Random Thoughts

1. I am a window sitter on the bus. If there is an opportunity to sit by the window and gaze out over the landscape, I will take it. In recent weeks, the glory of the 145 Express Bus to Downtown has made itself known to me.

Years back, taking a drive into the Loop and down Michigan avenue was a treat, a side benefit to taking a cab or getting a ride from a friend. These days the cityscape whips by on a regular basis through the giant greenish windows of the bus. Chicago is a beautiful city.

2. The network I have amassed on Facebook (or "MyFace" as Pat and Erin call it) has ballooned up way past what I would consider a comfortable collection of friends - Over 400. I'm not dangling this number out there as a "Hey, aren't I totes popularis?" (As the kids most definitely do NOT say, having greater self respect than I), but more as a point of "whoa." Many of these people I barely know, and I'm not adverse to our cyber friendship contract. It doesn't hurt anything and I can withstand the 800 invites I get for upcoming shows as long as they can tolerate my show plugs in return.

Then, the other day, my friend count went down by one.

Weirder than the actual act of being unfriended, was my sensation of vague paranoia (accompanied by surprise that it hadn't happened before. I have some very religious and conservative high school acquaintances who must be nothing short of alarmed at some of my Facebook material.) . Who was it? I poked around the friend nest and couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

Huh.


Was it you?

3. From inside the bus downtown, I sometimes make accidental eye contact with those waiting for its arrival. I can see them clearly, they, scanning through the reflective glare outside, can see less.

Eye contact is still made, unknowing, unrealized. They respond in the same way one does when an unfamiliar gaze is met: the split second jolt and then the eyes dodge to the left or the right, occasionally returning for a nonchalant glimpse. Do they know what just happened? Peering at the glass, perhaps they can only see themselves or the reflection of the person behind them.

But I know our eyes met.

This must be what a ghost feels like.

4. Favorite word this week:

pe⋅cu⋅liar

   /pɪˈkyulyər/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [pi-kyool-yer] Show IPA

–adjective

1.	strange; queer; odd: peculiar happenings.

2.	uncommon; unusual: the peculiar hobby of stuffing and mounting bats.

3.	distinctive in nature or character from others.

4.	belonging characteristically (usually fol. by to): an expression peculiar to Canadians.

5.	belonging exclusively to some person, group, or thing: the peculiar properties of a drug.

6.	Astronomy. designating a star or galaxy with special properties that deviates from others of its spectral type or galaxy class.

–noun

7.	a property or privilege belonging exclusively or characteristically to a person.

8.	British. a particular parish or church that is exempted from the jurisdiction of the ordinary or bishop in whose diocese it lies and is governed by another.

9.	peculiars. Also called arbitraries. British Printing. special characters not generally included in standard type fonts, as phonetic symbols, mathematical symbols, etc.

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Origin:
1400–50; late ME; < class="ital-inline">pecūliāris as one's own, equiv. to pecūli(um) property (deriv. of pecū flock, farm animals; akin to pecus cattle (see fee )) + -āris -ar ¹

5. Least favorite word this week:

Goiter.