Day Eleven

Morning: I was in a Toyota Camry this morning — green, pretty new model. It smelled delicious and I couldn't tell if it was the car (there was a generic air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror) or one of the riders was fabulously cologned.
The man in the front seat was listening to his iPod the entire ride. He was in his early to mid-30s, attractive — casually dressed in a red t-shirt, brown shorts with a brown messenger bag (I saw it at the stop). He had short, dark hair and a beard trimmed pretty short.
The driver looked young from the back but, once you saw his face, knew he was at least 45. He was dressed in a blue, yellow and white striped polo shirt with khaki pants. He kept scratching is right cheek (I started counting after around 5, but lost count after 40). He had a pretty big nose, which I only saw in profile when he looked over his shoulder to check his blind spot.
There was a license plate and a Bible in the pocket behind the driver's seat. I don't know what state the plate is because it was facing into the chair. The car was washed, but not very well — once we got sun shined directly on the window, you could see the soap residue. It was in a neat pattern, up and down and around the edge like your typical car washer would do.
The driver couldn't make up his mind as to what station he wanted to listen to. Eventally, he switched to a CD. It was mostly rock ballads. We listened to White Snake, Poison and Cutting Crew, but he skipped over some good ones I wouldn't have minded listening to like Journey (Don't stop, believing!!!) or Bonnie Tyler (TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART!!!)
The ride was silent minus the driver's schizo music choices and the faint noise you could hear from the passenger's earbuds.
Evening: There was no line at the Pentagon this evening. There was a line of cars waiting at my stop for someone to walk up. As I was heading in that direction, I saw a Nissan Altima also going that way with a Naval Academy license plate. I so wanted to hop in his/her car as I knew that would be something we could talk about (Dad is class of '83, go Navy, beat Army!). I got lucky, though, the tan Honda Civic waiting first in line for someone heading to my lot also had Naval Academy tags. I jumped into the passenger seat of the car ready and willing to get into it. We had to wait for a third rider before we left, so I (breaking the rules) started the conversation while we waited.
"Saw you had Naval Academy tags, you or your husband?" I asked ... I already had taken note of her wedding band.
"Both, actually!" she replied and our conversation was underway. We got our third rider and she and I talked the rest of the way.
She graduated from the USNA in 1993, her husband in 1994. They both ended up in the Air Force — he cross-commissioned (which never really looks good on your record) and she went Navy before heading to the Air Force. She told me stories about how her class did the Herndon in 93 minutes (great for the class of '93). For those of you who don't know what she means by "did the Herndon," I'll explain: The Herndon Monument is monument at the Academy that represents the acme of "plebe year" (freshman year). The monument is covered with lard at the end of the year and the plebes must climb it (usually by human pyramid) and replace a "dixie-cup" (plebe headwear) with a cover. This represents the end of their plebe year. If you type "herndon monument" in Google images, you can get an idea of what insanity it can be.
We also talked about Navy games, especially Army/Navy. I told her my father got season tickets to Navy home games and she told me to enjoy every minute of it. And we talked about Cantler's Riverside Inn, the best crab shack anyone will ever know.
I witnessed by first blown tire on the highway during this ride. Don't worry, it wasn't the car I was in. There was a truck about half a mile ahead of us and, since we were going downhill, we could see it pretty easily. A huge cloud of dust suddenly overwhelmed the entire spread of the highway. The driver nonchalantely said, "Ooooh, blown tire" and we watched cars go everywhere. Thankfully, the truck whose tire blew moved over to the shoulder very quick and no one got into accident. Business resumed as usual.