Knees up, Mother Brown

Maybe today I'll get it right. Maybe today I'll get back to younger daughter's school, pick her up and get her home in an hour. It hasn't happened yet, but I live on hope and no, that's not a typo.

I'm becoming obsessed with bus schedules. I lay awake at 4-bloody-thirty this morning going over bus combinations. I seem to have the morning route down (although I nearly boarded the #116 instead of the #118 this morning and was only prevented by the Resident Fan Boy), but the ideal or at least workable afternoon itinerary is eluding me. Yesterday, due to construction and overcrowded buses, I found myself frantically searching for cabs up and down Carlton in order to pick up younger daughter on time. Then we waited forty minutes in the hot sun for the #151 to show up. The bus driver seemed oblivious when I finally boarded, looking daggers at him.

We get to do this for five days instead of four next week...

Write of Passage Number Three:

One summer's afternoon in Victoria, the Resident Fan Boy and I board the bus with our daughters. Most seats by the windows are taken except for two near the back, but the outer seats are occupied by two young women who are sitting so they can converse across the aisle. As we look for somewhere so we can sit together, the younger of the four-seat-occupiers glances back and says helpfully: "Oh there are enough seats at the back." She's so cute and so young and soooo oblivious. I don't slap her.

The two carry on their conversation which is evidently about law studies. When we get off, the Resident Fan Boy grins and tells me the older of the two was in a brief co-op placement at his office -- more than ten years ago. This had been set up by a co-worker who was also the girl's mother. So, the woman in question is well into her thirties. The RFB notes that the minute the younger girl left, former co-op student quickly dropped her knees, which she had drawn up to her chest in a bid to look as youthful as her companion.

No more bus babbling until next week, I promise!