Helping Andi pack

[redbird]

My friend Andi (WINOLJ/DW) is moving in about a week, and has asked for friends to help pack. I figured hey, this would be useful and I'd get to spend some time with her, so I emailed her. After some back-and-forth about schedules and such, we agreed on this morning.

I got to Andi's (current) apartment a little before ten, and we talked in between her taking necessary phone calls. It turns out the sudoku app I downloaded a few days ago is handy for that sort of situation, because it's distracting and 100% interruptable: unlike a book, I'm not tempted to finish my paragraph, or worried about losing the thread. So we talked, about the move and the rest of our lives and random other stuff, and eventually I realized that I was overdue for lunch. Around then, Andi's friend Astrid called, and Andi said yes, please come over, we're having a lot of fun here but not actually getting anything done. So the two of us went to a pho place for lunch, and Astrid met us afterward, and proceeded to demonstrate her packing and carrying skills. I did some useful stuff, wrapping some tchotchkes and putting books in boxes and stuff, and Andi put things into categories: what to keep and what to sell or donate, and then the "keep" is classified by whether it will be needed the night she moves in, sometime relatively soon, or enough into the future that it can go into a storage unit.

Andi and I both ran out of steam a little after four, and I headed for the bus. The trip home was pretty straightforward, but also another example of my suspicion that a lot of people in this area don't know how to ride a bus. Specifically, they won't move to the back to make room as more people board, even if the driver asks. (This means that I have a good chance of a seat on a crowded 358 because people are too busy clumping in front to notice that the space in back includes available seats.)

I will call that a productive day, though I suspect not much practical would have happened without Astrid's involvement.

Comments

[wild_irises]

Wish I'd been there!

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it gives you a better chance of a seat, but it mystifies and annoys me that people clog up the front of the bus and won't move back. *tries to envision their mindset*

[redbird]

It annoys me too, but that seats are often available at the back gives me a weird "see, I am being rewarded for doing the right thing" feeling.

Very few people here exit at the back door, either (and waiting for everyone to exit through the front door is definitely slowing the buses down, but the drivers almost never urge people to exit at the rear. (There's one stop on that route where you have to exit at the front, because the sidewalk there is just long enough for a few waiting passengers at the foot of a stairway, and they will announce "Galer Avenue. Exit at the front at this stop" but rarely say anything about "please use the back door" at other stops.