What happened the other night Things are not yet looking up for me, professionally, and the other night, I was at a pro bono clinic, doing some work.→[More:] Anyway. I wasn't in any better a mental place at the end of the night, but at least I had done something moderately useful and vaguely meaningful with my education.

I got on the bus, still feeling inordinately frustrated and angry and pretty well beat down. A few stops later, a little girl (4, probably) got on ahead of her mother and infant sibling. She made a beeline to the empty seat next to me and plopped herself in it with great abandon. She had a handful of change. She also had one of those little plastic teardrops that're attached to a pair of socks so the socks can hang on the display wall. She was using the little plastic thing as a jeweler's glass to examine the coins. Very ostentatious with her gestures.

"Those are very shiny" I said. And she chattered at me, largely incomprehensibly, adding "I'm Christina." in the middle of a story about her aunt and bus passes.

"Nice to meet you," I said, "I'm Elizabeth." "

Eldeben? Ezbed?" She repeated and I said "Yes, 'Elizabeth' " and kept chatting with her about her coins. When I pulled the cord a few blocks later, she said "Oh! You're getting off." and I heard her mother, who was sitting behind us, say "We're getting off, too." "Oh, lizard," she said, "we're getting off, too."

And they got off the bus ahead of me, and I said "Bye, Christina, have a nice night." Then I saw her turn and wave and shout at me "BYE LIZARD. I miss you!"