"Take My Breath Away" ringtone
I had to make a note of it. I find that I am enjoying other people's fancy ringtones more and more. It's still beyond my comprehension (and willingness to pay for things) for me to get one, and it'd probably be hard to pick one anyway. But everyone else's are a welcome jingle on an otherwise silent metro ride. ESPECIALLY the midified compact croon of "Take my breath a-a-wayyyy."
"If you see it, say it" echoes through every station's PA system, but - thankfully or not - no one says anything. They must be seeing SOMEthing, even if it's not possible terrorists leaving mysterious bags behind. I make it routine to find someone (hotties or not) to watch, or ads to decipher (since there are only a couple to pick from), or dark tunnel walls to barely make out. And I imagine a lot of things!
Yesterday in particular I thought about all the fan letters in my life I'd either sent or wrote, or just wrote inside my head. Letters to celebs and to elementary school crushes, mostly. Which, speaking of, it's probably better off that I didn't send the one in third grade; what seemed like a good way to ensure my 'secret admirer' identity was kept hidden from my crush at the time probably would have seemed very conventionally ransom-note-letter-cutouts creepy, in reality.
I really don't deal in reality, though. I still blithely hope or think that somehow, during this particular break (of which there is only one more week, anyway), the former percussion teacher from high school (the strangely endearing and hot [to me (typical)] one), will somehow get on the same metro car as me. I keep seeing it in my head. And now, thanks to that one girl who stood by my seat yesterday morning, it takes my breath a-a-wayyyy. I never said I wasn't pathetic.
When there were delays last week and I squished into a train home, I was standing in between a Jim from the American 'Office' lookalike (reasonably similar, anyway) and a girl who was watching episodes of the American 'Office' on her video ipod. I was almost tempted to barf everywhere, simply to vary the office (/bureaucratic DC) cloud hanging over everyone (everyone pissed off because of delays). Then I didn't.
(I don't mean this as a comment on the American version of 'The Office'--I still think the British one is better and less muggy for the camera, but make no mistake, I would still do Jim. And Tim.)
Everyone says that I'll tire of the subway now that I'm actually using it to commute (even just to a temp job), but I am pretty sure I won't; I may tire of office life pretty quickly, but not the train itself. I think those are the only times during these days when my brain is actually active (data entry, eating, tv excluding Jeopardy). But whether active or not, it's not quite social--everyone keeps to themselves, except for I'll cast glances at people and see if they give even the slightest tic of a response. Since my stop is at a university, all the university Dudes started riding along on Monday. And of course, all the disillusioned recent grads who are stuck in offices are there, too. Together again.
For nearly all of these rides, I've been listening to the Clientele 'Suburban Light'--WHICH, if for some reason you haven't delved completely into the album, is COMPLETELY worth delving into. I knew I liked a lot of their individual songs before, but that album is just perfect for the subway setting. I've never heard such an amazing album about rain, mondays, evenings, mornings, walking, and more rain. The only time it's been interrupted on the train was when a man, with telltale white ipod earbuds in place, loudly asked, "CAN WE LET THE PREGNANT LADY SIT DOWN?" in a crowded train, and some girl quickly got up and let, I guess, the pregnant lady have her seat. But the lady seemed really embarrassed--or just morning-sick--and put her hand to her forehead, and the loud guy continued listening to his music (which had a lot of high, tinny notes, whatever it was). And I went back to the sweet drum fill in "Joseph Cornell."
Now, just wait for me to die by falling onto the third rail tomorrow or something.