I am a suburban employee. Not only do I work in a suburb of Charlotte, I also guide how the growth of the suburb will go. When I get a chance to feel like a big city girl, I take it. Today (thanks in part to my mother dropping me off) I got to take an urban adventure. It all started with the day of doctor visits. Everytime I need routine doctors visits I try to schedule these all on the same day. It makes going to the doctor less stressful. Usually I can knock out 3 at a time. Today was special because the Egyptian inbound team was making their presentation to the Charlotte Rotary. So after the dentist who is on the 14th floor of the Grant Thorton building, I walked to the Crowne Plaza. I think it needs to be said that there are frost and wind advisories all day and I am in open toe shoes. On this trip I was picked up by the wind at least 3 times. Not by much, but it was a concerted effort to remain grounded.
I found the best coffee shop called Kokomo Cafe. They let me chill out for an hour. The only downer to this cafe experience was loosing at checkers to Bryant who by the way looks different in a suit.
After the presentation, I walked down Trade to wait on the 27Monroe Road bus. This is where the pictures of the bus sign come in. A guy waiting on the 15 bus began talking to me and coming closer. He first wanted to know where my boyfriend was. I told him that he worked uptown and we just had lunch. This was a lie but it seemed like the time to lie. At least I didn't make up a whole pretend life for myself. What I noticed was this man made me uncomfortable, but I didn't know why. I'm sure he was trying to hit on me (completely not my type--I'll start with the smoking and end with the bad teeeth and overall creepiness). He asked me if pink was my favorite color because my exposed toes are shaded in pink (I think blue would have also been a good guess considering they were almost frozen solid). But I went with green. I was wearing my great green jacket and feeling very Mary Tyler Moore. We eventually parted ways, but it got me thinking about the types of experiences that you have outside of your car and the interactions you can't get in traditional suburbia where the car is king (to say that Charlotte is a transit-oriented city would be a considerable stretch of the imagination).
I got on the 27M and got promptly off at St. Martin's on 7th near Independence Park. Once finished at St. Martin's,I went to find the 39Eastway bus. This required a bit of a walk onto Hawthorne. I had just missed the bus and decided that I would walk to the 9Central which is a bus route I am more familar with as it is my main line into uptown. When I say familiar, I really mean " I have taken this route twice". On the bridge over Independence Blvd, a man stopped me and wanted to know how he, as a pedestrian, got onto US 74. For those of you that aren't familiar, that is Independence Blvd. I shrugged my shoulders and began to say that it would be very hard and a very long walk to go where he was headed, but I got him to Monroe Rd and then to Westover. He seemed up for the hike. He had an hour and a half to waste. I thought about all the things I would rather do than walk to the motor mile on Independence, but to each their own.
I continued my walk to Central. The railroad company was working on the tracks, there were detours which is also affecting the bus system so I decided to walk to The Plaza and of course along the way there are a couple of antique stores so I decided that I must stop because I am still looking for a fire king candy dish/cookie jar for Shannon. (Still to no avail...Asheville here I come). Shannon needs a "pushin' present" because quite frankly the baby is getting everything. This could also be considered a belated house-warming present. Well, once I was at the Plaza, The walk became, "I'll just make it to the next bus stop" until I was so close to home, it seemed ridiculous to get on the bus just to get off one stop down.
What you must know is that this entire journey is done in two and a half inch heels. There is a saying that a woman can do anything a man can do and she does it in heels. Like I said earlier, I embraced my inner Mary Tyler Moore and just gave my beret a big whirl in the air...heels and all.
The pictures that you see are my views on the walk. I am practicing this blogging thing before I go to Egypt...one might say this is the beta version and is still in need of serious tech support. I have 18 days to work it out, so thanks for hanging in there.
I found the best coffee shop called Kokomo Cafe. They let me chill out for an hour. The only downer to this cafe experience was loosing at checkers to Bryant who by the way looks different in a suit.
After the presentation, I walked down Trade to wait on the 27Monroe Road bus. This is where the pictures of the bus sign come in. A guy waiting on the 15 bus began talking to me and coming closer. He first wanted to know where my boyfriend was. I told him that he worked uptown and we just had lunch. This was a lie but it seemed like the time to lie. At least I didn't make up a whole pretend life for myself. What I noticed was this man made me uncomfortable, but I didn't know why. I'm sure he was trying to hit on me (completely not my type--I'll start with the smoking and end with the bad teeeth and overall creepiness). He asked me if pink was my favorite color because my exposed toes are shaded in pink (I think blue would have also been a good guess considering they were almost frozen solid). But I went with green. I was wearing my great green jacket and feeling very Mary Tyler Moore. We eventually parted ways, but it got me thinking about the types of experiences that you have outside of your car and the interactions you can't get in traditional suburbia where the car is king (to say that Charlotte is a transit-oriented city would be a considerable stretch of the imagination).
I got on the 27M and got promptly off at St. Martin's on 7th near Independence Park. Once finished at St. Martin's,I went to find the 39Eastway bus. This required a bit of a walk onto Hawthorne. I had just missed the bus and decided that I would walk to the 9Central which is a bus route I am more familar with as it is my main line into uptown. When I say familiar, I really mean " I have taken this route twice". On the bridge over Independence Blvd, a man stopped me and wanted to know how he, as a pedestrian, got onto US 74. For those of you that aren't familiar, that is Independence Blvd. I shrugged my shoulders and began to say that it would be very hard and a very long walk to go where he was headed, but I got him to Monroe Rd and then to Westover. He seemed up for the hike. He had an hour and a half to waste. I thought about all the things I would rather do than walk to the motor mile on Independence, but to each their own.
I continued my walk to Central. The railroad company was working on the tracks, there were detours which is also affecting the bus system so I decided to walk to The Plaza and of course along the way there are a couple of antique stores so I decided that I must stop because I am still looking for a fire king candy dish/cookie jar for Shannon. (Still to no avail...Asheville here I come). Shannon needs a "pushin' present" because quite frankly the baby is getting everything. This could also be considered a belated house-warming present. Well, once I was at the Plaza, The walk became, "I'll just make it to the next bus stop" until I was so close to home, it seemed ridiculous to get on the bus just to get off one stop down.
What you must know is that this entire journey is done in two and a half inch heels. There is a saying that a woman can do anything a man can do and she does it in heels. Like I said earlier, I embraced my inner Mary Tyler Moore and just gave my beret a big whirl in the air...heels and all.
The pictures that you see are my views on the walk. I am practicing this blogging thing before I go to Egypt...one might say this is the beta version and is still in need of serious tech support. I have 18 days to work it out, so thanks for hanging in there.
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