It's a fact of life I have had to live with since an early age. A problem I am trying to get used to. My husby, Matt, has the same problem, which is probably why we were attracted to each other.
This is the beginning of a three part (for now) series which will include several of my past experiences of people behaving badly, and some where I do too.
PART ONE - I avoid public transportation.
It doesn't matter how empty the bus or train car is, the weirdest person on the route will always sit right by me. I once rode the light rail in San Jose from the Cottle station to down town. To my immediate right sat a woman who, despite her obviously questionable personal hygiene, felt very strongly about the appropriate length of her finger nails. She chewed each one until it bled and then moved on to the next one. I got up and moved when she was on her third nail, and after she asked me if I had any band aids. (It just so happened that I had one.) I, of course waited until the next stop, so she would think I was getting off and then I sat outside of her peripheral view. I didn't want to hurt her feelings even if she was hurting herself.
When I flew (not technically public - I know) home from New York for a Christmas visit with the fam, I sat by a young lady who seemed fine, until the flight attendant wouldn't give her a vegetarian meal. When the flight attendant told her that her name was not on the list for vegetarian meals she shrieked, "WHAT LIST!" I slumped down in my seat as heads turned, hoping other passengers wouldn't assume we were together. The Shrieking Vegetarian thought she was entitled to a specially planned and prepared meal without the hassle of having to pre order it. She didn't get her way and guess who had to sit by her while she huffed for another 4 hours - It was me, and I savored every bite of my mystery meat in flight meal.
Besides these two, there are others. I don't remember them all but I only recall one or two trips on public transportation where I felt 100% comfortable the whole trip. And I won't even taint you with the things my school mates did to each other on school bus trips. You are welcome.
On the flip side, I distinctly remember a time in New York when my friends, Rachel and Michelle were with me. We had spent the day at the Statue of Liberty and on Ellis Island. On the way back to Grand Central we took the subway. The car we were in wasn't very crowded, meaning there was plenty of sitting room. We were seated across the isle facing a large family who were on vacation. I sat, watching them. There was a lot going on. There were five kids ranging from about 15 to about 7. And they were excited about all they had done and seen that day. I had seen them earlier at Ellis Island. I remember wondering where they were from. Several stops into our subway ride, Rachel turned to me and said, "All three of us have been flat out staring at that family for a good ten minutes." She was right. We weren't talking to each other, or looking out the window at the dark tunnel or even pretending to read the over head ads acting oblivious to their conversations. No, we were blatantly staring at this family. Then we became so embarrassed at this realization that we started to giggle which became uncontrolled laughter. In hindsight that poor family probably thought we were laughing at them.
Visit my comments section and record the trip you wish would travel out of your memory for us to enjoy. Or just comment on mine.
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6 comments:
One time when we were visiting Washington D.C. we were taking the Metro in to visit the Air & Space Museum. We purposefully went mid-morning so that we didn't have to deal with rush hour traffic. The train car was not very crowded. But this couple came in and sat down right in front of us and proceeded to make-out. My boys were only 7 & 8 at the time. Dane and I were just trying to ignore them and look at the metro map to figure out which stop we wanted, when all of a sudden Brien yells at Wes and tells him to stop staring at the couple because they were "making a baby" and that's private. Everyone in the train started laughing. The couple got up and changed seats and the girl gave me a look like I was the one who was rude and should control my children better.
We had not yet had THE talk yet...but found we had to do some educating later on that day.
That was funny - Holley's story too. I wish I had a story but I can't think of one. I do have a memory of riding light rail once. It was with your mom - maybe you were there too? It was our mom's birthday so we went to Bob's Big Boy to have a Brawny Burger in her memory. Then we decided to ride light rail just for fun. It was still fairly new to San Jose and we hadn't ridden it yet. We rode to Santa Clara by Great America and turned around and came back. It was an adventure for me and my kids. I think we were well enough behaved, and everyone else. It's a trip I do like to remember. So - sorry, it doesn't fit the criteria but I wanted to share *something*...
Kathy, I vaguely remember that.
I used public transportation all the time in Scotland and I really liked it. It was great people watching and mostly normal people (or at least people like myself, not missionaries, but others) rode.
I remember a great time where there was a bus, I wanna say it was bus 17, that would go over a very large bump and in so doing would pretty much allow the back row person/persons to be tossed about.
My comp and I would go to the back row, immediately take off our backpacks (didn't want the extra weight holding us back) and wait for "the bump." And, when it came, we were flying. I loved Bus 17.
I love your stories, too. You really do attract weirdos....but then again, I like you so what does that say about me?
Okay Julie, This story is about me being a freak. When I worked, I worked in the evening. It so happens that our Japan Department worked evenings as well. You know time zones and such. One of Departments supervisors had the most amazing eyes that I have ever seen. Nightly I sought this person out just to look at their eyes. One night I was openly starring at this person when they noticed. All my coworkers noticed that I was starring as well. Well my boss, love her, said to this person. She thinks you have the most beautiful eyes. I blushed, the person blushed, and out departments stopped having parties together.
I aquired a 2 year stalker via public transportation. I will try to make this brief and yes I realize this was my own fault that it went on this long. I use to ride the bus home from college one day a guy hoped on the bus. From a distance i thought 'oh cute sit by me' Apparently I had a slight problem with my vison momentarily. But good news he did sit by me. His pick up line was "Do I know you?" After determining he did not we talked and he got my number. apparently, i did not know how to say no. We ended up going to a fireside. I asked him if he was going to pick me up. His response "I ride the bus remember" So i picked him up and made the siblings come with. The fireside was apparently not good because he stared at me the whole time. My brother was uncomfortable. So obviously when he asked if we could go out again I said yes (I needed a date i guess) We never did go out again, But I did run into him many more times on the bus and at stores. Each time he started with Do I know you? i finally got smart and played dumb. I would recieve phone calls occasionally. I finally ended it when he called after a long absence from my life and said "i heard a rumor about you" How he heard one I will never know since the only thing he seemed to remember was my phone number. I replied Yes, Yes I did get engaged I am so happy. 5 years later still happy and very single.
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