There was a knock at our door this morning while M was in the shower. My downstairs neighbor said there was water coming in the kitchen ceiling. Sure enough, ours too. It was coming from upstairs. OMG! Water was coming in all the fixtures and down the cabinet faces, under the floor boards in the kitchen and the neighboring carpet. Pouring out of the hallway light fixtures near my book case. We've run out of dry towels. Things are piled up in the livingroom to avoid the damp. M is pretty sure insurance will cover this, but it's going to make life complicated for a while. So much for all my plans for the day. Not having a good day.

It’s a miserably windy and cold Seattle morning. I’m bundled to my eyeballs to keep from spending the day at my temp job all itchy and blotchy. I’m waiting at the bus stop hoping my bus is on the way. From about a block away I can hear a man ranting, shouting at the top of his lungs. “If I had a gun, none of you would be here anymore! Etc, etc…” Naturally, he was coming straight down the sidewalk toward me. Although he was a bit disheveled, he clutched an expensive coffee drink in one hand. “Did you point at me?!” he bellowed. It didn’t occur to me that he meant me, or even saw me until he added “Why are you covering your face?! What are you hiding? Why are you wearing that purple scarf over your face?!!!” Completely sick of all the idiots and of being afraid, and avoiding confrontation, I hollered “Because it’s fucking cold, you MORON!” and moved to the other side of the bus stop. He continued to rant, but his tone dropped by half and he soon continued down to the next bus stop. I felt a fleeting sense of what-the-hell-did-I-just-do, and then I felt a sense of calm. So why did I scream back? I realized that I just feel so much rage toward society in general lately, that anyone daring to push, to get in my face was just asking for trouble. The lack of respect, of responsibility and of common sense displayed by people has been so frustrating to me of late. If an action has no immediate consequence, then why should we care, seems to be the general consensus. Run a red light, jaywalk right in front of oncoming traffic, litter, don’t recycle, talk in movie theaters, push to get on the bus, don’t wait your turn, as long as you don’t get caught, as long as there is no consequence, who cares, right? Maybe I’m oversensitive, but it seems to me that we need to stop. I don’t know how change can be made, but I do my part. I just don’t know what to do with this frustration about other people.