Saturday, September 29, 2012

Semi-Habitual Strangers

I complain a lot about how big of a pain in the ass riding public transportation is. Anyone who follows me on Twitter or if you're friends with me on Facebook will know how much I loathe Port Authority. 

People who don't ride public transportation really don't understand or even try to understand the woes of it. I can go on for hours about how much it sucks. From the sad attempt of having regularity, to spending every single day on a mini itinerary, the list goes on forever and ever and ever and...well, you get the point.

So wasting all of this time waiting on the bus/T (that's the train for those uneducated on public transportation lingo), actually on the bus/T, in between connecting routes, my commute to college, or just walking around downtown, I find stuff to occupy myself with to prevent complete insanity. 

Other than listening to my iPod or reading a book, I find people watching to work wonders! 

For school I catch the 36 bus into town (because I really don't like trotting up a shit ton hills at 7 in the morning to catch the T. My body just can't handle it). By the time the 36 gets to my stop it's packed with people on their way to their jobs in the city, so I try and get a seat or just stand near the front door or the door closer to the middle of the bus. If I'm standing in the front of the bus, I can't really people watch. How obvious can it be when you're standing in front of everyone and completely turned around, just staring behind semi-tinted sunglasses. But when I do stand farther back or sit in a seat I can people watch allllllll I like (Wow that sounds really creepy). I could write an entire blog post about the people on the 36 bus in the morning, but I'll just give you guys a taste. 

There's the old man who usually sits in between two middle aged women in the seats that face inwards. I'm usually listening to my iPod on the bus, so I assume what they're talking. I stopped listening for a moment and it was politics this time, so I just hit play buttom for my complete apathy of listening to politics. This old man isn't creepy like my marketing teacher, at least from what I hear, but he always carries candy with him in a Shop n' Save bag. Off brand candy too, and hands them out to the ladies of bus 36. Sometimes he hands out little baggies with stuff that looks like drugs. Let's just assume it's herbal tea mix and not roofies or some other kind of crazy drug. I label him as the "old-man-who-is-past-his-prime-but-still-thinks-he-has-it-with-the-potential-to-be-that-stereotypical-creepo". But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and just say he's a nice old man. 

Then there's the middle-aged woman who always has her blonde hair wrapped around in a hot mess of a, yet stylistic, bun thing kept together with twelve gallons of hairspray and an outdated hair clip. She keeps to herself, normally, or sometimes takes part in the conversation between the old man and the other women. Her white glasses are kind of groovy though, except they remind me of the kind Johnny Depp wears in Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, except thinner on the sides. The lenses are big and round and completely black. Surprise she can even see anything from behind those suckers. And her posture is tired and worn out almost. Like she partied hard last night and has the BIGGEST hangover ever trying to hide it behind a cup or two of black coffee and big tinted sunglasses. 

So there's those two people on the 36 bus, then there's the common homeless people wondering around Market Square. Kind of sad really, and I can't help to think how they got so homeless and down-in-the-dumps. Then I think to a few COPS episodes and quickly move on with my morning commute into Starbucks.

Jeez, you wouldn't even believe how pushy and rude corporate Pittsburgh can be in the morning, just waiting for their coffee impatiently. Sometimes (rarely anymore) I'm nice and let them go in front of me since I have time to waste before class. But I stopped that when someone thought that they could just cut in front because they were late for work. Yeah right. It payed off though! Got a free cup o' coffee. That's five or six dollars I'm NOT wasting every day for coffee from Starbucks. Luckily, for me and my wallet's sake, I got tired of their Pumpkin Spice Lattes. The manager remembers me though, always like "Hey! You're Vaughn, right?" I would normally be happy at the fact that she remembers me from every other time Starbucks thoroughly rapes my wallet, except that she remembers my name because of her drug-abusing cousin once removed that died was named Vaughn as well. How do you even reply to that? "Oh, thanks, you're so sweet." 

At the bus stop for the G2 or 28X, there's always the common public transportation user/tired civilian wanting to sit down, stretch their legs as far as they can across the sidewalk and get in peoples way or ask for bus change or change for, possibly, the only working payphone left in the world at that stop. Some don't look homeless, just comfortable, casual, or actually in business attire. But I don't care how you're dressed, I can't help thinking you are homeless sitting on the ground, sprawled out with a cigarette dangling out the corner of your mouth. Those people change every day, but it's a common acknowledgement I seem to find.

Writing this all out kinda shows me some regularity in my everyday life, I guess, if you stretch the definition of "regularity" out a bit...and throw pepper or something in my face. Oddly enough, I find some comfort in seeing the old man talk and give out candy on the bus to the ladies, the middle aged women with the killer hangover, the homeless people (okay, not so much the homeless), and the manager at Starbucks who remembers me from her dead drug dealing once removed cousin. Beggars can't be choosers. Except I didn't beg for anything, so, I don't know what you would really call it.

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