Quick background: I take the bus most days to work. It makes a few stops in the surrounding suburbs and then it hits the freeway to go downtown. My husband works similar hours to me, so he drives me to the stop and waits with me until I’m on the bus. At night he picks me up from downtown as I’ve become too much of a prima-donna to wait downtown for the bus by myself.
So today was a crazy day. It’s 5 degrees outside (Fahrenheit) with a wind chill of negative 14. For that reason, all of the schools in the area were closed. And due to the lack of traffic, my bus was WAY early. As it flies down the road, DH is chasing the bus. This isn’t something too out of the ordinary….it happens once in awhile. I always feel like I’m in the General Lee when this happens. While we chase it (instead of getting on at my regular stop), it’s picking up more people. And the bus lately has been ridiculously crowded. Standing room only crowded. So as we’re getting in front of the bus, I see a rotund lady waiting for the bus and I say to my husband, “oh great, there’s Mrs. Two-Seater! There will be even less seats available now.” Not nice, I know. And I was punished for it later. (And yeah, I know I’m not exactly the definition of thin, but I do NOT take up two seats.)
So DH gets in front of the bus, I get on and get a seat with a man that I know gets off early….he actually gets on before we hit the freeway. I’m pleased as punch as I know I’ll have the seat to myself once he gets off. No such luck. After Mr. Off-Early gets up, Mrs. Two-Seater gets up from her seat in the front (maybe because it was a 4-person bench seat and she was smooshed between people) and comes back to sit with me. Fabulous. And it was as bad as you can possibly imagine. I’m smashed up against the side of the wall. But it gets worse. The bus gets stuck in traffic on the freeway. It’s like a parking lot. Mrs. Two-Seater continuously sticks her head and some of her ample body out into the aisle so she can see what’s going on (good luck….the windows are filthy and you cannot see a thing) and then pushing her body back onto mine. Over and over and over again. She continuously moves around to vie for more space. And I refuse up what little I have left.
But, it gets better. There’s a man sitting diagonally from us who would Not. Quit. Clearing. His. Throat. It’s unbelievable. Just stop already dude! So the young chick who was sitting next to him gets up and starts talking to the driver about something. All of the sudden, the driver whips into another lane and somehow gets off of the freeway. He leaves her off and we end up doing circles all around the city. No clue why until the driver gets on the loudspeaker and says “Sorry for the inconvenience, but the young lady had an emergency. I’ll get you to work as soon as I figure out how to get back on route!” Maybe her emergency was that she couldn’t stand her bus mate for one second longer!
A 20 minute commute has just taken an hour and 15 minutes. It's enough to make me want to start driving downtown again.
So today was a crazy day. It’s 5 degrees outside (Fahrenheit) with a wind chill of negative 14. For that reason, all of the schools in the area were closed. And due to the lack of traffic, my bus was WAY early. As it flies down the road, DH is chasing the bus. This isn’t something too out of the ordinary….it happens once in awhile. I always feel like I’m in the General Lee when this happens. While we chase it (instead of getting on at my regular stop), it’s picking up more people. And the bus lately has been ridiculously crowded. Standing room only crowded. So as we’re getting in front of the bus, I see a rotund lady waiting for the bus and I say to my husband, “oh great, there’s Mrs. Two-Seater! There will be even less seats available now.” Not nice, I know. And I was punished for it later. (And yeah, I know I’m not exactly the definition of thin, but I do NOT take up two seats.)
So DH gets in front of the bus, I get on and get a seat with a man that I know gets off early….he actually gets on before we hit the freeway. I’m pleased as punch as I know I’ll have the seat to myself once he gets off. No such luck. After Mr. Off-Early gets up, Mrs. Two-Seater gets up from her seat in the front (maybe because it was a 4-person bench seat and she was smooshed between people) and comes back to sit with me. Fabulous. And it was as bad as you can possibly imagine. I’m smashed up against the side of the wall. But it gets worse. The bus gets stuck in traffic on the freeway. It’s like a parking lot. Mrs. Two-Seater continuously sticks her head and some of her ample body out into the aisle so she can see what’s going on (good luck….the windows are filthy and you cannot see a thing) and then pushing her body back onto mine. Over and over and over again. She continuously moves around to vie for more space. And I refuse up what little I have left.
But, it gets better. There’s a man sitting diagonally from us who would Not. Quit. Clearing. His. Throat. It’s unbelievable. Just stop already dude! So the young chick who was sitting next to him gets up and starts talking to the driver about something. All of the sudden, the driver whips into another lane and somehow gets off of the freeway. He leaves her off and we end up doing circles all around the city. No clue why until the driver gets on the loudspeaker and says “Sorry for the inconvenience, but the young lady had an emergency. I’ll get you to work as soon as I figure out how to get back on route!” Maybe her emergency was that she couldn’t stand her bus mate for one second longer!
A 20 minute commute has just taken an hour and 15 minutes. It's enough to make me want to start driving downtown again.
1 comment:
Oh my! What an adventure you had today! Brought back lots of warm, fuzzy memories of when I used to take the bus to work. Now I take the train (thank God).
BTW, that picture of the bus is a scream!
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