A crazy gentleman on the #3 proclaimed the entire bus to be part of his family. (In hindsight it was really pretty heartbreaking). All the bus riders were of familial ties to this nutty old guy. The two little girls sitting in front of me were his grandchildren, the two women sitting across from him were his ‘women,’ and he was the royal grandfather of us all…the patriarch of the bus. He kept calling to the little girls, “How is school? How’s school going for you?”
The #5 traveling to Fremont at 1:45p is driven by an extremely good-looking, overzealous, bus driver. The man croons into the bus speaker: “Please stay in your seats until the bus comes to a complete stop for your safety.” He announces every single street that travels past, every single bus stop is announced by name, and he graciously welcomes everyone on the bus. Think you’re getting on before the passengers exit the bus? No way, Mr. Man throws out a warning hand and a “hold up a minute sir!” while he waves the passengers off. Only until the last person has stepped down are you given a permissive nod to board.
On an unrelated note I have begun to collect lightweight jackets for the upcoming winter. Since arriving to Seattle I have acquired several snazzy little jackets, some long and some short, for canoodling around town in. The weather is terribly unpredictable, obviously, and I spend a lot of time at bus stops regretting the t-shirt I chose instead of the jean jacket. Hidden in the back of my closet is one of those gigantic LL Bean raincoats with all the snaps and trimmings. The darn thing has several snap-on hoods, a million pockets, and is considered indestructible AND waterproof. My Dad bought it for me during my last year of college, when I finally just gave up trying to look cute and went for function. Of course it’s electric red, it must have been on sale because my Dad owns an identical one. I only pull it out when it’s raining sideways, and I actually left it behind when I moved to CO. My Dad handed it to me during my first trip back, “You’ll need this now, right?” Yeah, he’s right, I’m destined to be a big wet red blob sloshing my way through a northwestern winter. In the meantime, I’m buying coats on sale, stocking up, trying to look cute while I can.
Of course, this is a far cry from when I would just toss a jacket in the backseat of my car, carelessly wearing open toed shoes on a predicted snow day, the car serving as my shield against all elements. Gone are the days of keeping snacks in my glove compartment, my cds lined up inside the dashboard, my belongings stuffed into a simple small bag that rested in the passenger seat. Now that public transportation is my only means of travel, I must carry everything on me. I have tried to leave my gigantic backpack from college home, I really have. Today I carried around: Wallet, keys, mini mp3 player, sunglasses, glasses, dance pants, nalgene water bottle, coffee mug, fresh produce from the market, new jacket from Nordstrom’s rack, and 2 frosted pumpkin cookies.