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: Magic Cookie

Hitchhiker

People around here like to complain about certain people or events being "so Cambridge." I can't tell you exactly what "so Cambridge" means, but it's some combination of affluence, entitlement, liberalism, obliviousness, and a busybody-ish intrusive quality. Like the lady in the million-dollar house with the manicured lawn who came running out to not quite yell, but firmly suggest to my friend that she not park (legally) on the street in front of her beautiful house.

Today I was waiting at the Fresh Pond light, which stays red for three minutes. A woman started jogging toward me, taking tiny steps in her high heels, and motioning for me to open the window. She looked to be in her mid-sixties, slim, dyed hair, wearing a brightly colored scarf and a pink jacket with an Obama button. I motioned back that I couldn't open the window. (This is because I have a "vintage cah".) So she OPENS THE DOOR.

And GETS IN.

"I'm running late for work!" she says, buckling her seatbelt. "I need to get to the T station. Are you going straight? Oh, the BBC is on, I love that, but it lets me know how late I am. Can you believe I scheduled a meeting for 9 a.m.? I'm going to be an hour late to my own meeting."

I do a quick assessment. The lady is already in the car. Not much I can do about that. She seems harmless. What the heck.

"I'm not going all the way to Harvard Square," I tell her, "but I can drop you off a few blocks away."

"Oh, good," she says. "I'd never make it in these shoes!"

Then as we drive, she keeps negotiating with me about which way to go and where to drop her off. "Oh, it's much longer this way," she says disapprovingly, as I turn down a side street. "But I'm not going to the T station," I reply. "I know," she says, "but you can at least go a few blocks closer." "I'll drop you off at the far side of the park." "Oh, but you could just go down a little farther."

Finally she gets out (a block and a half away), thanks me, and totters off. The smell of her perfume lingers in the car.

I have got to start locking my doors. Especially in Cambridge.

Full post as published by Magic Cookie on October 09, 2008 (boomark / email).