Musing in Manhattan

Any who has read my pnn blog “Something for Everyone” knows all about GREG: The flirtatious and friendly bus driver who takes me to work in the morning.  For those of you who haven’t had the opportunity of reading the article, let me just say: he is a real character who proposed marriage to me during one of my first voyages into Manhattan.  Everyday, he greets me with a song, or a friendly comment.   He is really very nice.   He knows most of us by name, he knows which stops we get on and off, and he knows who supports The Yankees and who likes The METS.  Sometimes, after a night of the Yankees losing a game, he will tell the METS fans that they can’t ride the bus and everyone gets a good chuckle.  Greg will also sit at a light if he sees one of his regulars running to catch the bus and he will look down side streets to see if you are jumping out of your car.  So, that is Greg–friendly, considerate, charming Greg.  From time to time he will be referenced here in this blog as he is usually chatting me up while I am trying to write! 

This morning he said he only had eyes for me and said he wouldn’t talk to any other ladies on the bus.  He then decided to make me jealous by asking every female on the bus to marry him and decided to dedicate a love song to each one of us.  It’s funny how some people can get away with flirting like that and how others are considered pigs.  What exactly is it that makes one guy able to pull it off?  I’ve been thinking about it and I guess Greg gets away with it for a few reasons: First, He is an equal opportunity flirter–he flirts with the older women, the middle aged and the younger set.  Secondly, he seems to do it to make us smile (not with the purpose of getting a date–atleast I don’t think he does!) and to send us off to work in a good mood–it usually works.  Thirdly, he always chooses his words carefully,  such as:  What a nice perfume you have on today Miss, rather than:  “DANG baby you smell so gooooood!” Delivery is of the utmost importance when giving a compliment.  He acknowledges the husbands and boyfriends by saying they are lucky guys and he refers to the pretty ladies as GOD’s Angels.  How can I find fault with that?  I also believe that his friendliness has a lot to do with it.  He will stop a man on the bus and say:  “Nice suit” just as fast as he will compliment a woman.  He is just a man who enjoys his job and finds speaking to his passengers fulfilling–who can blame him for asking all of us to marry him.  If I could pull off that line, I would use it in a heartbeat too.  =)   

     Last week I went into the grocery store here in Manhattan and while standing on the checkout line I saw an article on Jennifer Aniston and then boyfriend John Mayer.  Its captions read:  Jen and John’s wedding, WORLD Exclusive, the flowers, the cake, the place, and on and on it went.  I thought:  OH WOW!  She got married?  Where the heck have I been that I missed that news till now???  CRAZY!  So I grabbed it and checked out.  I went into working holding it up to my co-workers as if I had discovered the secret of the century.  EVERYONE said:  “WHAT? ” “She got married?”  ”WHEN?”  “I didn’t hear anything about it!” Each gal was eager to get their hands on my magazine–so I quickly sat down to read it through.  WELL- imagine my surprise when I read the actual article and found that a wedding had not taken place  but that if one does take place this is what it would like according to people close to the actress.  ARG!  I was furious.  To compound my anger even worse, a co-worker who was not willing to wait for my magazine decided to go online and look for info on said wedding and found information that the couple had actually broken up!  I hate how magazines lure you in to buying their magazines with misleading captions.  Here I was all excited about Jenn and John and my best wishes for their happiness were dashed like waves crashing on the shore.  I will NEVER EVER buy Ok magazine again. 

My life as stay at home mom came to an abrupt hault when my husband took a job with the NYC Sanitation after being laid off too many times from the carpentry field. Our home income had been cut drastically and I needed to jump back into the work force. I am a former NYC school teacher so you would think that a job would come easily. Not so, not when it is sumer! So, I recently took a job in Manhattan as a medical secretary which is worlds away from the classroom, but surprisingly, I am finding it enjoyable. I begin my journey to the city everyday by catching the express bus from Queens. The ride itself takes about 40 minutes. It is during that time that I cuddle up in my seat with my notebook and just write to my heart’s content. Sometimes it’s a children’s story, sometimes a blog entry, sometimes a letter, sometimes a play; I write everyday without fail. Many entries will end up here.