mere

I love all the interesting people I meet riding public transit. I spend around an hour on public transpo every day in my commute to and from work - and I have been witness to some pretty interesting things and have talked to some pretty interesting people...

On my way home today this lady sits down next to me. That's fine - that's sorta what you expect during prime commute hours on a subway train. But I keep my nose buried in my book and mind my own business. The next stop the train makes this lady taps me on the shoulder and asks me if I know what stop we're at. So I tell her, and try to go back to my reading. But, oh no, now that she's got my attention, she's going to complain about how the conductor should announce the stop we're at (which he was doing, but the speakers near us were kinda crappy, and she apparently couldn't hear it at all) and how if they don't announce they should receive a pay cut. "What if you're a tourist? What if you never really ride the BART?! How the heck are you supposed to know when to get off?!?! I guess you will just have to rely on your fellow passengers! How ridiculous!!!"

At which point I smile and nod and go back to my reading. And at the next stop she taps my shoulder again to ask me where we are. "I don't want to miss my stop! I have no idea where we are, they should give some indication!!" So I tell her there are signs in the station that you can see when the train stops, in case you can't hear the conductor. I determine which stop she wants to get off at, tell her that's in two more stops and go back to my reading with the hopes that I have given her everything she needs to know.

Of course not. She proceeds to tell me about how she stayed up the whole night. "Oh my god, have you ever done that??? I'm just SOOOO tired, you know what I mean? It's like, you stay up - you don't sleep - the WHOLE night, and then you're just so tired the next day," she says, shaking her head in disbelief. "It's not really funny, but it's just so funny how tired I am. And then you start to feel really spacey - you know what I mean? I just feel so spacey right now. And then you get dizzy. I'm not dizzy right now, thank god, but I'm tired and I don't want to miss my stop. I told my friend I was taking the subway home, and she was all 'Oh, be CAREFUL, hon!' And I still have to catch the bus after this, which is even worse!!!"

The whole time I'm smiling and nodding, not really saying much other than "yeah..." Maybe I shouldn't have even done that. Maybe I was encouraging her. Or maybe she was too tired and spacey to care. She then began mumbling something about being in undeveloped countries, blah, blah, blah.... I was turning back to my book and trying to read. She taps my shoulder again, as we're pulling up to the station she wants to get off at. "OH my GOD!!! I was reading the other day that in some country called Yemen they are so starving that they have to feed their children this crap that makes them high! I mean can you BELIEVE that?!?!?!"

I was so afraid she was too spacey to remember that this was her stop. I kept glancing over at the train door and then back at her to kind of give her the hint that she should really be getting up to go. There was no way I could actually verbally interrupt her. Finally, at the last second, she gathered up her things. "Well, this is me! Wish me luck on the bus!"



Ahh, public transit. Go green and take public transpo whenever you can! You never know who you'll run in to


XOXO
Mere