My beauty

I cannot emphasize enough that taking public transportation gives you a view into humanity that you just don't get driving around with your windows up.


The other day I was waiting for the Max... just sitting there minding my own business, ready to go home after a long day of running errands. There was a scruffy looking older man in a wheelchair waiting nearby.


He rolled up to me and said "Sorry to annoy you, but would you put my books in my bag?"
"Um... sure" I replied.
Reaching behind him he pulled two books from between his back and the back of his chair and handed them to me. As I put them in the backpack hanging behind his chair I noticed that one of them was the Alcoholics Anonymous big book - I couldn't tell what the other one was. I zipped up the back pack and went to sit down again.
"Thanks" he said.
"No problem."


So I continue sitting there, trying to decide if it was worth it to pull my own book out of my backpack or if the Max would be there soon enough for me not to bother trying to read. But it turns out Mr. Wheelie Drinksnomore wanted to chat now.


"I want to compliment you on your beauty*." He said.
Oh lord...now I try to be good about accepting compliments but on this particular day I was no where near beautiful. My hair was in a pony tail and I was all sweaty & tired from being out and about but... not wanting to be rude I just said a modest "Thank you." and tried to think of something witty to say about inner beauty.
"Thank you for your beauty*. It's nice to give a man something good to look at."

And wow - there's suddenly something very interesting on the other end of the platform!





*I should mention that I happened to be wearing a low cut top... well not so much low as loosely cut top because it was hot - but you know if I leaned over or slouched at all.... anyway I'm pretty sure you can substitute "low cut blouse" for "beauty" in his comments and get his true sentiment.

Everything's alright yes, everything's fine.

(Listening to Jesus Christ Superstar… quite an appropriate song for me right now actually “close your eyes, close your eyes and relax think of nothing tonight…”)

For the first time in a while now I’m completely dependent on Tri-met for my transportation needs. Now, I count myself extremely fortunate to live in a city where relying completely on public transportation is even a viable option… but it does make life interesting. I also count myself as extremely fortunate not to have to work right now, because if I had to run all my errands after working an 8 hour day, I can assure you that these stories would be far less ‘interesting’ and rather more ‘infuriating’.

Last week I was riding back to downtown on the 12. It was not a peak commuting time so the bus was somewhat empty.

Ok – a (not so) quick aside, I am a total bus dork, and I have a favorite seat. Well, I have a favorite seat on the new buses. On the old buses, pretty much all the seats are the same… but in the new buses the section behind the back door is elevated (to make room for the wheel well & all that stuff I guess). Anyway… ALL (save one) of the window seats on the new buses have compromised leg room. There’s some weird indention that makes it so that you can’t just sit with your feet straight in front of you – your foot closest to the window needs to slide over a bit – which I guess normal people don’t really care about. But it bugs me, and there are only TWO window seats on the new buses that have full leg room – they are in the back section, the second row behind the back door. And actually, the one on the right side has a weird box thing on the floor. Which I think makes an excellent footrest – so that is my #1 favorite seat on the bus. My #2 favorite seat on the bus is the identical seat on the left (which has full leg room and no box). In my aspergers-esque mind – it is a GOOD DAY if I get to sit in either of those seats and a VERY GOOD DAY if I can sit in my favorite spot. I’ll sit in anywhere if there aren’t a lot of options, but seriously – favorite spot. I get a little cranky if someone beats me to it.

In addition to having full leg room (and a foot rest in the case of #1 favorite seat), I get a pretty good view of everything that’s going on in the bus. So when you read my stories about the bus – imagine me sitting up there in the back, leaning against the window, right foot on foot rest, probably attempting to read.

So anyway… I was riding the 12 back into town and there was a Middle Eastern looking Muslim woman sitting at the front of the bus in the sideways facing “honored citizens” seats – her infant son was in a stroller in the aisle. There were only a handful of other people on bus (so the stroller wasn’t a nuisance). The baby was fussy, despite his mom’s attempts to calm him – rubbing his belly, shushing him or stroking his cheek - he was just fussy. It was the end of the day, and he was clearly done with sitting in his stroller. He’d arch his back and squeal loudly, then his mom would try to distract him for a minute. Nothing seemed to be working. She rummaged around in her purse and found a pen. She waved it in front of him and he was temporarily distracted. Of course he grabbed it, and seeing that this quieted him down, she let him have it. Now if you have ever seen a human child – you know exactly what happened next. He threw it down. Then he started to squeal again. A white teenage boy sitting a few rows back, got up, picked up the pen and handed it back to the woman with a smile as he went to exit the bus.

The woman tried distracting her squealing son with the pen again, and again he grabbed it – played with it for a few quiet seconds, then threw it down again. This time it was a young black man who got up, picked up the pen and handed it back to the woman, then sat down again within arms reach of any more pen-throwing the little boy might do. And I just thought to myself… you know, it’s times like this when I think everything’s going to be okay. When safe & well fed I think the basic instinct of humanity is to just be nice to each other – regardless of differences in race or creed. And I felt a lot better about the world… or at least that tiny little slice of the world at that moment.

Justice Center

Well, my car's service engine light is still on, and actually the battery died yesterday for no reason...so I'll be spending my last few weeks in Portland on or, more importantly, waiting for Tri-Met.

Tonight I met a friend for dinner and although the restaurant was on the other side of town, it was just one bus ride away. Dinner was pretty quick and I was feeling lucky because I was actually going to get home on the same transfer (they are good for 2 hours) and not have to buy another ticket. But because the #8 bus line sucks it turned out to be the kind that only went as far as downtown then headed back towards the restaurant (instead of continuing up the hill to where I live). So I had to get off the bus and wait for the one that was going the full route, oh, and by this time my transfer had expired and I'd need to pay for the rest of my ride. Unfortunately I was a nickel short of my fare, so I had to go somewhere and spend money to get some change. Oh Tri-Met....my life would be so dull without you!

Anyway by the time I got back to the stop, I'd missed the full-route #8 and needed to wait for another half hour. Since I had quite a wait I decided to at least go for a little walk down the street wait at another stop. The new stop was right across from the (I kid you not- this is the real name of the building) Justice Center. Which sounds like something out of a comic book. Anyway, I'm standing there waiting for the bus and I notice there are a bunch of people sitting on the steps of the Justice Center, just kinda hanging out. And I think to myself "Why are people hanging out at the Justice Center at 8:30 on a Tuesday night." I mean, it's not like they've got jury duty. Anyway... as I'm pondering this a bus stopped and a man got off and bounded over to a couple of teenaged guys standing nearby and they did the whole "Didn't expect to see you here." kind of greeting... so of course I listened in. ;)

Teen "What are you doing here?"
Man "Oh, my son's in jail, I thought I'd bring him some money."
Teen "He'll appreciate that.... I've been there."
Man "Yeah..."
Teen "Nothing worse than being in jail with no money."

(quick aside here - what exactly does one need money for in jail? Do they get outings to the mall? In any case, at least I know why people were hanging out on the steps of the Justice Center - aka JAIL)

Anyway they go on talking and I notice that they're both holding bibles, and apparently go to the same church. As the teenager's bus comes, the man asks him "You coming on Friday?"
Teen "What's going on."
Man - excitedly "Oh, it's gonna be great - we're getting these two youth groups together and we're gonna have a Power Prayer!"
Teen shouts "All right - I'll be there!" as he gets on the bus.


I don't really have any social commentary on this... other than to say, this is the kind of thing you miss out on when you drive everywhere.