The Five People You Meet Downtown...On A Weekday

Greetings friends. 

I guess it's been a while.  Well, that's a bit of a lie.  I have written about three entries but decided to delete them because there are things that even I think are TMI on the interbwebs. 

Some of you may have read my entries about people you meet out in Nashville on a Saturday night.  Well, this is the same idea, except these are five of the people you meet downtown on a weekday.  I'm not talking about Broadway downtown (btw, I was on Broadway for maybe the first time ever during daylight this past weekend for an epic 90s Country Star Bar Crawl...it looks so different!)...I'm talking about business district (?) downtown.  Since I work in the middle of the downtown area, I consider myself an expert.  Let's begin.

1.)  The Blackberry boys.  Now don't get me wrong.  Legislative session is one of my favorite times of year because it means I am constantly surrounded by young men in suits.  Power lunching at Pucketts?  Suits.  Cheap eating at Subway?  Suits.  Carb loading at Chili Burrito/Cocina/Blue Coast Burrito/It All Tastes The Same?  More suits.  It's a great time to be a 20 something girl working downtown.  I imagine this is is how the male population must feel when it's warm enough for girls to wear their (slutty) sundresses again.  But guys, do you seriously have to be on your Blackberry non-stop?  I guarantee you that at age 27 you are not important enough to need people to have access to you 24/7.  Unless you're waiting to see if your boss wants mayo or dijon mustard on his sandwich...which let's be honest, is probably what you're waiting to hear.  Oh, you're super important and have to scroll through your email constantly and look bothered when the Subway dude asks for your order?  I'm sorry.  Reading those Legislative News Summaries and getting calendar appointments about a meeting about a meeting you have to attend must be really thought provoking.  Don't get me wrong.  I have been that girl that sits at a table with both my cell phone and my Blackberry in front of me.  But I'm usually more concerned about my cell phone alerting me to the fact that someone liked my Facebook status rather than occassionally glancing at my Blackberry to make sure no crisis is going on at work.  I mainly use my Blackberry when I'm home sick or on vacation...which I think is probably the original purpose of the Blackberry.  But I guess if some people need to be attached to their work-paid-for cellular device to make them feel important, have at it.  But if you have a Blackberry and then say you don't have a business card when I ask for yours, your credibility is out the window.  I bet you pay for that damn thing yourself, just to look better.

2.)  The woman who does not wear smart shoes.
Ladies, I get it.  You want to look good while you're downtown because there are lots of good looking men in suits.  But few things are less attractive then a woman walking around in a smartly tailored suit and either sneakers or way too high heels.  Sneakers and tights?  There are not enough characters in this blog space to describe why that combination is heinous.  And I am a fan of the 3-4 inch heel, but not when I'm walking from my parking garage to my office.  I wear flats, or my comfy reasonable heels, and then change into my fabulous shoes when I'm at my desk.  Downtown is a pitfall of shitty sidewalks, grates, and questionable things you do not want to step in.  So buy a pair of black flats, use them for your travels, and wear your good shoes when you need to dazzle.  I'm not even going to comment on how lame I think that sentence is. 

3.)  The people who do not close the blinds to their hotel rooms. 
Currently my office is in a building that looks straight at the Doubletree Hotel.  Now this was fun when Connie Britton and Hayden PannetieIDon'tKnowWhatHerLastNameIs were filming an episode of Nashville there...and I do enjoy the convenience of the Starbucks (RIP giftcard)...but I do not enjoy looking out my office window to see some "afternoon delights" going on.  We've only been here since December and already I've seen my fill.  People, if you can see out the window, chances are other people can see in.  Close the blinds.  Or, if you're into the whole being spied on thing, don't.  Whatever...it's your choice.  But can you at least go to the other side of the room away from my window so I don't have to see things I can never unsee?  Please and thank you.

4.)  The wandering tourists.
Let's face it, they're lost.  They were supposed to take a left out of their hotel but instead took a right and now want to know where Tootsies is.  You point in the opposite direction and say it's like six blocks away and they look at you in abject horror about how far away it is, when they were told it was right downtown.  Which, it would have been, had they not walked five blocks in the wrong direction.  For some reason tourists always want to take picture out in front of our temporary building, by a statue near the ATMs.  I do not get the appeal.  It's not even historic or country music related.  At least, I don't think it is.  I don't pay that much attention. 

5.)  The person that almost gets hit by a bus.
Sadly, this is frequently me.  I feel like I'm too short to be properly seen by bus drivers, so when I'm by myself crossing the street, even when I have the right of way, I feel as if I could get hit at any moment.  Then you have the idiots that run right into traffic and then get pissed because they almost get hit.  Um...see that blinking red hand in a "STOP" motion?  That means DO NOT KEEP WALKING.  Think you can make it before the MTA jumbo bus flattens you?  More power to you, sir.  Godspeed...literally.  Some days you can tell how the rest of the day is going to go simply by how many times you had to cheat death in order to get to your office building.  This day I only had to dodge a moving vehicle twice, so I felt pretty good about the day.  And so far, it has been pretty good.  But with night coming so early now, the trek back to the car is always the most dangerous.  I should start wearing one of those Day Glo orange vests or something for protection but no...they look like UT uniforms.  And I'd rather take my chances being hit by a bus than look like I might support that school.  #Priorities.

Not sure if there will be three versions of the people you meet during the daytime, but who knows.  Guess it depends on the people I run into and if I feel like I have enough material to cleverly mock them.

Till next time, Happy almost my birthday month!