is it just me?

I was waiting to cross the street the other day and a bus passed by. It had a giant ad on the side with a picture of a woman falling into what looked like the world's largest pothole (seriously, she was in there all akimbo, but basically up to her waist) and the slogan said "It's not her fault, it's your asphalt." It was an ad for a paving company, and it has me befuddled. I mean, of course I get the pun on as-FAULT, but I still don't really get it. Or maybe I do get it and it's just not funny? It's weird, right? Anyway, pave your driveways so your friends don't fall in holes. Or something.

PEOPLE
It is well documented that I love People magazine. I read it every week. A couple weeks ago they had a little article on the prom, featuring portraits that someone has taken from all over the country. Anyway, I get to this one picture and the guy is not in a tux and the girl's dress isn't fancy. And I think, 'well, that's not very prom-like'. And then I look at the tagline and it's from MY high school! HA! First of all, my high school was not that big. Not tiny, but not huge. However, apparently prom is no longer formal? And truthfully, all the people looked kind of lame. When I went boys still wore tuxes. And lots of girls wore poofy, sparkly dresses. Not me, mind you. My prom dress was super lame. Super. But whatever. We were fancy. And now? Not so much. And it makes my town seem a little weird. In fact, the only person wearing a tux was a girl, who looked quite a bit like a boy if I am being honest, and her date, also a girl. Which didn't really bump us up at all on the typical prom normalcy scale. But maybe everyone else read that article and thought 'huh, that seems like an interesting place. maybe I will go there on vacation.' and you should, because it's nice there.

hello?
Here at my office we have an open door policy, for the most part, and if you are in your office, you leave your door open. Not everyone, of course. We have our recluses and our shut ins. But for the most part, the doors are open. What baffles me is this: people will come to a closed door, and stop. They will check the sign that says what office hours are. They will knock on the door and listen for an answer. All of this is normal enough. But THEN, and this is what I find unusual, many times they will test the doorknob to see if it is locked. Why? If the person is in there, clearly they do not want to talk to you and nothing good will come of the door opening. You will interrupt them. They might be in a compromising position (or in my case, napping on their office floor). Would you do this? If you went to someone's house, and it was dark, and you rang the bell and no one answered, would you try to open the door? (Well, you might if you were on CSI or Law and Order and thought they were in there dead, but otherwise?) Anyway, this has served as a reminder to me to lock my door whenever I want to be sure no one comes in.

Another strange thing is that twice in the last two weeks I have walked in on someone who did not lock the bathroom stall door. Now, it is almost impossible to tell if someone is in there from the outside. And the door lays shut even when unlocked. So I am in the habit of just pushing the door open, and on the rare occasion that it is in use, I just go around to the other one. But who are these people who are not locking public bathroom doors? This is kind of a fear of mine, not really sure why, but I cannot fathom knowingly going to the bathroom in public with an unlocked door. People are weird.