Someone told me recently I should write a book about my time on the bus. I kinda laughed and smiled but the thought is there and it's germinating. May happen, may not happen but I can blog about the bus!
Yesterday morning I was the NICE person who said to the two people who went to get on the bus "that's the wrong bus". It felt good to help someone out. My niceness stopped when I got on the bus.
The back of the bus looked empty. That is until I was back there and found a guy laying on the bench seat along the left side up the bus, taking up three spaces and his backpack was taking up another. Nice. I sat down on the bench seat across the back, next to the backpack and just played nice. We stopped and two other people got on board and headed straight back for the "empty" spaces. One came back stopped, looked at the guy, looked at me and I smiled as I slid the sleeping dudes backpack away from the empty seat and to him. That is when I secretly started hoping that somewhere along the windy mountain road, the bus driver would take a turn a little too fast throwing the sleeping guy onto the floor of the bus. See, I told you the niceness stopped.
Sleeping guy woke up with a start as we got closer to the big city, sat up, looking around to see where we were and apologetically moved his backpack. Okay, I could be nice a little. But instead of sitting up and staying awake for the 10 minutes left of the ride, he lay.back.down. Do you see where this is going?
We stopped at the Big Bus Stop where half to 3/4 of the bus exits and he still lay there, sleeping. The bus left Big Bus Stop and started down the street. We rounded the corner and the announcement came on for the next stop (which is about 2 blocks down the street) and sleeping guy sat up straight looked around and realized he had missed his stop. Panic ensued. I found that little streak of niceness again and pulled the stop request cord so he could get off the bus. (I will admit that I was tired of smelling him by that point as well and happy to see him hoof it back to the the Big Bus Stop.)
Today, was another bus adventure. The bus driver took an alternate route to get on the freeway, driving through part of town instead of to the nearest on ramp, panic was ensuing on the faces of the bus riders. I could see it happen. Two guys across the way had those looks on their faces like they might get up and storm to the front of the bus to complain. One of them kept looking at their watch like he was timing the bus and if it took 1 second longer than "usual" to get on the freeway then he would file a formal complaint. Then we got to the overpass and looked out to the freeway...
People, do not doubt the bus driver. The traffic was backed up farther than we could see. The drive through town probably saved at least 15 minutes of sitting in traffic in the long run and took maybe 2 minutes longer than normal. I was still 15 minutes late for work because traffic was extra awful today, a reminder that universities and schools start next week and maybe I need to start taking the (ugh) 7:25am bus.
I wonder what tomorrow morning will bring...
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