Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Tales of the T




Verbose
So tonight I’m riding the orange line around 9:00 heading home from giving a presentation on small business marketing to a group of Christian entrepreneurs. I’m always nervous when I’m asked to be a guest speaker, because I worry that I won’t have enough to say. As usual, however, I went on for way longer than they wanted me to. They asked me to speak for 30 minutes with another 30 minutes for group discussion; I ended up speaking for about 50 minutes and then did 30 minutes of group discussion. Even though I went way over, I only lost one! One lady who makes calendars had to leave about 10 minutes before we finished. Anyhow, I digress.

Whino
After the presentation I was wiped out and looking forward to a nice, quiet trip home. I got on the orange line at State Street, and I was surprised how many people were on the train at that time of night. I guess more people are taking public transit nowadays because of the high gas prices. Anyhow, I was standing near the back of the car and seated near me were a young 20-something couple and their 2 or so year old daughter. The girl was very manic. She was standing on her daddy’s legs and she was going from bouncing up and down on him laughing and giggling to pouting to whining to screaming back to laughing, all in the space of a minute. This went on for several minutes, with the parents offering encouragement while she was happy and the dad ignoring and the mom voicing frustration while she was whiny and screamy.

Smackdown
Finally, in frustration, the girl slapped her dad, not hard, just kind of a smack. This brought her scolding from both parents and the cycle repeated again, with the slapping becoming a permanent part of it between the screaming and the laughing. Then, during one of the cycles, she smacked a guy standing on the train next to them. I was prepared for fisticuffs to ensue, but it became immediately apparent that the guy was with them, either a friend or brother of the dad. He tickled the girl and then said something about her dad teaching her bad things, then he proceeded to play slap the dad! Then the dad play slapped the friend and they went back and forth for a minute laughing and joking, and the mom joined right in!

Not As I Do
I know these kids were young, and this is most likely their first, and right now only, child, but can’t they understand the cause/effect of their behavior? How are they supposed to tell their daughter that it’s not okay to hit, even in jest, when they are doing it right in front of her? I hope that these parents wake up and learn the “lead by example” lesson before the girl gets big enough to do some real damage.

Etc
Summer's in full swing in Stoneham. The pool's open, feels great, and I'm remembering why I like summer (sometimes).

The web site project is up and running. Now to get people signed up for it...

I have this recurring dream where I wake up and Jesse Jackson is standing over me with a carving knife. That's not weird, is it?

Groan (tonight's is particularly relevant with the presidential campaign in full swing)
Deja Moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.

7 comments:

Leah said...

Dennis I really think you are losing it, why in hell should I care about all that BS you wrote. lol.

Dennis O'Hara said...

Leah you are hereby banned from the blog. This is what happens when "your kind" is allowed to read insightful commentary. And by "your kind" of course I mean...Minnesota people!

Anonymous said...

Please keep up the blogging. It allows us stay-at-homes the ability to live vicariously through your words.

Don't say it -- I know it -- I need to get a life.

Love, Ka

P.S.: Your riding the Orange Lines brings back many lovely memories of taking the underground MUNI in San Fran for so many years.

Leah said...

I rode the bus today to get to work like I do everyday. I read my newspaper on the way. There was no intersting stories in the paper though. Even the comics were bad I usely like the cartoon Bizarro but today it wasn't funny. I guess you can't be funny everyday, blah, blah, blah. Now did you find that interesting, Lol.

leah

Dennis O'Hara said...

Fascinating!

Leah said...

There once was a man with a computer and he had a blog. However, there are number people that blog and they think they have something say but sadly they don't, lol.

PS. you know i'm just pulling your leg

robert78 said...

dennis!! it's so nice to see a friendly face (friendly name?) on my blog! reminded me of the good ol' days back on ehmannpenn. Hope things are good :) I'll try to catch up on your blog writings when i can. I'm moving to France until May in less than 2 weeks! Things are super busy. It still seems surreal that I'm going at all. Thanks for the congrats! it's so awesome to be in a relationship like this :D Say hi to Bill for me :) Hopefully one day I'll get to visit you guys!