Sunday, November 27, 2005

Gotta Love Public Transportation

So, after a long walk through Boston, I decided to make life easier on myself and take the bus home from Harvard Square. Anybody who knows where I live in relation to Harvard Square will tell you that this is a relatively short distance and that walking might just be less annoying than waiting around for the bus. However, as I said, I had just taken a really long walk, and I had some hefty bundles, too. Not to mention the fact that I was nearly fainting from starvation. Why I didn't just get a bite to eat is something I can't necessarily answer.
Anyway, I stood for quite a while, maybe 40 minutes, waiting for this bus. It was pretty cold out there, so when I saw the bus pull up, I wasted no time nearing the boarding area. An obviously drunken man took a space right next to me and started blowing cigarette smoke in my face. It wasn't bad enough that the smell of Gilby's vodka eminating from his pores was strong enough as to rise above the cold wind, but now he had to compound the matter by blowing offensive cigarette smoke in my face. I wasn't prepared to swallow this pollution, so when it hit my face, I waved my hand in the air in front of my nose, and left that area to stand next to a woman who looked like the last person in the world you'd expect to see smoking. I was listening to my iPod, so I didn't notice that the smoker had followed me to my new waiting spot, ranting and raving at me for being a "Typical P.C. Harvard Square Bitch Who Thinks Her F*&%ing Nose Is Too Delicate For A Little Cigarette Smoke." I removed my headphone, and asked the man to leave me along, pointing out that he was causing a scene. He said he didn't give a F!#$% and continued pontificating about how the pollution coming from the bus is more harmful to the environment than that coming from his cigarette.
I tried to explain that I wasn't taking a tree-hugging stance in moving away from him, but rather I did so because I simply do not like the smell of cigarettes.
Why I ever thought I could reason with this guy is beyond me. As I said, I was hungry. Maybe I wasn't thinking straight.
Anyway, the guy's language became filthier and filthier by the second and even though it was he, and not I, talking like that, I was embarrassed. I guess one of us should have been, right?
Anyway, he continued to scream filthy insults to me in the bus, and the woman bus driver (who was a dead ringer for Mrs. Evans from the show "Good Times," warned him on several occasions to pipe down.
Finally, she stopped the bus, turned around and said, "Ok, enough out of you. If this lady wants you removed from the bus, you're out of here."
She looked at me and I nodded to indicate that this jackass should be forced to leave the bus. He started swearing and carrying on at the driver. Bad mistake. She got out of her seat and basically "removed" the dude from the bus.
All of the passangers on the bus applauded this woman for her course of action. My applause were probably the loudest.
The best part about it was that this is a Sunday, and the busses suck on Sundays! That idiot had just waited forty minutes for the bus that he managed to stay on for all of about three stops. I love that he was going to have to wait there for at least another forty minutes for the next one!
Is that mean of me? Oh well!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey, where are the blogs? I look forward to reading this everyday. It's December.....nothing.