Morning Regulars

Every morning, as I walk the 30 minutes to school, I know if I am on the early side or late side depending on the people I pass. Within the first three blocks of my walk, I pass three schools. I see the boys biking to Hartman in their kippot, I say hi to the guard at the gate. Then I turn the corner and walk to the next intersection where hopefully, the fifth grade students are not at the crosswalk with their yellow vests and stop signs on sticks- if they are, I am at least 10 minutes late for the start of minyan. Down the street is a high school- or jr high from the looks and dress of the students who go there and then on the next block is an elementary school. There too I say Boker Tov to the guard and get an occational head nod- still working on that one (on Tuesdays where my first class is at 10:30, he is generally standing outside the guard shack drinking coffee with a woman who is sitting in his guard shack). There are the two sisters who walk each morning holding hands (about 5 and 8) and the two 6 or 7 year old boys who walk together discussing video games and TV shows. As I walk a few more blocks, there is the bus stop and the people sitting there (plus the one woman talking on her phone while walking to work at Terem). Then I hit the minyan goers or comers- depending on my timing. Cross through the alley steps and around the corner and hopefully by then I am running late enough that I miss the cat lady (for my feelings towards cats, please see previous blog post "Professor Minerva McGonagall x100"). Then walking down the small hill, I pass the woman on her phone wearing scrubs and crocs and am passed by a bicyclist or two. By now I have reached the biggest intersection where again hopefully the kiddie-crossing-guards are just arriving. I cross all 6 lanes of traffic in two directions (only with the pedestrian signal) and then mentally prepare to climb the mountain. If I am really late (already after 8:05 am), parents will be driving like crazy people dropping their children off to attend the school across the intersection. There is an underpass that leads right to the front door of the school. Then I start climbing. I walk past the dog walker, the couple holding hands (sometimes pass them at the big intersection), and the parents dropping their kids off at the daycare center about 2/5 of the way up the mountain. Then when I reach the top I pass the boy and his father walking down the hill to the school at the bottom and through the underpass. Sometimes when I am late, I pass them at the bottom- once I was so late that the father passed me on his way back up after dropping his son off. Then I get to school. Sweaty and ready to learn...or at least daven.