Habits, Patterns, and Other Things Predictable

Sometimes I feel like Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day". Does it ever happen to you?

Last year, I was amazed at the fact that every Tuesday at 8:30am I'd run into the same man week after week. I would be in my car waiting at a red light and he would be crossing the street right in front of my car. The same dude...wearing blue scrubs and carrying an insulated lunch bag. What are the chances? Once a week, every Tuesday. I wonder if he ever noticed me like I noticed him. Probably not.

Now that I work 5 days a week, I see more patterns and habits in my day. I probably shouldn't care about little details like this, but it amuses me to see that others are operating on "my" schedule. Self-absorbed, aren't I?

I get to work around 8:15-8:30am. I park in the garage, walk down the stairs, and out the garage. As I walk to the hospital, I see the chief resident yapping on her cellphone. I listen closely...sounds like she's talking to her husband about the babysitter. I find out later that she just had a baby a few months ago and that her husband is also a pediatric resident. She's walking a heck of a lot faster than I, so I'm about 20 paces behind her. She slips in the door and I follow. She turns left toward the cafeteria and I make a right toward the office.

I get to the office, turn on my computer, put my bag away, pull out my binder, log onto the computer, put my lab coat on, get my pens, and walk out the door. I walk out the office, down the elevator, say 'good morning' to the security guard, and walk toward the entrance of the hospital. Through the double doors I go and make a left. Who do I see about 20 paces in front of me? The same resident, this time with a cup of coffee in one hand and her cell phone in another. We wait for the same elevator and stand uncomfortably silent as we both wait for the 3rd floor. DING! The door opens and we both enter the pediatric floor at the same time. More than once, twice, and three times...

I end my day the same way it began. Hang up the lab coat, put the pens away, log off the computer, pull out my bag, elevator down, and wave bye to the security guard. To get to the garage, I have to walk through the hospital. I walk out the building and see a cute brown rabbit scurry into the hedges as I step onto the sidewalk. "I remember when he was his big!" says a nurse as he holds his index fingers about 4 inches apart. "Cute little guy!" The next day, I'm eating a clementine on my way out the building. I throw a segment of the orange onto the mulch below. I know the rabbitt will find it...he's here somewhere.

I never take the highway to and from work. It's exactly 13.5 miles from hospital garage to my parking spot. Northern Parkway and Reisterstown Road are the busiest roads on my commute. An interesting one it is...part B-more ghetto and part Orthodox Jewish. Reisterstown Road drives directly through the hearts of Park Heights (ala ghetto) and Pikesville (ala matzo). The shopping centers on this road reflect this diversity. There are Kosher deli's and bakeries next to nail salons and dollar stores.

In one particular intersection is an Exxon gas station. Everyday I get the red light at this particular stop. It gives me an opportunity to observe the minivan parked at the gas station. A thugged-out Jewish kid sells basketball shoes from the back of his minivan. EVERY SINGLE DAY. It sits next to the bus stop so he gets pretty good business. Most days he is awake and just chilling. On hotter days, I've seen him sleeping in the shade of his minivan.

Just before I get home, I drive by our community pool. There's a few weeks until Labor Day so the pool is still open. Kids play football in the pool parking lot while other kids are walking home with towels wrapped around their waists. I often see a woman in a pink hat sitting on the curb of the parking lot. She's always hunched over writing furiously into a notebook. What is writing about? I have no idea. She's a bit of a mystery in our neighborhood.

Hassan and I creatively call her "The Lady in the Pink Hat". She's a skinny white lady with long brown hair. She reminds me of the actress, Rachel Weiss. She's a strange cat...I don't think she works. She walks a half a mile to the Giant grocery store everyday and buys one or two items. She'll do this in the rain too. When she walks, she walks in the road in the dark. Sometimes 10:30 at night. Nevermind the lighted sidewalks. Hassan saw her close up one day at the store. It was raining and he said that her make-up was so thick that the rain made it smear down her face. Always with the pink, wide-brimmed hat.

In the winter, she puts the pink hat in storage and pulls out the wintercoat. It's white with pink and blue stripes down the sleeves. 80s style. She'll also wear a baret-style hat. She braves the cold weather to Giant and still buys the groceries. No matter what time of year, I drive slow around our neighborhood because I know she could be walking in the road in the dark.

Bizarre set of observations, huh? I'm sure I'm a part of someone else's observations. "There's that little Filipino girl again...driving that Rav-4 on Lakeside Drive."