What to do for 45 Minutes?

It takes about 45 minutes (give or take) to go from one end of the valley to the other, via the "Orange Line". Which is great cuz it takes about the same amount of time to drive it. It's only $1.25 each way. That's quite a savings in gas....car payment.....auto insurance.


Its the getting to and from the bus stops that takes up so much time.


Speaking of time. What do you do while you sit in that bus waiting for your stop? I'm an avid reader. I always have a book on hand that I'm reading. So I started bringing my book with me. The time really flies by when you're enjoying a good book (especially when you look at the clock and its 3:00 am and you still don't want to put the book down, no matter how much your eyeballs want to fall out of your head).


One minor issue.....


Maybe I'm old fashioned....I dunno....


But a lot of the books that I read and really enjoy are historical romances. They're light hearted....sometimes funny (depending on the author) and, I dunno.....they're everything reality isn't.


So whats my point? Ummm...have you ever seen the covers of those books? They have these half clad women with their breasts bursting from the tops of their gowns....begging to be touched. Or....those Fabio men, wearing leathers, arming a sword...promising to save your life one minute and in the next, to love you like no one else can, with those rippling stomach muscles and piercing eyes..and lips that you can only imagine what they're capable of......

uuuuh ummmm....sooo........what was my point? (is it hot in here?). errrr...Oh ya. Reading such books in public. I'm a grown woman in the 21st century....yet I do not want those strangers on the bus to know what I'm reading. I find it embarrassing. An invasion of my "privacy".(?) And they can soooo tell what I'm reading just by glancing at the cover.


One of my fears is reading a really hot sex scene in public and to glance up and discover the person sitting next to me is reading over my shoulder!!!! I'd die a thousand deaths!


Normally, to get past this weirdness in my head, I bend back the cover of the book so no one sees. I ignore that I might look suspicious. I tell myself in my head that if they can't see the cover, and they don't pay attention to the fact that I've totally bent and f'd up the cover of my book...then I'm safe.


Until the next book.


Crap! The front AND back have a half nude woman on it. AND the book is RED!!!! Red screeeeeaaams.....SEX!!!

shit. shit. shit.


I can't cover the book with a paper bag like we use to in school. That would look even MORE suspicious. No matter how I hold the book, someone will see the half naked woman (and maybe the hot hero). And heaven forbid if I looked like I was enjoying the book toooo much. I mean...what if I smiled cuz something was funny? They'd think I was smiling cuz the story was sexy and I was getting all hot and bothered!


Thats all the weirdo's on the bus need....thinking they're watching some middle class, middle aged woman enjoying a sexy, hot, historical romance novel in public.

But really...I'm only smiling cuz the author wrote something funny. I swear! really I was.


ok....so I totally over think it. But I can't help it.


So I leave the book at home and begin my people watching.....while posting on my blackberry....and wow...the things that I see, hear, and notice? Holy CRAP!!! I don't even miss reading my red hot romance novel when I have real life happening right in front of me.