is it just me?

In the distance between my parking ramp (ha! that's what people here call parking garages and after eight years apparently it has finally stuck with yours truly) and my office, there are five separate large scale construction projects. Five. Every day my eyes get filled with grit and my pants get dirty and I come close to being killed by three large pieces of machinery. All before 9am! Clearly no one sat down with a comprehensive plan and thought 'hmm...if we do all of these at the same time it will really screw commuters!' Or maybe they did and thought it would be funny? Anyway, now it is time for all 8 zillion incoming students to come to campus for orientation and registration. I sort of love it because you get to see all these high schoolers walking around with their parents desperately trying to be cool. But I also hate it because they are bad drivers and get in my way since they all park in my ramp. This morning I am sitting in my car waiting for this giant truck filled with dirt to get out of the way, and there amidst all the debris, mess, and genearl chaos there is a small plastic sign that says 'SOAR Parking. Welcome to the University of Wisconsin'. ha. Welcome indeed.

Yesterday I was waiting to cross the street, and the construction that is in the middle involved this excavator (I think, I need to start studying truck names in preparation for El Segundo's obsession with heavy machinery that seems to be genetically programmed in all boys) was banging giant iron supports into the ground. It was about as elegant, though infinitely more effective, as the way Baby Lizard smashes nails into her little toy toolbox. Anyway, I am staring at them along with these two other guys, and I faced a common dilemma of mine: do you talk to strangers about public things you are both looking at? Like, do you mention to the other person at the bus stop that the bus is late? Or if someone walks by in a vegas showgirl outfit can you commiserate with a fellow passerby? Anyway, since we're stuck there waiting for a walk sign I say "It sort of seems like there should be a better way, doesn't it?" One guy looks at me with a very blank expression, but sort of smiles. Kind of reminds me of the way El Segundo looks at me a lot. Like "I have no idea what you're talking about lady, but you are the one with the boobs so I will be nice about it." And then the other one says in a completely crazy accent "Necessity is the mother of all invention!" HA! It only kind of makes sense, though is quite a good comeback to a context-free unplanned interaction in your second language. At that point I notice a break in the traffic and decide to Frogger cross it, leaving those two looking at me like 'what the hell just happened here?'