Everyone knows that true stories are often more interesting than fiction. An event happened to me last week that quite shocked me. And well, my life seems to be a win. So here goes.
I was transporting an older man from a venue to our community village. He had a slicked back blonde mullet and a mustache. We talked about many things on our 20 minute trip. I can say with full confidence we were not flirting by any standard, I was talking to him as a bored bus driver to a rider.
Anyhow, we got onto the subject of my mission. He said, "Oh, so you're mormon." He then talked to me about his daughter who dated an LDS guy for a while who wasn't against a beer every now and then. I told him an active member would not do that. He then asked me how sex figures into all that.
I said it didn't really because we didn't do it outside the bonds of marriage. He said, "Well, don't you ever get curious." I said, "Sure, but that doesn't mean I can't exercise some self control until I get married." He then said, "So it would probably be out of the question for say, sometime later today?" I said, "Yeah, most definitely out of the question." He hopped off my bus, because we were at Rainbow Village and I sat there. Stunned. WTH?
I think that's the most blatant proposal I've ever gotten from a complete stranger. He was probably about 45 years old. Wow. Anyway, I didn't report him for sexual harrassment because I don't know his name and he's never talked to me before or after that. He waves at me when I enter the cafeteria. I wave back and plow to a different table. Creepy.
I went to a concert by the Frey last week. Pretty cool to be right there, but I've never been an avid concert goer. I like concerts, but it's freezing cold outside. I've been going to them because it's a great opportunity. Barenaked Ladies-didn't go, had to work, The Frey, All American Rejects, Galactica, and many more, all a 10 minute ride on the shuttle and completely free. I think tomorrow we have Usher performing. Very cool.
Since I usually work the 4:15 or 4:45 am shift, I have afternoons and nights free to see the cool programs they have to offer in Whistler. They have musicians playing pretty much all day every day.
Yesterday, instead of napping, I saw Galactica- a jazz band I'd never heard of. I went with Chris Hebb b/c he said they were awesome. They were good and also very loud. We knew some people drinking at one of the outdoor heated cafe areas and they convinced us to come sit with them. I didn't have my id with me, just my accredidation with my picture and job title-bus driver.
You can't be a driver until you're 21 years old, but the guy still wouldn't let me in. The guy turned his head to talk with someone else and his co-bouncer let me in. Then we sat down and didn't order anything, so the waittress told her cohort who was two feet away from me they'd just gotten two squatters. So I felt uncomfortable and left. Chris wanted to dance, so he went to the square which made it easier for me to leave.
The band was really loud. Their instruments: a keyboard, two electric guitars, a saxophone, and a trombone. So that's the fillet from my day.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Bathroom humor-
The other day Zach Migel was walking into a portojohn next to the bus stop at Whistler town center. It didn't have a lock, so he wouldn't use it. I said I would, "Stand watch." Zach said, "But I don't want you to stand and watch." Funny Zach.
Then Emily went in and I stood watch. A guy tried to go in. I told him it was in use. He asked if I was going to use it. I said, "No, it is currently being used. There is someone already using it." Then he asked if he could use it. I held the door and said there was a person using it. Then he walked away and I suspiciously stood guard for a little longer.
The next day, I was in the cafeteria. I needed a drink of water. I walked back to one of the cafeteria bathrooms around the corner. Much to my dismay, there was a man in the release position with the door wide open. I had one foot in the door, one foot out. I thought, "I should go." My weight changed feet.
Then I thought, "But the door's open, I'm thirsty. SURELY he wouldn't care if I just filled up my cup." Weight changed to other foot. Then I thought, "Merilee, it doesn't matter, he is standing there, peeing. Get out." Finally, only after my weight had changed four times, and my mind had walked me through this all, did I leave. Awkward. Shouldn't I have just bolted? Yeah. Figures.
Then Emily went in and I stood watch. A guy tried to go in. I told him it was in use. He asked if I was going to use it. I said, "No, it is currently being used. There is someone already using it." Then he asked if he could use it. I held the door and said there was a person using it. Then he walked away and I suspiciously stood guard for a little longer.
The next day, I was in the cafeteria. I needed a drink of water. I walked back to one of the cafeteria bathrooms around the corner. Much to my dismay, there was a man in the release position with the door wide open. I had one foot in the door, one foot out. I thought, "I should go." My weight changed feet.
