Bummed

So I rode the bus yesterday and I must say that it was, by far, the worst ride I ever had. First,I forgot my damned glasses and was walking around impaired. Second, I missed the first bus by about 2 minutes. Once I got to the bus stop and boarded everything seemed ok until we started taking on more passengers.

When riding there is always someone that boards that cannot pay their fare. They always have a story, too. This guy's story was that he had to get to the hospital to see his sister AND it was his birthday. He asked the whole bus for money to accomplish this task. (I gave him a dollar.) I figured that this was divinely sanctioned and once he had his money things would settle down.

Next, ANOTHER bum (disclaimer: I know that term is not politically correct in this day and age but for the sake of this narrative and lack of a better term the use of the word "bum" will have to suffice) demanded the first one (birthday bum) give him (thug bum) $5. Birthday bum refused and Thug bum threatened to beat him up. It was very tense on the bus at which point Birthday bum said with purpose "you better not!" I guess they don't teach shit talking in bum school. Thug bum pulled out what looked like a small pistol and waved it around. None of the passengers could identify the object but if the Police had been involved Thug bum would have gotten shot over whatever he had in his hand. When we got to Halsted Thug bum got off shouting obscenities.

While all that was happening, a young couple had boarded. They were sitting behind me and were in a muted argument. The boy was holding the girl's phone hostage because he thought she was cheating on him and was going through the phone. She was threatening him with Police involvement is he didn't give her the phone. She even asked the bus driver to call the police but the driver didn't feel that the situation called for it. He threatened to beat her up if she continued to make a scene. I tried to tell the boy that if the police did get involved that, due to recent crimes involving phones, he was endangering himself. He threatened to punch me. Oh, well. Enjoy your chosen career of domestic violence, institutionalism, butt rape and possible death.

I got to the train and who is there? The young couple is standing on the platform. I wanted so desperately to tell the young girl to leave him and that she was in danger. "Please don't have any kids with this boy," I thought to myself. I went and stood under the heater. She came and stood next to me. I suppose that was my chance but he soon stood in the general area. My recent stay in the hospital was the only reason I didn't speak on it. I would not have survived an assault from this obviously violent young boy (I refuse to call him a young man because he has no characteristics of any manhood.) I wish the girl luck and protection. I hope she survives the relationship.

Good Lookin' Bill

So I'm riding the bus and I don't see any familiar faces. Within 10 seconds I'm already pissed because this one guy is talking to himself. Now when I say "talking to himself" I don't mean in the way that a regular person might but this guy was like Gollum from "The Lord of the Rings." It was like there were two people talking. He had a normal voice which was named Bill and then there was this really high pitched voice who didn't give his name. Now Bill's full title was "Good Lookin' Bill, never worked and never will." Man, I wished I had my headphones.

Good Night and Good Morning

So I rode the bus today after a long time. I had to go for my Dialysis but I had not been on a bus in a long while. When it finally came I was just grateful for the heat. It seemed like a steamy heat as if I was sitting in a steam room So far so good. I figured that it was too cold for people to be doing goofy stuff so I just sat there and got warm.

Well, this wouldn't be the CTA without something weird going on. When I got to the train I wanted to stay warm but the heat was not working at the 79th street stop. Luckily, the train came quickly and I hopped on. Suddenly, it seemed as though I was on a "sleeper car" because there were at least 6 people laid out and asleep. Now the 79th street stop is only two stops away from the end of the line so these people had to be asleep for a couple of turnarounds. I felt as if I was intruding. Then I remembered that ticket I got when I crossed from one car to another some months back and I stayed put.I still felt as though I should have taken a nap.What was really messed up was that the clock on that car was wrong and read 11 pm form the previous night. What if all those people sleeping thought it was the previous night? That would suck if they had someplace to go.

So, thinking I had seen all I needed to se that morning there was still the trip home. I was already cold so I didn't even want to stop for food. When I got on the bus I went to the middle so that I wouldn't get cold when the doors would open. As this one guy got up at his stop I see like 4 unused condoms sitting where the guy was. They were the generic type that you would get from a health center. I was so taken aback by the condoms that I didn't realize that some guy was preaching on the bus about people being rude and not saying "good Morning" to each other. The irony about that was that he was cussing up a storm. It got so bad that the guy next to him made the public statement that he did not know the guy and was not with him.