Since I've documented my past bus issues on this blog, I felt it my civic responsibility to document my latest aggravation. For any readers in the Seattle area, the geography will make more sense. For anyone else, just take my word for it.
I left work at 3:30 to catch the bus to my therapist’s office by Pioneer Square (turned out to be a rather fortuitous destination). Naturally, the storm that had been threatening all day decided to hit about 5 minutes before I left, so that was lovely. Fortunately it was just sprinkling at the time. Anyhoo, the last time I bussed it over there from work I took a bus from the bus tunnel transit stop. But yesterday I saw that a bus arrived at 3:41 at Stewart and Yale, so I thought I’d take that instead since it was a closer stop and I'm lazy. So I walk over there and realize that the usual bus stop is closed because of the construction that has thrown our morning commute off, too. Damn construction. So I look at the sign that says where the stop has moved. It’s now in front of Play it Again Sports, across the street. So I walk over there and wait. There’s another guy over there waiting, too. Eventually, a bus shows up, but it’s not the one I’m waiting for. The other guy goes to get on and says “this one is going downtown if that’s where you’re headed” and I say “thanks. That’s ok, I can see my bus right there.” It was just coming around the corner. So this bus pulls away and I go and stand right at the curb and wait for mine to pull up. I notice that it’s not getting into the right lane to pick me up and there’s no reason for it not to. Traffic moves forward and he still doesn’t move to the right. I then realize that he’s not going to effing stop! So I’m trying to figure out what to do and I consider just walking across the street and knocking on the door as he’s stopped at the light. But I hesitated too long and a big ol' semi truck pulls up between me and the bus and I can’t do it. Damn my slow decision-making skills and fear of breaking the rules! I’m freaking out because my appointment is in 15 minutes and I now have no idea how to get there. So I start booking it down the street in the direction that the damn bus is headed, hoping maybe I can catch up to it at some later stop. Well of course I can’t. So I reach a bus stop further down Stewart where a bus is loading up a bunch of people and I ask the driver how far into downtown he goes (it’s one of the fancy transit busses that was headed to Tacoma). The (blessedly) friendly driver says “2nd Ave” and I say “close enough” and hop on (fortunately my decision-making ability kicked in at that moment at least). I hear another rider ask a few stops down how close he gets to Safeco Field and he says he goes to Washington, so I’m thinking this should be perfect. Well after stopping for what felt like every bus rider in Seattle along the way, we finally reach the last stop on the ride free zone, 2nd and Washington. I leap off and finally luck is on my side cuz the building I’m headed for is at 1st and Washington and I’m only about 7 minutes late for my appointment. My therapist was really cool about it, so it was fine. Just so damn aggravating because for the 2nd time, a bus has complete blown past me! What the hell??!!!!
But my bus woes don't end there. So my appointment is over and I start to head for the bus home. Well as you may know, streets around here are confusing as hell and stop and start all over the place. Each time I’ve gone to this bus stop I think I’ve taken a different walking route to get there. Apparently I took the wrong one this time because I’m walking up 1st, looking for James St., and it’s not showing up. I keep walking and walking and it’s not there. So I finally think “screw it, I’ll just walk up to 3rd Ave and pick up the 358 at any of its stops cuz I know it stops all along 3rd.” So I pack my provisions and pick up my sherpa guides and make the huge hike up to 3rd (I despise the hill from 1st to 3rd) and hit a bus stop just a minute or so before the 358 arrives. I’m proud of myself at this moment. Yay me.
So I get on and there isn’t the usual plethora of empty seats to choose from, since I’m getting on further down than I usually do. So the only empty row I see is in the back of the bus. I grab the seat and as I’m sitting, I notice Crazy across the aisle. Son of a bitch! This woman is flailing her arms and legs and chanting incoherent words and sounds. Ugh. So I put on my headphones and crank up the music and hope that she tires herself out sooner rather than later. First I tried Jack Johnson, but that was too quiet and mellow to drown her out. So I went with the Foo Fighters. Even that had to be cranked up louder and fast forwarded through a bit because the beginning of some of the songs were just too damn quiet to drown out the crazy. A few people sat down next to me and I was thankful for the buffer, but both times they only stayed there briefly before moving up to some less crazy-saturated seat a stop or two down the line. After about 20 minutes of it, I notice that there are some open seats that I can move to so I do. I can still hear her, but not as loud and her crazy dance isn’t in my peripheral, distracting me from my book (that is, naturally, in the climax of the story so is particularly interesting right now, making it even more irritating that I'm being distracted). I am finally able to hop off the bus at my stop, about 45 minutes after getting on. And she never stopped. I’m not sure if she was crazy or on copious amounts of drugs or both. Still, as insanely annoying as she was, I couldn’t help but be a little jealous of her energy level. Cuz I was exhausted.
So I’m now walking home the few blocks from the stop and of course the weather has taken this moment to start torrentially raining with hurricane force winds. Of course I’m exaggerating, but it was really sucktastic – not just the drizzle I dealt with earlier in the afternoon. So by the time I finally got home I was cold, wet, exhausted and irritated.
And we were out of chocolate in the house, which just made matters worse.
I think it may be important to note at this point that I really am not as negative a person as this blog must make me sound. I just find rants easier and more interesting to type. I'll try to work on more positive experiences to add. And maybe my therapist can help me with my negativity. I'll just need to take a different bus to get to her next time or it may be a lost cause.
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