and stuff, and what her conversation, if any, was like with the clerks. I wondered if she felt strange/weird/out of place. I wondered if she was really beautiful or really ugly or just normal looking under there. I thought about the Larry David episode where Larry tried to fix up a lady in a burqa with a blind man and Larry got a glimpse of her face and realized she was ugly...that was a funny episode. I wondered if she was hot. Where she lived, and what kind of man she lived with...there must be a man. Was she a student? Why was she in Austin? Was this some UT student doing an experiment to see how people would react/interact with them? She must be burning up in there.