stupid, generous, petty

Man, was it an interesting commute this morning.

First, we're putting along in the carpool lane on Hwy. 66 -- barely moving, mind you. No advantage at the moment to being in that lane at all -- when I note, with some irritation, that there's a woman behind me with no one else in the car. This isn't rare, so aside from wishing a cop would come by and bust her, I kinda growl and shrug and ignore her. Until I realize that she's READING A BOOK. Since being rear-ended is not on my to-do list today, that really annoyed me. I told Matt about it and he asked if he should get out (we were at a dead stop rather frequently) and confront her. She didn't look the type to pack heat, but still. I'd rather not make a scene unless I'm so mad I can't stay silent. And people reading at the wheel, much like singles in the carpool lane, is scarily not too rare, either. Though I hate to see it directly behind me. (side note -- she also had a temporary handicapped tag. I didn't know they gave those out for mental deficiencies.)

We finally crawl to Rosslyn, and I do the usual drop Matt off at the metro, drop Lizzy off at the day care, park the car in the parking garage. Sometimes I linger here for a minute or two, savoring TOTAL CONTROL over the car stereo. I usually listen to Mix 107.3; it's fairly inoffensive, and occasionally amusing. And they're playing "the best mix of ... Everything!" these days. Who can resist THAT?! So I'm sitting there, and they're doing their best telethon imitation today, encouraging people to call in donations to the Red Cross for New Orleans relief. I'm not even sure why I kept listening. Probably because that's when I have to head to work. So they field a couple callers who have donated $1,000 -- impressive -- and then this guy named Randy calls up and challenges all other realtors to put a portion of their recent gains toward the effort. "How much will you be contributing?" Jack Diamond says. "TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS," Randy says dramatically. The radio personalities and I flip out. Then Jack says his full name, and I realize that I KNOW this guy! He kinda took me under his wing when I was taking swing dance classes, and he danced with me quite a bit when I went to subsequent dances. How cool is that! I love those examples of how the D.C. area is actually a community unto itself. It's easy to forget. Randy IS a very, very nice man. I haven't been in touch with him since Lizzy came along and I stopped dancing. It's good to hear he's doing well.

So I'm feeling this little glow of man's goodwill to man, and I go to Starbucks. Where Jami Gertz's evil twin was haranguing the poor woman behind the counter (whom I happen to know just started working there last week or so) because Jami twin just put a quarter down on the counter! She can't BELIEVE this cashier! She JUST PUT A QUARTER DOWN! I was fuzzy on the details, but the woman left no doubt that the source of the argument was over A QUARTER. As she stormed to the end of the counter for her drink, she tossed an, "I'm NEVER coming here AGAIN!" over her shoulder. What a pity.