Something about the general clientele on the buses is a little bit off. I can't figure it out. The cost is the same as the subway, but seemingly there are always more people who are a little bit crazier on the bus. I'd like to think it's just that on the bus the craziness is concentrated, whereas on the subway it's distributed amongst numerous cars. Whatever the case, I'm on-edge on a bus much more at any time of the day than I ever am in the subway. For this very reason, I don't ordinarily frequent the B75 on the weekends. It's the bus that I take to the gym or to visit one of my friends in the neighborhood, but beyond that I prefer to walk a few blocks rather than stress myself out while trying to get to New York Sports Club. This weekend, though, I was forced to take the B75 repeatedly. The good old MTA is doing some work on the line (most likely cutting my stop out of their routes) which means that all trips out of the neighborhood included a 20-30 minute detour on the bus to a subway stop about 1 mile away.
Yesterday was a prime example of what bothers me about the bus. I was on my way home from volunteering and a quick trip to target. I had a few bags with me, but made sure to sit in a side seat so that there was plenty of room for any elderly/handicapped persons. Next to me is a woman and her dog. At first I assume it's a seeing-eye dog. The woman is certainly not blind (she was eyeing my goodies from target), but why else would she have the dog on board? Before I can think things through thoroughly, my thoughts are interrupted by the dog barking. Apparently it's not only a regular dog, but it hates children - especially when they try and pet it. (I try not to, but I glare at the little girl who almost got her arm bit off by the dog.) I look hopefully to the driver, convinced he'll make the dog lady get off the bus. He's more concerned about the traffic ahead and doesn't even give a warning glance back at her. Fine. I crank up my iPod, stare out the window to try and drown out the noise.
At the next stop, I see a sweet elderly couple entering the front door. I get up and move back three seats to make sure there's plenty of room and a few choices for their seating. This was no easy feat with my two full target bags, but I try to do my best to accomodate others when it comes to seats on public transportation. I cringe thinking about how many pregnant women have to stand on the subways so some jackass can continue to check his emails on his blackberry. So here I am on the bus, thinking i've done a nice thing for these two folks. I turn my iPod back on (yep - the damn dog is still barking) and start to take mental inventory of the things still left to do for the day. Then I realize the nice elderly woman who has gotten on the bus only looks nice. She's screaming at me, something about how I was so rude to take her seat (she's walked halfway through the bus to tell me this and passed 5 seats along the way), all the while whipping her cane around to prove her point. I quickly get up and move ALL the way to the back of the bus. Nice lady smiles sweetly at me, then starts on another rant about how iPod have turned today's youth into a zombie culture. I would venture to argue that anyone who sees her on a regular basis chooses a life of zombie-dom rather than incur her wrath. But what do I know? I'm still trying to figure out how that damn dog got on board.
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