New observations on Beantown

I've learned a few new things now that I've been in Boston for about a month:
-People--namely, dudes--hold doors open for you at the 7-Eleven, among other places
-All amenities shut down by 9pm
-Bostonites/Bostonians are crazy about running, day or night, pouring rain or not
-I can't understand anything that comes out of the mouth of anyone wearing a uniform
-People aren't good at being territorial and staking their claims to things

This last one owes to the fact that I was at Kinko's, to run off some 200 pages for my class, and I saw that one of the photocopy machines was free. Off to the side was a guy who was unstapling his pages. I walk up to the copier and am about to use it, but think twice and ask the guy, "Were you about to use this?" Yes, he says, even though he hasn't marked his territory in any way. How was I supposed to know it was being used? Back in NY, someone would have draped their stuff over the copier to "claim" it. Here, people seem to be a little passive about that kind of stuff. I guess you're just supposed to be considerate and all.

I also got yelled at by a police officer yesterday, when I was on a run yesterday. I was trying to cross a footbridge from Cambridge to Boston, but there was this huge funeral procession going down Memorial Drive--I'm talking 50 cars. It must have been someone very prominent, as there were police cars lined up, and traffic being backed up along the street. I saw that there was a break between the cars, and I wanted to keep my pace, and yes, it was a little blasphemous to be interrupting a funeral procession, but I had been jogging in place for the past 5 minutes. I started to dart across, when a policeman yells out, HEY YOU! GET BACK THERE! (although it took me a few moments to decipher what he said through his thick accent), and then I felt really sheepish and dumb, and felt like I was going to go to hell.

Today I almost got hit by a police car that had its sirens blasting as he DROVE UP ONTO THE SIDEWALK. WTF?

Anyway, that's all for now. Annie, I'm really sorry to hear about your car fiasco. It kind of sounds like you've been dealing with a bunch of sheisty salesmen, but I'm glad you made them get you free gas! Hell's yeah. I think the only other consolation for the asshole driving you have to put up with, is that one day you'll learn to drive like that, too.

love, p