I lost my Breda sticker… very sad.
August 6, 2005, 7:29 PM
How sad, indeed. I lost my “My other car is a Breda” bumper sticker magnet. I think I know how I lost it, though. I believe I lost it when I took my car through the car wash on Friday with the magnet still in place. I noticed it after work on Saturday, after Mom and I went to Home Depot (she met me after work), when I finally got a good look at the back of my car when she drove me back to it, and noticed it was missing – showing an outline of dirt around where the sticker used to be. Mom said that next time I go through a car wash, I need to remove the magnets first. Good idea.
And it’s not like the sticker is irreplaceable. I still have the pattern for it, so I’ll just have a new one made up. This would also be an opportune time for me to get the “Stand to the right” bumper sticker that I designed, to add to the right side of the car, similar to the Breda sticker. The Breda sticker being on the left was a coincidence. The “stand to the right” sticker being on the right is deliberate. After all, that would be a little hypocritical otherwise, no? The “stand to the right” sticker magnet standing on the left side of my car? No. Still, check it out:
I just hope that saying “Stand to the right” and with that in red letters, that people don’t think I’m a Republican or something. As many of you know, I am definitely NOT anything resembling the GOP. It does say “On Metro escalators, please…” on it, but the emphasis is definitely on “Stand to the right”. I deliberately didn’t include “Walk to the left”, the other half of the expression. Reason? Because honestly, I don’t give a rat’s patoot where people walk when they’re going on the escalators as long as they don’t run into me when they’re walking the escalator. I have, in fact, walked on the right side of the escalator before, most often at Rosslyn. And then I slip left to get around a standee. That also works because I’m a tad timid with the escalator steps on the really long escalators (which Rosslyn is), and so I tend to take them a little more slowly than others.
Still, “Stand to the right” is ingrained in the DC culture. You know that it’s become a habit when you’re doing it outside the Metro. Seriously. Remember back in April, when Katie and I were at Valley View Mall in Roanoke, and I stood to the right, and then got on Katie’s case for not standing right? 300 miles from Metro, and I was trying to get Katie to follow Metro etiquette without even thinking. Then when you actually go into the DC area, like at Pentagon City Mall, the people riding the escalators all stand to the right without thinking.
Speaking of Pentagon City, as a side note, the last two times I was at the mall, the place was crawling with Boy Scouts. On July 20, they were visiting DC before the Scout Jamboree, and on August 3, they were visiting DC after the Scout Jamboree. Still, the Boy Scouts make their own “matching shirt brigade”, which is what I call any group from out of town that’s all wearing matching T-shirts.
Whatever you call it, though, for the second time, the place was crawling with more Boy Scouts than you could shake a stick at.
Still, I’m sad that I lost my sticker. But like I said, it’s not irreplaceable or anything. So the Breda horse shall return, don’t you worry…
Web site: Stand to the Right - selling tees with the phrase on it.
Song: Theme to the Smurfs - go figure
Quote: "My Breda sticker is gone!" - Me to Mom upon discovering it.
Categories: Arlington, Toyota Previa, WMATA