Uncommon Uses for the iPad

Last night, I found myself walking to a bus stop unusually late from an event. I discovered that an offer for a ride home unexpectedly changed, but Seattle has a pretty decent public transit system, with service to my neighborhood, so I didn't panic. I punched in the info to a Metro trip planner, and headed off to the bus stop according to the map. [common use #1 - bus finder and Google maps]

The bus stop was located on the opposite side of a busy freeway. After three attempts to figure out how to get to the other side (as there was no overpass), a homeless person pointed to a dimly-let sign: pedestrian underpass. I walked on the sidewalk of the busy street, getting honked at a few times by cars who must like frightening the bah-jesus out of women. Forget doing some Yoga breathing to stay calm: the sidewalk and stairwells of the underpass smelled of beer and urine, and reminded me that men really do think the entire world is their toilet. At these times, I wonder if my sacrifice of reducing my carbon footprint is really worth the sacrifice.

Twenty minutes later, teeth chattering and hugging my iPad for warmth [uncommon use #2 - heat source], my bus came. Thank goodness I exchanged my WiFi-only iPad for a 3G+WiFi model within two weeks, because 3G was the only connectivity available on the side of the 99 Highway, though I clearly saw the names of locked networks all around. As great as the iPhone4 is, it wouldn't have kept me warm.

As I sat down, a man spoke to me with a French accent: "Nice shoes. And the hat and the scarf work for you." As he was saying this, he was smiling and looking at my iPad. [uncommon use #3 - man magnet]. He worked for a tech company, but certainly wasn't talking tech. When he got off at his stop, he asked for my first name, took my hand, placed a soft kiss upon it, and said, "It was lovely to meet you."

On came a man who had taken an earlier bus: "I didn't want to wait at the stop I saw you at. This one is further downtown, a lot of gang bangers, but at least it wasn't so isolated." Good point: I should have downloaded MyNextBus.com, gotten a transfer, and waited with a bunch of smokers. Not.

We chatted about the iPhone all the way to West Seattle, where I bid him, "Au revoir." About a half a block into my walk home, I realized all the street lights were down, and the people of that street didn't do a lot of gardening and maintenance to the overgrowth. I tripped and nearly fell, cursing myself for not replacing the mini flashlight I used to carry in my purse. Without really thinking, I took out my iPad, slid the unlock button and punched in the password, and held the screen facing away from me [uncommon use #4 - iPad as a mobile street lamp]. Needless to say, I had a nicely illuminated path all the way home.

Well, some people say that the iPad isn't all that magical. I didn't need it to be. Instead, it got me thinking about uncommon uses of everything we have around us, if only we'd use our own heads and creativity to see.

Do you see?