Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Bus Conversations

I struggle to find a manner to portray my feelings pertaining to the Los Angeles bus system in a way that does my sentiments justice. The Los Angeles metro system is hypocritical, slow and infuriating and tries my patience as nothing ever has before. The system which boasts punctuality and ease of use rivals  driving in Los Angeles traffic. I can't decide which is worse- standing around waiting 45 minutes for a bus that, based on its posted schedule, comes every 10-15, or sitting in bumper-to-bumper gridlock. At least in the gridlock I feel like I can be productive by listening to NPR. In that case, I can also have a minor breakdown in my car and no one else is around to witness my psychotic moment except possibly the driver beside me.

The bus is not all bad either, I suppose- I have overheard entertaining conversations (entertaining being a broad understatement). Yesterday I almost had a meltdown in public, much akin to my crying bout at the DMV about a month ago. After walking about 15 minutes to the bus stop, I then had to wait 45 minutes for the bus to show up. During times like these, my smart phone and LA Times app come in handy. Or it would have, if I had not already read every article in the paper at work.

When I finally got on the bus, there were no seats so I planted myself in the most comfortable standing position I could get myself into, and proceeded to listen to one of the most obnoxious conversations of my life. Basically, it was two late 20-somethings volleying a list of places they wanted to travel to. It started out where one would say "I really want to go to Rome!" and the other would say "yeah, good food there!" and then they would discuss Rome a little bit, and then move on to the next desired travel spot. But at one point it went something like this:

Guy: I wanna go to Amsterdam. Lots of pot.
Girl: Totally. I want to go to Jamaica.
Guy: Oh man, Jamaica. I want to go to Brazil.
Girl: OMG, Brazil! Totally.
Guy: I want to go to Venice.
Girl: I heard it smells but yeah. I want to go to Korea!
Guy: I want to go to Japan.
Girl: I want to go to Denver!
Guy: All that's there are like hicks in log cabins and mosquitos.

Wow. clearly he has never been to Denver before.
And on it went until, about 45 minutes later, I got back to my apartment. Even in gridlock, I would have made it back in 30 total by car. Really makes me mad. 

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