Random Thoughts of the Week

Here's what I've been thinking this week:

Why in the world did I ever spend years of my life wishing and hoping and praying I could be a princess? Once, this week, I went to a castle. And there were stone floors all over. There were no soft beds, no heating systems, no cozy pajamas, no dashing knights in shining armor. I decided that the princess-life of cold stone floors and mice eating at my straw-filled bed and knights in armor that smelled bad because they don't have deodorant is not for me.

I like people watching. I've thought this before, and I thought it again while I was riding on trains all over. There was this guy in the same train car as me. He was sitting next to the window in a green professor-like sweater with black converse shoes. The black converse shoes had skulls on them. I thought it was an interesting fashion combination, but we were in Paris, so he could totally pull it off. While we were at the station his dad stood right next to the window (at least I think it was his dad, he looked like an older version of the green-sweater dude). The green sweater guy kept shooing his dad away, but his dad would shake his head and stay right there at the window, staring into the train and his son with a straight look on his face. The green sweater guy was mad. And once, on a metro in Paris, a scruffy looking man sat across from me. A pregnant lady got on the metro, there was hardly room for her because there were so many people. All of the sudden, our scruffy looking friend got up, tapped the pregnant lady on the arm, and showed her his seat. He stood and she sat. Then, the best part was when she got off. There were many people who wanted seats and they were just watching and waiting for people to get off, but as the train stopped at the lady's stop, she tapped the scruffy man on the shoulder and gave his seat back to him. She smiled at him and left the metro. No words were spoken. On another train a man could not get the door between the two train cars to shut. He tried and tried for three or four minutes. He got frustrated and stormed off. Then, right as he walked away, the door shut automatically.

All over the place people are reading. The newspaper, their romance novel, the latest environmentally friendly propaganda, a history of Napoleon, etc. Well, I haven't been reading lately. The novel that I brought to Europe is still in the front pocket of my backpack. It is practically untouched. And so, as I watch everyone read while I sit not reading, I wonder if my brain is progressing at a slower rate than all the readers. If I'm sitting and not reading, relatively, I'm getting stupider compared to the people that are reading.

And that's what I've been thinking.