(Mori)Bus Philosophorum: It’s a Mystery.

This afternoon while waiting for the line bus at Crossgates I stood chatting with another (seemingly random) commuter and one of my coworkers. We got on to the topic of my coworker’s son. He is seven and attends an all-boys school and she was upset by the fact that his class is celebrating Valentine’s Day. Her objections were fueled by her obvious homophobia, and I certainly won’t repeat the things she said, because they were incendiary (and it’ll just get me pissed off again and that isn’t the point of this post) and unkind.  It’s always a tough decision whether or not to interject in situations like this.  After all I haven’t worked with this woman for very long so in this case I kind of kept my mouth shut.  Actually I physically indicated that I was keeping my mouth shut by saying, “Eeeee, I disagree, but,” and making the locking-my-lips-and-throwing-away-the-key gesture.  I could feel the third woman’s eyes boring into me.  I met her gaze and she didn’t look away.  When we boarded the bus she asked if she could sit next to me and I scooted over.  I wondered if she had interpreted my objection to the conversation as proof of my sexuality.  ‘Am I about to get hit on?’ I thought, intrigued.  She sat and asked, “So, are you still working at the same place?”  The plot thickened.  I wracked my brain for some sort of connection.  Had we worked together?  Taken the bus in the past?  I couldn’t remember ever having seen her before but she seemed to know me so I did the only thing I could do, which was to roll with it.  I replied, yes, I was still working in the same office and then our conversastion flowed to the difficulty of finding work in this economy and how we think Obama may meet the challenge, and then on to our families, etc., etc.  She never gave any indication of how we were acquainted and no personal details she shared served to jog my memory.  So I’m stumped.  I know my last bus post was about how stressful it is to have to talk to people but when it’s such a mystery….it’s almost fun.