lucrative position? (scottsdale, az)

a woman sits at a bus stop, but never gets on any bus. instead, she simply sits on the bench and asks anyone who is considering catching the bus if they can give her a dollar.

keeping up with personal hygiene (scottsdale, az)

in the shadows behind a Circle K, a man brushes his teeth at 7 pm.

peeking cat (scottsdale, az)

an elementary schooler wearing a cat mask peers out the window of the schoolbus to the mid-november traffic.

eyelashes (scottsdale, az)

her hair is so blonde it is white – and her eyelashes are the same. They catch the light as the city bus hurtles through the dark downtown.

tapping to the beat (tempe, az)

a girl in a batman shirt taps both of her heels and both of her thumbs to the beat of a song only she can hear over her headphones.

pounced: a personal story (phoenix, az)

so i normally try to keep what i write about here at an arm’s length: things I observe, not things I experience. But the following is what I experienced today, on the bus, with a “real life character” who… well.. was just asking to be written about:

Now for the record, I am 25, and I write a lot. So I was sitting on the bus, writing, when a woman who looked about 55 got on the bus and sat next to me. I recognized her, because she’d been on the bus when I’d went in to the city, and now was on the bus again, on my way home. There were plenty of other open seats, but she sat next to me, and said, “how can you write on the bus, when we’re bouncing all over the place?” I just shrugged. Then she said, “oh, I remember you… you’re the one with the cute whiskers!” and then stroked my beard.

out for a spin (scottsdale, arizona)

an employee of an auto repair shop rides a motorcycle he’s been working on with his crew in circles around the parking lot of the shop. All the staff come out to watch and cheer him on as traffic zooms by.

reassurances (tempe, az)

a city bus is very overcrowded due to mechanical problems with a bus on the previous route. “i’m very sorry for what happened with the other bus,” says the bus driver, whose voice sounds exactly like the narrator of a crime show. “when it comes to mechanical problems, you know, it happens all the time. even planes! they have problems! something can go wrong just as easy on a plane as it can on a bus!”

A sight in black and white (Scottsdale, AZ)

She is dressed in a white hat, white jacket, white pants… and black shoes.

teen wolf (tempe, az)

a young man has hair growing on his cheeks but has a clean shaven chin in sharp contrast. His hair is a little too long on top. When he opens his mouth, his bottom teeth look like fangs.