Then I thought, "But the door's open, I'm thirsty. SURELY he wouldn't care if I just filled up my cup." Weight changed to other foot. Then I thought, "Merilee, it doesn't matter, he is standing there, peeing. Get out." Finally, only after my weight had changed four times, and my mind had walked me through this all, did I leave. Awkward. Shouldn't I have just bolted? Yeah. Figures.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Piles of rocks mean magic-
This morning Emily and I went out into the circle and saw two huge piles of rocks. These rocks were brought to fill in any mud holes made by all the rain we get here and to cover the mud. Obviously. This may surprise you, since I live in Whistler BC and we should be getting lots of snow because the people upstairs know the Olympics are here this winter. However, it seems the rain has taken over the clouds and it rains almost every day and has snowed twice since I've been here. I've been here about three weeks.
It seems the snow is getting slushy and less desirable to ski and snowboard in. That's ok for me, since I'm not a winter sports fanatic, but sad for the Olympians who will have to make do until some white help comes. I've also heard they've been helicoptering snow in to improve conditions for Olympians. Good luck with that Olympic committee.
I would like to do a shoutout to the many beautiful women I know who are having babies this year. Adrienne, Amanda, Ali, Kimberly, Emily. I'm pretty sure Aman is closest to having that baby..something like today. Aman, I cannot wait to see that baby. Cutest baby in the world no doubt. Emily is due next week. Emily, Sally will be so excited to have a little brother she won't even care he's getting all the attention. Babies can't make snowmen with their daddies after all.
I can't imagine all the tiresome days and sickly mornings and wish you all the happiest wellness in your baby harvesting endeavors. Everybody loves the fruit of those labors.
On a completely different note, I saw an island called Victoria last week. We went for three days and stayed in a hostel. Emily, Seth, and I went instead of going to Seattle. My reasoning was since we're in Canada, we should see a bit of Canada. We got a new shipment of drivers, so we had a couple days off the schedule so they could learn the ropes.
As previously guessed, we have been working about half as much as we were before. We still get paid for working 5 days a week, but we usually work about 2-3 days a week. I'm not working until 10:45 tonight and I'm only doing one run. Which will total about an hour and a half of work for the day. Sunday we had off. We missed Church because the connecting bus doesn't go to the stop we needed on Sundays. Instead I volunteered to prepare a lesson and we talked about Prayer.
Oh, Victoria. We took a bus to a bus to a ferry to a bus. Seven hours later we were in Victoria. That morning bus I sat behind Sarah-Dawn, the new driver, to give her some direction on where to go. The guy sitting next to me kept telling me stuff. Like he told me he needed to take his coat off. Ok. Then he told me he needed to eat something because he had a long shift and had missed breakfast. Ok.
He said he was going to the toilet in the back of the bus to eat. Ok. He climbed over me, three times. He came back and told me he needed to nap but there were plenty of seats in the back of the bus which were empty. Ok. I wanted to say, "Listen Man! If you want to sit yourself in the back of the bus, do it, but quit giving me a play by play of your life and stop telling me to move. OK?!!" What I actually did, was go to the back of the bus until the end when I needed to help SD drive into Vancouver.
Which I don't know why I bothered because 4 other people were telling her directions. Thank you, yes, we all know there are millions of streets in Vancouver down which you may take a bus. I got soooo frustrated with all the idiots that we missed our turn because some guy was directing her to the wrong place and another driver finally sat right next to her on the ground and told her the turning directions so the others were background directors. Ugh. I hate stupid people. I dislike men that think I am inept because I am a woman. Ugh.
On the bus in Victoria we sat by a high schooler who was talking on his phone to fellow students about drug dealing. Apparently he was their dealer and he was getting frustrated about the sacrifices he was making for naught for them. So sad. Also, on our trip we saw many people doing drugs. Very sad.
We also saw an owl pellet while walking through the woods. Very cool. Picked up some rocks on the beach. Nice. Saw the tallest totem pole in the world. It had a bald eagle on top of it..roosting. We ate at a Thai restaurant, the Sour Pickle for breakfast, a noodle place for dinner, and then Floyd's. The food we had was good. The noodles were not super the day after we got it, so we ended up tossing them.
We walked through many streets and saw many cool totem poles, fiberglass eagles, and whales. See Seth Coombs' albums with me in them on facebook. Neat.
