The people on the bus

When I first moved back to Vancouver long, long ago in 2002, I regularly rode the bus. It was how I got everywhere unless someone took pity on me and gave me a ride. And honestly? It wasn't that bad. Really. I know I complain about it sometimes, but overall, taking the bus in Vancouver is a fairly pleasant ordeal.

I met some very interesting people on the bus back in 2002. In those days, I worked downtown and the bus I got on started its route two stops before mine. So even though it was rush hour, I always got a seat. But getting a seat usually meant at some point I'd get a seat mate.

There was the "you are beautiful" guy. He was well known in Kits for getting on the bus and working his way slowly to the back telling every woman on the bus they were beautiful and then asking if they would be his girlfriend. Most women were gracious as they declined this offer - he was particularly in tune to not pissing off husbands and boyfriends. I kind of wonder if anyone ever agreed to be his girlfriend...

There was the very elderly lady who had "met" Prince William - who is a very well mannered young man, in case you're wondering - and he is devastated that his parents divorced and that his father remarried and that everyone had to see him walk behind his mother's coffin. And he makes a mean roast. Really. And if his father will be king before him, he might have to commit patricide. She was serious too.

J and I have recently started taking the bus to work most days - I had to start driving when she started daycare at the university because of the hours...if I dropped her off and left within 5 minutes of the daycare opening and got back at the absolute last minute to pick her up, I would be short a good half hour in my working day - the half hour trek across campus each way does that. So I started driving. Since J has moved centres and is a little bit older, the hours are extended by half an hour. It's cutting it close, but I can drop her off, put in my 8 hour day and pick her up before the daycare closes. It requires some very close attention to the minutes in the morning, but we're doing it...

I thought we'd get to meet some interesting people, but headphones seem to have done away with people talking on the bus...I did see a woman in a fluorescent pink crushed velvet leisure suit and bright white sneakers today. I thought she was an older woman, but when I got close enough to see her, she was young - maybe in her early 20s. I didn't know those things were back in style. I also saw a woman pacing up and down the sidewalk, walking backwards. She was there when I walked to my office and she was still there when I walked back to pick J up. She fell off the curb twice and bumped into three people...I don't really understand, but okay.

Maybe tomorrow we'll meet some interesting people on the bus?