Fairy Tale Life

I hadn't thought of it in these terms until yesterday, but I've been leading a fairy tale existence. Through the ups and downs of my typical week, I am by stages Cinderella (tidying up), Rumpelstiltskin (turning straw into gold), one of the seven dwarves (slaving away in the mines, and NOT tidying up in the kitchen), etc.. On Friday evenings, I come home from eight hours of silent, solitary clerking in a functionally windowless sub-basement, eat, take a two hour nap and awaken, TRANSFORMED. Like Sleeping Beauty, who awakens to become a Princess, I am brought back to life by the clock radio to become . . . a bus driver.

Last night, though, it was very nice. I drive college kids from an area of dorms to an area of bars, music clubs, and restaurants, and then get them back home again safely. This is from nine p.m. until three a.m.. It's a bit riverboat pilot, and a bit drive-through safari, and a lot of living in the immediate present of 'right now' and the traffic hazards of the next fifteen seconds. Last night they boarded politely and efficiently, were less trash-mouthed than usual, and didn't sing any vulgar songs. I got thank you's, and praise from someone who witnessed me NOT running over a drunken pedestrian LAST weekend. The only real disappointment was the two guys at the final stop who hadn't understood that one doesn't take on new passengers AT THE FINAL STOP.

Please don't ask about the evil stepmother, . . . or the wolf.