The Fight

It was a really long wait for the bus. The little one was upset the bus was taking long. 
"It'll be here soon." I said in a cheery voice though I was seriously annoyed it was taking so long. I distracted us with word games.

The bus finally came and it was packed. I was so happy because it stopped right in front of us. The crowd trying to get on was thick. Though the bus was full there was a seat right up front, and I thanked all my lucky stars. I put my grocery bag on the floor and held my child on my lap. My oldest found a seat in the back of the bus and proceeded to read her book.

I chatted with a woman standing in front of me about tourism in NYC. I started hearing a woman cursing. Her curses got louder and when I really paid attention it was a woman with a baby on her lap. She was cursing out someone she claimed didn't say 'excuse me' to her as she went passed her and her open stroller in the aisle.
The one who was getting cursed out said, she had apologized already. The angry woman didn't accept her apology and repeated how she was going to beat the %$## out of her and mess her the *&#^$# up in the filthiest, loudest language. It was so bad that  even the thugs were like 'whoa'.

My little one was reading her book and didn't notice. People were just shaking their heads and staring. A man with a cast on his foot said she had run over his hurt foot with her stroller and didn't say excuse me. The tension was so thick.

The young woman who was soon to be beat up ran out of the backdoor with her friend while the bus was idle. They TRIED to get away at the last minute. The angry young woman dumped her baby where she was sitting and sprinted, amazingly leaped over the person next to her like she was doing the 100 yard hurdle in the Olympics. She zoomed out of the bus and proceeded to pummel the other woman. I did not look. The bus driver did nothing. My kid picked up on it and was crying. People were watching them out the window like it was a pay per view boxing match.
I yelled to my oldest not to look at the fight. The bus driver did not move the bus. The woman's baby was screeching. I felt so sad for the baby. How could she just drop him like that? I had to deal with my kid who was upset.

The angry woman strutted back on the bus without her wig on and without a shirt on! She didn't seem to care. Someone threw her wig back into the bus and finally the bus driver closed the door and pulled off. The angry woman told her screaming child to 'shut the f up!'

People were mumbling and shaking their heads in disbelief. I felt so upset. I felt so sad.  I had to reassure my kid that it was going to be alright. Meanwhile the angry woman was still cursing and talking mess. A woman actually affirmed her by giving her a high five!? She was so righteous in her anger, proud of what she had just done.

I was wondering why the bus driver didn't call the cops or say anything. I didn't say anything. As we walked home the youngest was upset. I told her it was fine to be upset because we were in an upsetting situation. We talked about the fight. The oldest said she passed the angry woman on her way to the back of the bus and had said 'excuse me' really loudly.  I knew my child would be fine. We talked about her feelings, we talked about anger and what anger does.

But what about that baby? That crying baby whose mama just dropped him....he stayed with me for a while after this. His cries, his little pained face, her telling him to shut the f up because he was upset. My heart hurt for him. How could she just drop him like he didn't matter?

The Movie-Driver's Ed

I cried when they showed The Movie in Driver's Ed class. The Movie was this horror movie where they showed all these slow motion accidents with people flying out of moving car windows, getting smashed by trains because they tried to outrun the train, people falling asleep at the wheel and slamming into trucks, just horrible scenarios and it was real footage. Distracted drivers just mowing down people! And I tried to watch it and started to cry it was tooooo much. I cried quietly so I didn't embarrass myself. I read my book and put on the headphones. The people in the class were groaning and screeching, and ooohhing and oh shitting. Some covered their eyes. And the soundtrack was a sad, slow pop song about being in the arms of the angel.

Going home the bus is packed. A big dude is sitting in the front, he has an open can of beer, the tall kind, in a paper bag in one hand and in the other hand he has a small bottle of liquor like they give in airplanes of whiskey? vodka? rum? He is loud and laughing. He doles out unwanted, yucky, salacious relationship advice to the bus riders. Like nasty advice.

The Stench

I got on a relatively empty bus that smelled so bad. It smelled like if the Grim Reaper ate some three day old, left over, left out taco bell and then went out, got on the bus and farted a wet, nasty fart that had a life of it's own. Then Reaper got off the bus and left the offensive odor. I got on that bus. The doors shut ominously loud behind me.
I panicked. The bus was going at a breakneck speed down the street. I had to hold on. I had to sit. I had to get out! It was a Sunday, if I got off the bus the wait would be 45 minutes, if I was lucky.
I scrambled to this seat and then another one and all of it SMELLED bad. I finally sat and opened the window. The "fresh-ish" air helped. Malodor was my neighbor.

The smell permeated the seats, the walls. It wasn't a smell, more like a terrible stench of 40 days and 40 nights of living, eating, walking, sweating and not washing, and it smelled like piss dripped and dried and shit not washed out of cracks, and sweat forever more, and body odor, the nastiest, worst funk.

