Making Circles!

Today was a weird one. It included an unfortunate bus trip and an unsettling encounter with a gypsy. Then I started playing with circles back in my studio. The bus story is kinda funny in retrospect.

I was distracted when I boarded. In the seats across from me, there were two older ladies and a woman with a child sleeping on her. Soon another elder lady with a cane boarded the bus. I watched as one of the seated ladies (also with a cane) stood up to offer her seat. The new passenger vehemently declined the offer. I was trying to make eye contact so that I could offer my seat, but the new passenger didn’t look my way. As she continued towards the back of the bus, the mother with the sleeping baby offered her seat, but she declined and found her way to the middle of the bus where another lady snapped at a teenage boy to give up his seat and then looked back at me.

Next, from the crew of ladies sitting across from me, the third lady who had remained silent the whole time started speaking so loud that it could be sure the back of the bus heard her. She was staring right at me, disgusted. I couldn’t make out exactly what she was saying, but it was something about how I should have given up my seat. I said in nervous broken Spanish that I was going to give up my seat but…

There’s a special kind of awful that you feel when someone yells at you in a hateful way. I didn’t know what to do. I just knew I had to get off the bus. I waited at the stop and caught the next one. It was less crowded. I paid my fare and as I looked to find a seat, I noticed that on the last bus, I had been sitting in a group of seats designated for people needing assistance. No wonder that lady was so mad at me! This time, I walked as far to the back of the bus as I could.

Then in the park, a gypsy ripped me off and told me that I was going to be facing a big decision that involved “mal de ojo,” the evil eye. It was good to get back to my studio, work, and eat strawberries.