yoga pics and things in my head

here's one pic from the yoga in yosemite trip i went on from 9/8-10. as you can see, a beautiful setting for yoga (just like in the calendars).

so...some of you know that i have recently been doing rideshare - which is a bay area term for casual carpooling. At certain points around the east bay, people line up (usually in front of BART stations) and pile 2 at a time into stranger's cars to take them across the bridge into san francisco. since the carpool requirement here is 3 people/car, this helps everyone get into the city faster via the carpool lane, and we all save some money - the driver saves on the $3 toll, and the passenger saves on the $3-odd it costs to take bart to the city from the east bay.

i've been a passenger at rideshare, but since it takes me forever to get to work on public transport, i've recently become a rideshare driver. i pick up strangers in my car and drive them into the city. sometimes we chat. sometimes i turn up npr and we all sit in silence, sometimes we listen to the president's press conferences and share mortified guffaws and comments.

This morning, as a passenger was getting into my car, i heard this strange ringing. I looked around "what is that? is that you, or is it me?" turns out, the guy next to me in the passenger side had a hearing aid, and i think my fastrak (or fastlane) transponder was setting it off. i apologized, removed the transponder from its place on the dash, and smiled. he apologized for not being a very good conversationalist. "no, no" i said too loudly, as people do when they talk to the hearing impaired. "i usually listen to the radio, anyway," (pointing dramatically to the radio).

we drove on in silence. when i got to the corner of fremont and harrison, i dropped my two passengers off as usual, wishing them a good day. the gentleman next to me got out, and wished me a good day. then he stopped before he closed the door, leaned down and said "don't worry too much about imaginary conversations. it's the sign of a creative mind."

me - slightly confused, smiling electrically, wanting to make up for my earlier faux pas and thinking i had misunderstood him, "oh...um, yeah, ok. thanks!!"

driving away, i tried to figure out what he meant. i chuckled a little, and gave up. then i glanced down at the notepad i keep on my dashboard, to record thoughts and mileage. Two days ago, I had written, "I waste so much energy on imaginary conversations."

OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH. While we were sitting there in silence, the whole ride, this gentleman had been looking around and had read my thought (jotted down just below a slogan i'd found funny from the monterey poultry company's truck - "poultry in motion"). and i don't know how long he'd been thinking about it. probably quite a while.

but it did make me feel better. i laughed on the rest of the drive to the office.