I guess that's about all we did in Victoria. I spend a lot of time with Emily and Seth. When someone has a long shift and we have nothing to do, we'll sometimes ride along with that person. It's the cool thing to do. We watch many movies and eat a lot here. It's like an MTC for slackers. We eat all the time and instead of being terribly busy, are terribly bored. I try to enjoy it now though, since when I'm in the MTC I will surely be tired all the time.
It seems the snow is getting slushy and less desirable to ski and snowboard in. That's ok for me, since I'm not a winter sports fanatic, but sad for the Olympians who will have to make do until some white help comes. I've also heard they've been helicoptering snow in to improve conditions for Olympians. Good luck with that Olympic committee.
I would like to do a shoutout to the many beautiful women I know who are having babies this year. Adrienne, Amanda, Ali, Kimberly, Emily. I'm pretty sure Aman is closest to having that baby..something like today. Aman, I cannot wait to see that baby. Cutest baby in the world no doubt. Emily is due next week. Emily, Sally will be so excited to have a little brother she won't even care he's getting all the attention. Babies can't make snowmen with their daddies after all.
I can't imagine all the tiresome days and sickly mornings and wish you all the happiest wellness in your baby harvesting endeavors. Everybody loves the fruit of those labors.
On a completely different note, I saw an island called Victoria last week. We went for three days and stayed in a hostel. Emily, Seth, and I went instead of going to Seattle. My reasoning was since we're in Canada, we should see a bit of Canada. We got a new shipment of drivers, so we had a couple days off the schedule so they could learn the ropes.
As previously guessed, we have been working about half as much as we were before. We still get paid for working 5 days a week, but we usually work about 2-3 days a week. I'm not working until 10:45 tonight and I'm only doing one run. Which will total about an hour and a half of work for the day. Sunday we had off. We missed Church because the connecting bus doesn't go to the stop we needed on Sundays. Instead I volunteered to prepare a lesson and we talked about Prayer.
Oh, Victoria. We took a bus to a bus to a ferry to a bus. Seven hours later we were in Victoria. That morning bus I sat behind Sarah-Dawn, the new driver, to give her some direction on where to go. The guy sitting next to me kept telling me stuff. Like he told me he needed to take his coat off. Ok. Then he told me he needed to eat something because he had a long shift and had missed breakfast. Ok.
He said he was going to the toilet in the back of the bus to eat. Ok. He climbed over me, three times. He came back and told me he needed to nap but there were plenty of seats in the back of the bus which were empty. Ok. I wanted to say, "Listen Man! If you want to sit yourself in the back of the bus, do it, but quit giving me a play by play of your life and stop telling me to move. OK?!!" What I actually did, was go to the back of the bus until the end when I needed to help SD drive into Vancouver.
Which I don't know why I bothered because 4 other people were telling her directions. Thank you, yes, we all know there are millions of streets in Vancouver down which you may take a bus. I got soooo frustrated with all the idiots that we missed our turn because some guy was directing her to the wrong place and another driver finally sat right next to her on the ground and told her the turning directions so the others were background directors. Ugh. I hate stupid people. I dislike men that think I am inept because I am a woman. Ugh.
On the bus in Victoria we sat by a high schooler who was talking on his phone to fellow students about drug dealing. Apparently he was their dealer and he was getting frustrated about the sacrifices he was making for naught for them. So sad. Also, on our trip we saw many people doing drugs. Very sad.
We also saw an owl pellet while walking through the woods. Very cool. Picked up some rocks on the beach. Nice. Saw the tallest totem pole in the world. It had a bald eagle on top of it..roosting. We ate at a Thai restaurant, the Sour Pickle for breakfast, a noodle place for dinner, and then Floyd's. The food we had was good. The noodles were not super the day after we got it, so we ended up tossing them.
We walked through many streets and saw many cool totem poles, fiberglass eagles, and whales. See Seth Coombs' albums with me in them on facebook. Neat.
I guess that's about all we did in Victoria. I spend a lot of time with Emily and Seth. When someone has a long shift and we have nothing to do, we'll sometimes ride along with that person. It's the cool thing to do. We watch many movies and eat a lot here. It's like an MTC for slackers. We eat all the time and instead of being terribly busy, are terribly bored. I try to enjoy it now though, since when I'm in the MTC I will surely be tired all the time.
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