On the road again

I'm really great at big picture ideas and really bad at specific details. For example, at the Writing Center, I was great at getting a good thesis statement out of some burnt out frat boy, but piss-poor about spelling and punctuation, often urging said meat head to "let the magical red lines of Microsoft Word be your guide." Normally this isn't a problem, but sometimes it really catches up with me. This road trip throughout Florida is a good example.

I discovered Sunday evening that while I planned on spending Tuesday and Wednesday with my brother and his family in Tampa and Thursday through Sunday with David and Kristen in Tallahassee before flying out of Orlando on Monday evening, I had absolutely no idea how I was going to criss-cross the state several times over in a week. But, thanks for Truax consulting, my Greyhound bus adventure was born.

I should say first that I really like riding the bus but hardly ever do it since I have a car. Seriously, though, busses rock. As Kristen told me today, "every ride has a story." Very true. For example, during the two-hour ride from Orlando to Tampa, the man sitting next to me was smoking a spliff the size of my forearm, and used my cell phone to call whomever was picking him up from the station and demand that they bring "two baggies" to meet him. Fun times. On the six-hour trek from Tampa to Tallahassee today, I sat across from someone whom Ashley Pinedo would conservatively call the biggest chode-monger alive. TWO popped collars, a backwards hat, neatly trimmed red mustache and a gold necklace with a number on the end. Classic. Anyway, my point is that riding on busses, especially when you do so as rarely as I do, is a really good way to interact with different people whom you wouldn't normally. While I make fun of these people in this post, I'm really glad I got to talk with them, if only for a short while. Three cheers for public transportation and their detail-oriented approach to getting my skinny ass around Florida!