safety dance

this morning i was headed across town to join the morning baby kaffeeklatsch at our trivia night coffee shop. i like babies. i also am trying to sleep in so much (see aforementioned unstructured life). so it is fun to see friends, even if they are talking about breast feeding a lot.

anyway, i stop at a red light and i slowly realize that the old chinese lady is not crossing the street in front of me, but approaching my window. i don't really know why these kinds of things are happening to me right now. anyway, she asks if i am going by the north berkeley bart station. i am, and a split second later i am moving my backpack to the back seat so she can get in. you know, why the hell not? and i could totally have taken her if she tried anything funny.

turns out she is trying to get to the oakland senior center for her morning ballroom dance class. so cute. she explains that she is retired and i say, "hey i am too. well, i'm unemployed. but saying i'm retired sounds better doesn't it?" apparently she likes the oakland senior center for their selection of activities because the one near her house only offers trips to reno and the like. i'm assuming this is for the gambling and probably also trips to the outlets. in which case i would agree with her.

then i get the story that her license is suspended. this involved a lot of arm waving and exclaiming that the cop was mistaken in giving her a ticket and making her retake her driver's test at the dmv two weeks ago. after the hassle of going to different dmv offices, (which i am convinced is a level of hell on earth) she passed the vision and the written exam, but not the driver's exam. i felt bad for her loss of independence, while also wondering about the possible safety issues there. i asked her why she asked me for a ride, and she told me she only asks women. hahaha...

i learned a lot in the 5-7 minutes it took to get to the bart station. it was quite amusing.