I have been riding Public Transportation for the past 4 years. Man! I hate this! However, I cannot afford the cost of gas to drive everyday to the office. Driving is not too scary for me, in fact it gives me a sense of control. What I have enjoyed on the bus ride is the time it gives me to read. This is helpful on the bus because it gives me reason to keep my head down and avoid looking at the other riders!
It took the first two years of commuting to become comfortable with the ride and become accustomed to the people who ride the same bus. I was very lucky as most of the riders on my bus worked at the LDS Church Office Building. Mostly men who wore nice suits and studied scriptures or read church magazines during the ride. But not all...
There was a construction worker who appeared to be a hard working man. One day I heard him speak and found that he was not 'all there'. (if you know what I mean) Sooooo he was identified as someone I did not want to sit near.
There was also a man who always wore a fedora and a nice leather blazer. He actually looked somewhat questionable to me for reasons I can't quite explain. I created the persona for him of being the owner of a Tobacco Shop. But it still didn't seem to be right. I really couldn't determine how dangerous this guy was and ultimately decided he was a pimp operating the cigarette shop on the sly. Definitely would not be sitting near him on the commute.
One lady always joined us at the University Mall in Orem. Everyday she would board wearing her fancy trench coat and carrying about three nice bags. She always sat in the seat right in front of me, immediately plopping her seat into the lay back position. She would shove a couple of her bags under her seat and place the remaining bags on the seat next to her, preventing anyone from sitting with her. Then she would pull a small blanket out of her bag and wiggle around until she was comfortable. Heaven forbid if you interupted her sleep during the commute! She got mad at me once because my computer kept beeping with an error. WAHHHH!
But I was surviving. And then, the state built a new building. This meant I had to catch a transfer bus to get to the building. I am still struggling with it! We have been in the building for approximately nine months now and although I do not recognize the riders in the morning, I am recognizing the same riders in the evening. One day I was feeling overly brave and as I entered the bus, there were four people already seated. These four people always sit in the same seats and interact with each other in a very loud, sometimes obnoxious manner. I could not determine their character but decided, based on their appearance and occasional conversations, that they were likely in an out patient drug program together.
As I boarded the bus this particular day, several of the people made eye contact with me. My reaction was to smile and say, "Isn't it funny how you always see the same people on the bus? We should have assigned seating!" Oh man...this opened up all four of them to be friendly and talkative. Even the bus driver got into it. They were joking that the bus driver is always glad when they finally disembark due to the loudness of their conversations. They even acknowledged that I probably thought they were crazy people! ( uhh, yea!)
It turned out they all work for a cell phone company in various customer service areas. So at least they have jobs, but I still wouldn't be surprised if at least three of them use some kind of illegal drugs! Needless to say, that was a very exciting bus ride!
When I got off the bus, I walked to the next stop to catch my Express bus. There is a man who works at the Health Department and for several months we had acknowledged each other but never spoke. Well, I am now full of adrenaline so I asked some kind of question which opened a conversation. We discovered that we actually do the same type of job, but for different agencies. Once he got on his bus, I was left leaning against bus stop post. Then it hit me. It occurs to me that my legs are like rubber and my arms and hands are shaking! HA HA I was winning! Three minutes later, as I boarded my bus, the symptoms continued. Ninety minutes later when I exited the bus, I was still shaking and had difficulty walking on rubbery appendages. But, my Xanax remained hidden away and I maintained steady breathing. Ha HA HA! I won anyway!
Game Time: approximately 3 hours
Score: Karen 1, Public Transportation 0
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