Even though the bus driver drives like a crazy and is somewhat surly I relish any chance I get to keep from driving. I lived in LA for a year and I am cured of the desire to drive. Can't stand it - road trips are my idea of hell and I will try to weasel out of driving if at all possible.
However, in this couple of months that I have been riding the bus I've noticed it is not without its drawbacks. Namely, I am at the mercy of the bus schedule. If I linger too long in bed or forget too many things on my way out the door (I go back inside no fewer than three times when leaving the house because I've always forgotten something), then I'll miss the bus and have to drive. And like I said, the bus driver is a bit, shall we say, creative with her driving skills. Stops signs are apparently only suggestions, speed limits are meant for other people, and she seems to be in a perpetually 'can't be bothered' mood. But, none of these things are too major.
What has taken some getting used to are the passengers. There's the guy who gets on a few stops after me and insists on talking extremely loudly to the guy across from him about the dumbest things. He found out the other guy works in a law firm and was all 'Yeah, I was going to go to law school blah blah blah.' He's such a toolbox - not just a tool, but a toolbox.
One of the stops is in front of the jail - so the visitors are on my bus. One time there were a couple of girls who were talking about their respective men who were 'inside'. Now, I've never been in jail, I've never dated somebody in jail, and I have a healthy respect for the law. I know that sometimes people are wrongly imprisoned but I have to believe that those are the exceptions and that most of the people in there belong there. I just wonder what life would be like if I found myself in their shoes - not that I really want to know, but I just wonder. One of these girls even had a baby!
Then I get to work and I'm dealing with our clients. Quick note: Just because you live in an apartment, that does not make you exempt from taking care of it. If you do not take care of your apartment and leave it a wreck when you leave, you're going to get charged. I was on the phone with this guy this morning who alternated between calling me sweetheart and darling and jerk and bozo. He ranted and raved about there being a problem where he lived but wouldn't elaborate and wanted the CEO to call him back! When you get a bad hamburger at McDonald's do you speak to the president of the company? Is there something I don't know?
After a little digging, turns out this guy didn't want to pay the charges for leaving his apartment wrecked and has been harassing everybody at the company to keep from paying. Everybody he's talked to has told him the same thing: Jack up your apartment, you will have to pay for it. He was threatening me that he was going to the TV stations and the newspapers (not the first time I've heard that one) and 'I know you bozos don't want that'. Give me a break. He was one of those people.
I understand that people get treated unfairly and that there are unprofessional, rude people in the workplace. It's unfortunate that we come into contact with those people at times. But someone being rude to you is not justification for you to take a few hundred off your rent (true story) or to ever get loud and ridiculous. You look tacky and you've decreased your chances of getting helped tenfold. And like I've told people a million times, we're not in the business of being shady and nobody has it out for you specifically. I promise no one was alerted the day you moved in and said, 'He's in! Quick, put the crying baby above him, the meth dealer next door and the lady with ten cats on the other side'. Sorry to disappoint, but you're not that special that extra efforts were coordinated to make your life miserable.
(singing) The freaks come out at night, the freaks come out at niiiiight.....
Takes all kinds, I guess.
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