Some funny things I saw
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
So, I get out of the house now, right? I have a bout a 3 block walk to the bus, and then a bus ride to work. I have to imagine this will provide endless fun things to write about and so far I have not been disappointed.
Yesterday on my ride over, I sat down and after a few stops the bus was filling up and the lady across from me was sitting at a "two seater." So she looks up, and notices that the bus is filling up. So she scoots over to the middle of her "bench" so now shes taking up not one seat out of two...but both seats. She plops herself right down in the middle of it so that NO one will bother her for the next four stops before she gets off.
I almost lost it. Nutty CTA riders!
Then today there was a Chinese woman who was listening to her discman. Every 5 or so minutes, she'd shout out something in Chinese, as if she was singing along with her CD. But that's not so weird, so this story must get better, right?
You bet.
So it's finally time for her to get off the bus. She stands up and the bus lurches her off her feet, and she spills back into her chair. The lady behind her reaches out to help her. I'm not sure what she could have done to keep her on her feet...maybe she was just trying to protect her kid from being landed on.
So then the poor woman, who at this point, I've decided is not all there in the head, stumbles to the front of the bus, and shouts SOMETHING close to "GET OFF NOW" at the driver.
Man it must suck to be a CTA driver. Most people are super nice, and say thanks when the driver stops for them, or when they get off. Not this lady. She didn't pull the cord or hit a button to request a stop. She just screamed at the poor guy.
And finally, I got to work early on my first day of work, and I don't have a key yet, or the security code, so I just bummed around all over North and Clybourn to get a feel for the location. On my way back to the office, I was walking up Clybourn when this guy approaches from the other direction. He coughs a little...and then stops. Bends over, puts his hands on his knees, and proceeds to hack up a lung. Like he's heaving and wretching and pulling all this mucus out of his chest into his mouth...and he let's it fly. Right onto the sidewalk in front of me.
I'd never seen anything like it. Oh sure I've seen someone spit on the sidewalk, I'm not some prude. But THIS was a production. A production which landed really close to my shoes.
