Shhh. There’s No Need for Us to Speak.

I wake up slowly, reluctantly. Often, my dream-life – where I am an accomplished something-or-other and can run long distances without feeling that I’m being chased by two large puppies – is more fulfilling than my waking life. Awakening to discover that a cat has barfed on something, that the seasons continue to move, irrevocably, toward Mother-Nature-is-trying-to-kill-you weather, or that it is still part of the work week is always confusing to me, and it will be a good hour after waking that I will accept my station in life.

I’ve never been an early-morning kind of gal. Unfortunately, my part of the world is enamored of early morning, despite repeated letters of complaint from me to those I perceive to be in charge, and so things remain as they have since I first showed up.

Having failed my first chance at not being forced into preparing for my work day before the sun comes up, i.e., being born to wealthy parents, I have been forced to play along and get a first-shift job.

Which brings us to the bus stop.

Must we speak? There are a number of reasons that I am wearing headphones, and one of them is so that I don’t have to interact with people until I’m awake. It is 7:15 a.m. – is a nod and the words “Good morning” not enough? Because “Good morning” I can deliver.

I may be upright and dressed, but don’t mistake those things for proof that I am awake.

I’m not anti-social so much as I am dazed. I’m not trying to be rude. Why, I had a discussion with a woman just a couple days ago.

Did I think it was dark?

Yes.

Did I think it was getting colder?

Most certainly – and bound to get colder yet.

What was I listening to?

Oh, a collection of stuff – it’s on shuffle...

There was more, but the bus was on the horizon and I was fixated on it.

Look. I’m not an ogre – just a woman coming to grips with another workday.

So please, my bus-sharing compadre, my fellow standing-in-liner, let us agree to nod, to smile, to acknowledge one another, to even sit together in the pre-dawn prelude to the day.

But let’s leave the mystery intact.

You had me at “Good morning”.