The Problem With The Middle of the Bus

So coming from a rural state, public transportation is nearly non-existent. Children take the big yellow buses to school and the elderly and disable generally travel by the few city buses. The average citizen owns and operates a car and so its not unusual for people like me who have never even stepped on a bus, let alone make it their primary means of transportation.

So after my bike was stolen by the crackwhore who sold it for a snort...I was forced to figure out the public transportation system of Chicago. I was hoping to wait until it got too cold to walk or bike..but alas...things didn't happen the way I planned. So anyhow, I got myself a bus pass and decided to figure out how to get to work and school. Other convenience such as groceries, movie rentals, Walgreens...all within walking distance. My school and my workplace are no more than a mile away and luckily a bus runs right down my street right to within a block of my school. So when I don't want to get up early enough to walk, I ride.

The problem with the bus is that when you get one, its not likely you'll have a seat. Which is fine. But you are forced to stand and as the bus fills up you slowly make your way to the rear of the bus to exit the rear exit. So what if you're the poor sap that is stuck in the middle of the bus and have to make that critical decision of which half the bus you are going to inconvenience as you make (ie--push and shove or fall into if you have a crazy sadist driving the bus) your way off the bus? Its a real serious problem because you need to get off the bus and yet no one will move and I'm sure they roll their eyes after you get off the bus at the fact that you were bobbling back and forth between people, knocking their bags, hitting their limbs and doing your best just to get off the damn bus. Sigh...I hate the middle of the bus. I hate the indecision and stress of it all. ;)

After I got off the bus, I saw this tall woman walking towards me. She had dark hair and a long dark peacoat, but with a bright red scarf, red handbag, red shades and red canvas shoes. She was quite striking because part of her had an air of sophistication with her designer handbag and neatly tied scarf and the other was a bit juvenile with her shoes. I wondered what she was thinking at that time...or dreaming about.

Maybe the nose-tickling stench in that part of town was throwing her off...haaaa!

I also saw a guy with blue fuzz on his ass. He was impeccable in appearance otherwise with his perfectly pressed pants, tailored dress shirt, tie, shiny shoes, and briefcase. But he had fuzz on his hiney....not that I was purposely looking at his rear. I wondered how his day at work went...if he made any major sales, had a huge meeting or got in trouble for the fuzz on his ass...

In my lifespan class we had a huge emotional debate over culture and cultural awareness. I won't go into details but I felt like we were all in therapy and it was a very surreal experience to witness how much the atmosphere changed during the course of the conversation. Nobody got out of control but there was an underlying anger and heat about the room...whew...

My two weeks of stress and hell start now....papers and homework and tests...woo hoooo!!

Tootles!