But Call Me Betsy

I will admit that I have personal space issues, particularly with strangers. I would never keep my sanity in a place that allowed for a person to be one centimeter away from me in line, so close that I could feel her breath on my neck. I don't like to be packed in an elevator or too close to someone on an escalator or having my forearms touching with another passenger on an airplane armrest. I'm funny that way, even with people who I love dearly--I need a little breathing room. Like in Dirty Dancing when Jennifer Grey's character says, "This is my dance space. this is your dance space..." I need a lot of dance space, even if I like you. So then when a tweaky-seeming guy asked me to move my bag on the Trenton regional rail yesterday, I sighed and didn't say anything, but moved it and reorganized myself so we could have some space between us. Then he did that thing some guys do, where he sat with his legs widely apart, as if suffering from elephantiasis of t...

For the last two mornings, I've run into the same older ladies from South Philly while catching the bus down Morris to the Broad Street line. Both women are in their late fifties, dressed for the office in that kind of generic way (khaki pants, sweater, walking sneakers), and have hair styles that are too young for them (long, dyed blond hair). Yesterday, one of the women was describing her day to the other and I couldn't imagine why: "Then she comes over to the house and does my hair up, cause she does my hair on Tuesday (pronounced "Tues-dee") and we watched the shows. Then I send a couple of emails and talked to my daughter and checked the fridge to see if we needed anything at the Acme cause Joe was going up their for lottery tickets anyways. Then we ordered Chinese and I went to Lane Bryant for these pants." The other woman said, "Well, I watched Fox News. I always watch Fox News because they have that investigative reporting show on and I like th...

Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry...I took approximately ten forms of public transportation today including the subway, the R 5 regional rail, the #47 bus (twice), the feet, the Pony Express, and the rickshaw. Consequently, I opted not to take the Greyhound to New York as planned, though I will have to catch it in the a.m. in order to get to downtown Manhattan for the AWP Conference plus lunch with Joe, whom I never thought I would see again. Bet he wears his khaki coat. There will be a Penn State reunion this week--hoping to see Jeff and Carla and Matt Siegel and Hoffer and Matt Perez and Adam and Dave and last but not least, Luke, Liz, Snake and Tessa (though Tessa is last on my list of individuals to see). Had my philosophy and pop culture class last night; I think I'm going to really like it though I did space out a bit when we were discussing philosophy and style. I'd like to write one of my papers on the philosophy of the show, Intervention , how they subscribe to...