RantWoman is putting the finishing touched on a gig as a member of a conference planning committee. This means for instance that on Tuesday RantWoman, along with her regular schedule is trying to match one straggling conference request for a ride with a compatible vehicle. The passenger uses a scooter. RantWoman learned later that the scooter comes apart into five pieces.
Before RantWoman learned that, RantWoman mistyped a cellphone number into her really not super smart no video, no camera, no web granny-cellphone, misheard the number on a voice mail and decided that someone else on the email response would just have to solve the problems RantWoman couldn't. Luckily, this is the kind of conference where the attenders are forgiving and most of them actually are considerably less geeky than RantWoman.
--One trip to the world's largest software company via public transit and corporate shuttle.
--One side of a ferry trip with spectacular illustrations of what not to say on certain modes of transport and the perks of certain jobs.
First the trip to the World's Largest Software Company. RantWoman left before the morning rush hour. The whole trip door-to-door was about 1 hour 10 minutes including about the average for RantWoman amount of fogging around the Bellevue transit Center trying to line up with the desired buses and the unexpected ride on the corporate shuttle. Last year when RantWoman attended the same event, a nice young man who worked in a building adjacent to RantWoman's destination walked RantWoman from the bus stop and listened with interest to RantWoman's elevator speech about the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing.
This year Ambassador Thwack was on duty but there were also extra corporate transit assistant types on duty. They were not to be deterred from placing RantWoman on the shuttle and did not get that RantWoman can see large things and knows the way since last year. RantWoman opted to shut up and buckle her seat belt for the morning.
After the event, RantWoman asked the woman at the receptionist desk for directions to the transit center. The woman's voice developed this condescending drip RantWoman has experienced before when receptionsts are forced to admit that actual humans take the bus. However, RantWoman got quite satisfactory directions, met her bus, and got to spend, oh, about 30 extra minutes creeping along in traffic on I-405. RantWoman is pointedly NOT going to rant about what she thinks of the taxation and backward policies leading to such gridlock. The bus just is not big enough for a RantWoman in such voice and a driver trying to operate the bus safely.
Wednesday brought need of a trip via ferry. RantWoman's "minimum schlep" routing for herself, a weekend of luggage, Albie the Enormous Laptop, one book in Braille, and snacks involved the Number 8 bus, Link Light Rail, the number 16 bus to the ferry terminal and an elevator upstairs.
RantWoman's reward for playing things reasonably straight on Tuesday occurred on her ferry ride on Wednesday. RantWoman was explaining about Albie the Enormous Laptop, also affectionately known as the biggest laptop in the world. RantWoman was explaining about her screen enlargement software, but RantWoman's mouth outran good sense: RantWoman, while seated aboard a moving WA State Ferry just blurted out that she has software to "blow things up."
As if that were not enough, RantWoman was travelling with someone whose wife is a mathematician. Wife of mathematician asked whether RantWoman knows what "non-commutative 2-dimensional algebra involves." RantWoman did not hazard a guess, but learned that Mathematician and her research partner get to fly around on international routes talking about "blowing up planes." It's their JOB!
By this time the entire RantWoman party of more or less middle-aged (urk!) ladies had attracted a friendly and motherly looking member of the ferry crew and we realized we really OUGHT to cease discussion of anything more explosive than popcorn from the galley!
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