Tuesday, November 11, 2008

why the polar bears have nowhere to stand

i worked on a shoot in long island yesterday and one of my jobs for the day (aside from playing with some pretty cute dogs for a couple hours) was driving one of the shuttles. we wrapped up and left the location at about 4:15, and thus were doomed to be thrust into the thick of L.I.E. traffic. However, I opted to jump in the HOV lane (ps i finally just googled that to find out what it stands for...I never knew. i used to tell myself it meant "heavy overweight vehicle" but that didn't really make sense. it actually means "high occupancy vehicle") since i was carting a passenger. we breezed through probably about a half hours worth of bumper to bumper traffic-- the HOV lane was surprisingly free flowing. I looked at the hundreds of cars slowly crawling along in the regular lanes and asked my passenger why none of them were opting to jump in the carpool lane. "They can't all be passengerless, right?" I asked her, assuming that of course they weren't all passengerless. well, to the surprise of both of us, she announced that yes, in fact, all those cars only had one occupant--the driver. don't they realize they could be saving time, money, and the effing planet if they carpooled or just took the train?! seriously...hundreds of cars....clogging up the roads. i just can't believe it!!

off topic, here's something else that blew my mind tonight. i was with some dear friends of mine getting some after work drinks. eventually, we moseyed on over to the pool table, broke into two couples, and started a rousing pool battle. at one point, when my turn came up, the best shot i could take was only possible if i switched my hands. i said aloud "man, i guess i'll have to shoot this one lefty" to which my friends responded "Uh, what are you talking about? You've been shooting lefty this whole time." "Whaaaa?!?!?!" I say. That can't be right. Sure enough, as my other three friends (all right handed) took their turns, i saw that they held the cue opposite the way i've been doing it my whole life. throughout the rest of the game i kept interrupting my shot to be incredulous about not knowing I was shooting lefty this whole time. they tried to logically explain it to me...you want your right hand controlling the thrust (hehehe..thrust), but it felt as weird to me as trying to ride a skateboard normal footed. So i'm goofy footed and a lefty pool player. i'm all sorts of ambi-, aren't i?

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