The Hitchhiker

As we sat in the muggy weather on the front porch in the Fan, behind an iron gate with roses climbing, a bunch o' loud people with glasses sitting on porch rails and children playing on the sidewalk, climbing trees, drawing with chalk... a weathered guy with a knapsack and dog walked past.

He stopped for a split second- I saw him ask the children to squirt his dog with water. They happily complied, and the dog drank.

Later that night, I drove home and saw on the edge of the sidewalk: that man and dog, looking purposeful but lost. In the dark, I pulled over, car idling...

"Well, you got the wrong one in the family for directions..." I introduced myself... We pondered maps and highway exits... the lightening flashed and threatened rain.

I moved aside the child seats, the dog jumped into the back, he climbed into the front, and like sailors navigating unknown waters, we steadied our course for Broad Street and 64 West.

"I remember when you walked by... I was at a party." I volunteered.
"I'm trying to get to Charlottesville for my birthday, because it seemed like a good place to go." he said.

We rode in silence...

I pulled over near the exit.

As he opened the door, the light came on: "Hey, are you the girl with pink hair?"
I smiled.
"You just keep your hair pink. It looks good on you."
And with that, they left, and I slowly navigated home.

 

What I did for Valentine's Day

...In case any of you wonder whether I'm cool or a geek.

SO, I was emailing back & forth with my friend Justin about his (veddy popular) blog when suddenly, I ended it with:

"Oops I’m going to say goodbye now because Christoph just walked into the room and said he just did his first code in Java…
'Ooh! I want to do Java!' my eyes brightened... So I’m off! This is what geeks do on Valentines Day!"

I ambled over to his computer. There was his first code in Java, a typical admin page. "Type in your name into the text field..." so I did... He then explained about Java vs. .net's code-behind...

and then I looked at the source, smiled, and swooned as he hit "submit"... : )

public void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {

String firstName = request.getParameter("firstName").toString();

response.setContentType("text/html");
PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
out
.println("");
out.println("");
Happy out.println(" ");
out.println(" ");

out.println("I love " + firstName);
out.println("

Happy Valentine's Day ") ;
//out.print(this.getClass());
//out.println(", using the POST method");
out.println(" ");
out.println("");
out.flush();
out.close();
}