I ride the bus to school, and on this bus I can sometimes come into contact with the strangest of people. Most of the riders are students, like me, taking advantage of the free bus system for BSU students, but then there is also the middle age people just trying to save on gas money as they go to their daily jobs, the occasional old lady, and every now and then a traveling hobo or two. I usually like to keep to myself in these public places, and just listen to music and stare out the window as I sit in my nice cozy spacious seat. I’ll occasionally say hello to the regular people I see every day, but that’s about it.
The thing that bugs me the most about these daily commutes is when the bus is almost full, there are more people coming on, and some people don’t make the seat next to them available for the new passengers. They just know that someone else will do it, and they will be left to their nice cozy row to themselves. This complete disregard of other people in these situations really angers me. I think part of this is just my jealousy of these people because I too want the seat next to me to be open for comfort reasons. However, I am always the one to kindly allow for it to be open so that the new passengers get all the available seats to choose from, while the other jerks are sure to guarantee themselves the nice spacious arm and leg room. I sometimes wonder how nice life might be if you just didn’t give a darn for other people in situations like these, and only looked after what you wanted for yourself. I bet I could find myself in many more fortuitous situations if I were to take such a stance, but I like to think Karma keeps up with people. It seems in these situations though the new passenger almost always chooses the seat next to me. I guess I should like that people see me as a friendly enough face to sit next to, but sometimes I just really wish they'd choose someone else to sit next to.
A few years back I once rode the greyhound bus from Las Vegas to Flagstaff and had to be one of the people to choose my seating companion for the next 5 hours or so. I didn't really like too many of my options, but eventually had to pick someone and so I chose a middle aged lady who looked a little hippyish. We talked for a little bit, and she informed me that World War III was coming and I was gonna be drafted pretty soon. Well, it sure has been a pleasure talking to you I thought.
Anyways, on one of my more recent bus experiences, as usual the new passenger chose the seat next to me. It was the second time this same guy has sat next to me, and he is about as odd as they come. First off, he has a beard down to his belly button, zz top style, then he is balding, and then he has the hairiest arms and legs possible. On this day, he was wearing a long sleeved collared shirt with a tie, rather short shorts, then black socks with brown dress shoes. He sits next to me and immediately spreads his legs out nice and wide-like clearly encroaching into my territory of the seating arrangement. The first time he sat next to me, he said nothing, but frequently made hand motions as if talking to someone, or giving a speech and pointing his finger to really drive his point in to the listeners. On both occasions, the man took place in his favorite activity of twirling his mustache, just about every 30 seconds or so. He has a pattern with this which is this: finger comb his few hairs back, twirl mustache for about 20 seconds, and then either finger comb again or put his hand down, then wait about 15 seconds, and repeat. Sometimes he will start the move of his hand upward to start the activity, but change his mind mid-move, put his hand back down, wait 5 seconds, and then go ahead and go for it. He seems to prefer the right side of his mustache for his twirling, but will occasionally go for the left sided twirl. Then as the bus goes on and the passengers slowly slim down and multiple rows of seating open up, you would think he might move to a new row so that he could have all the leg spreading room he could want, and have it all to himself. But no, he stays right there, spread eagle, boxing me in and making me crouch my body and legs up against myself to make room for my backpack and all.
Such are the experiences of public transportation. I should probably be a little more befriending.
2 comments:
Once I rode a bus from Sacramento to Denver next to a drunk man that kept coughing. He called someone in Pennsylvania and then talked to them about how the hospital had released him. It was the typical beginning of a zombie movie. Then he passed out and his hand kept rolling onto my leg and I had to keep moving it. He never woke up though. I have a sincere fear of buses since.
hahaha. I have decided to start leaving you comments on all the posts I read, otherwise I will never remember which one my fave is. ok maybe not all, but most. but i love this old man, he sounds awesome. and Shaun, you don't know maybe he had a nervous tick or OCD - that would explain the constant hair twirling. and maybe he purposely stayed seated next to you because he found it funny. sometimes i do things because i think it makes other people nervous. maybe it's not as funny as i think though...
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