A woman had a like one year old baby on her lap, the baby's head was tilted all the way back, downing the drink from her sippy cup. Her head stayed back for so long it seemed unreal. It couldn't be the baby that smelled that bad. Nothing that came out of babies smelled like that.

Someone sprayed perfume. Could you believe The STINK gobbled up the spray. Being close to the open window helped. At first I watched the range of emotions people had when the smell hit them. Some frowned, and shook their heads in disgust. Others made comments about nasty asses stinkin'. They realized quickly though that if they opened their mouths too wide the STINK would try to get down their throats. I stopped looking at the people and opened the book I brought to read during that, my "Me" time on the bus. Somehow the wicked smell faded a bit. How could that be?
The bus pulled up to my stop. People looked at me with envy because I was getting out of that smelly bus. I walked home slowly, thankful that the smell did not follow me. I relished in the colors and beauty of the changing to evening sky.

"Glasses"

Driving class is going great. Tests every week and I'm getting 90's and 100's.
Getting on the bus to class is where the action happens. I got on the bus and there is a hooded, youngish late teens, early twenties guy sitting in the front with bags all around him. He stares at people as they get on the bus. He gives me a look. A dude with suspenders and huge Erkel glasses gets on and sits across from the guy with the bags. The guy stares at the dude with the glasses with annoyance and exasperation. He mutters, "glasses" and "bald headed". The dude looks uncomfortable but doesn't look at the guy who is obviously talking about him.
The homeless guy looks at me and sticks out his tongue. Not like in a nasty way, but like a first grader nya -nyaing his friend. I laughed out loud, it was so funny, such a strange gesture from a stranger. I did not stick my tongue out at him.

1st Week of Driver's Ed

My mom learned to drive when she was in her forties. She surprised the whole family by presenting her new driver’s license to us while dancing around the living room with joy. My mom never danced around. She was so joyous that she passed. She didn’t tell anyone she was going to driving school.

Being a native New Yorker I never felt the need to learn to drive. The subway system goes almost everywhere and in every direction and there are buses for the places the trains can’t take you. And of course there are four taxis to every person in New York City.

My first day of driver’s ed I wait fifteen impatient minutes for the bus. I get on the full, but not crowded bus and the only seat available is across the aisle from a laid out heroin/crack/meth addict. He is passed out and leaning on what looks like a large laundry sack in the seat next to him. He looks messed up with a large, red lump like a small horn on his forehead. His mouth is hanging open. On the floor around him are large bags.

The guy sits up like a zombie rising, his eyes don’t open. I see that the laundry bag was really a bent over woman in her own drug induced stupor. She is stooped over, bent in her seat. Her vividly dyed hair is the only thing alive and it is hanging over her face. The addict sways and falls back to the side and lays back down on the woman.

The bus makes a stop and folks get off. The man still in his haze calls for the bus driver to wait, he somehow realizes it is their stop. With wobbly legs he stands up. He coaxes the woman up. They pick up their belongings. When they finally get to the backdoor we see that dude has pee all over the back of his shorts! There is an audible gasp and folks start mumbling about it. I am disgusted and shaking my head. The drugged up couple tumble out the door.

The class is fine. The driver’s ed the teacher is funny. She tells us little hilarious bits about her life and the other students and the dumb things they’ve done on the road.

There are folks of all ages and races in the class. The first lesson is a typical driver’s ed lesson with lots of information about a cars dashboard and what the gauges mean it is all interspersed with jokes from the teacher and laughter from the students. One student tells the teacher he drove to class alone. Everyone laughed at how illegal and stupid that was.

Talk about a crowded bus!!

Image from the BBC.

Rats

There is a viral video out that involves a rat in a subway car in NYC. The rat does something so yucky and terrible that I don't even wanna repeat it. It reminds me of a Charm City bus experience with rats.

It is late one evening, I am waiting for the bus. There is a huge intersection in front of me and a large cemetery behind a large wall and high fence right behind me.

The amount of rats I see is crazy. It is like a horror movie. Across the street in the parking lot of a Rite A the rats are playing freeze tag and using the little scratch of grass and dirt as their personal playground. 1, 2, 3 and 4 come out of a hole and chase each other around. They run into the middle of the street and scramble back on the sidewalk. They go in a hole and 1, 2, 3, 4,5, 6,7 come out and start running around. A cat comes out from behind the tree watching them it does nothing.

No sign of the bus.
Across the street where I am standing I am shaking in my shoes. I eyeball the sewer drain, the filled to the top garbage can near me. And a few minutes later I hear the rustling. A lady who is at the bus stop also makes a noise and moves away. I move without even looking and when I look there they are 1, 2, 3 running up and into the garbage can! TAXI!