Yes, this dare was finished after my 52nd birthday, but scheduling issues, and a recovery from surgery kept me from getting to it sooner.
It was a great day, and I had a grand time.
I packed for the trip last night. I decided to use my new tote bag BFF gave me for my 52nd birthday and I loaded up the fabrics I needed to match, several patterns, part of the new purse Mina gave me for my birthday, and then this morning I made sure I had water, my Kindle, and a good sized bottle of Purell.
Loni arrived around 9:00 a.m. and drove us to the Parker Road Train Station in Plano. Once there she helped me read the screen and purchase our day pass tickets for the DART Rail. A day pass is $4.00. A good deal considering how much parking can be in some downtown garages. Our destination, The Old Craft Store in downtown Carrollton, a quilt store and post office. To reach our destination, we needed to take the Red Line to West End, then get on the Green Line and ride it to the downtown Carrollton stop.
Throughout the trip, I kept asking myself "What is it about me?"
As were were boarding the Red Line at the Parker station, our first leg of the trip, a woman with a small child turned to me and said "This is the train to downtown, right?" I answer something like "It should be." but the whole time I am thinking why are you asking me this? I am clearly not someone who looks comfortable in getting on the train. Loni just laughed.
The seats were not uncomfortable, and the train was not dirty, so that was good. The ride had some side to side movement in places that made it hard for me to read, so I put my Kindle out and enjoyed the sights, well most of them. I was quite concerned about the little toddler girl in the seat next to me. She was riding with her grandparents, older brother, and parents. She spent a great deal of time standing in her dad's lap with him holder her ankles, or turned around staring at her mother. I so badly wanted to tell them that one wrong bump, or hard brake and that girl would hit her mouth on the seat bar and knock out her teeth. I restrained myself, but it was hard, and I did sort of cry out several times.
At one point this 20 something guy got on with those big ear circle stretcher things in royal blue. I didn't pay much attention to him then, other than taking note of the ear things and thinking how much I despise them. However, he was a pleasant enough looking fellow.
Our first stop was at the West End station to change to the Green Line. I noticed ear thing boy got off, took out his phone with a purple sleeve on it, and starting talking as he walked east on the other side of station from us.
As we were sitting waiting for the Green Line I was able to participate in one of my favorite activities, people watching. I took note of all the young girls in short athletic shorts, with different college t-shirts on. My thought on the t-shirts was that since they were in a group that seemed to be on one team, they must be wearing shirts of the colleges they hoped to attend. I saw Texas A&M, Auburn, LSU and other t-shirts all be worn in the same group of girls. Many of the girls carried large bottles of water, and some had pillows. My guess is they were participating in the Lone Star Classic Volleyball Tournament at the Dallas Convention Center. As I continued to watch, a young man approached us with a business card to hand to us. Loni declined, but I figured what it was and thought I would be polite since evangelism is part of most churches, and I am always looking for ideas in my job. It was not a bad message or anything and he didn't stop to talk once I took the card, but I was prepared to get rid of him if he did.
Behind me there was a young man that was really working at spreading the message. I kept turning around to see if the man he was speaking to was really taking it in, or just did not feel like dealing with trying to rid himself o the young prophesier. I really couldn't tell how the man felt. He had his head turned towards the young man, but his eyes were looking beyond. I will say that young man was doing his best to bring home another disciple.
There was also the man that was just walking down the sidewalk shouting Scripture. I noticed that when he started down the sidewalk most of the people moved closer to the train track. Really? If I hadn't been seated, I would have moved away from the tracks. Haven't these people watched any of the Law and Orders? People are always being shoved in the train tracks by people shouting Scripture.
The best of all the people watching for the West End station on the way to our destination however was the Angry Pigeon Lady. She and her male companion were sitting on the bench next us, but there was a large concrete container between us, so she was not sitting very close to us. She was sitting on her bench talking to her companion and smoking as Loni and I were on our bench reading messages or whatever on our phones. As were were sitting there, four pigeons landed on the concrete right at the edge of the train tracks. They were not bothering anyone, and not really that close to us. I was enjoying their company other than the fact that I find their red eyes creepy. Well, Angry Pigeon Lady evidently does not like pigeons as she stood and walked towards them, I actually thought she was going to stomp on one of them, but she just went close to them and stomped her foot without really stomping her foot. The pigeons moved, but not much. This went on several times as the pigeons would get closer to really me and Loni and not Angry Pigeon Lady. I would have laughed out loud, but I was afraid she would stomp me. She was very thin, but extremely wiry looking, and obviously not found of pigeons. It was quite entertaining, even it if was a little scary.
Once the Green Line train arrived we were on our way to our final destination. It was a pleasant ride, and I was quite happy that Angry Pigeon Lady was sitting several seats in front of us. As we continued to make stops on our way to downtown Carrollton, we somehow picked up Ear Stretcher Guy again. He got up to get off again before our final stop and I was able to see he had a strange pink design on his t-shirt along with some pink boxers with a black design. I really did not need to see the pink boxers. However, always the quilter, I did take note that he was well color coordinated with the royal blue ear stretchers, purple phone sleeve, pink and navy t-shirt and pink and black boxers. He belt was black with silver studs, but I don't know why he needed it since he was already showing his boxers.
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| See, the Pigeons she was stomping at were not bothering anyone. |
We finally arrived at our destination stop and exited to begin our walk to downtown Carrollton and The Old Craft Store.
I was having fun!
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