Riding da Bus

9x

I got off work early, so took the 9x bus. I prepared myself for the bus ride by putting on a poker face and wearing my backpack in front. That's the only way to survive in this city. Only the paranoid survive! There are just so many crazies walking around that you've got to protect yourself.

The first bus that came was somewhat full, but many disembarked, so it emptied out. I decided to board. I came to regret that pretty soon. As I got on, I smelled a whiff of dried urine. I thought it would pass, but it lingered. Then I saw another bus passenger next to me grimace and realized to my horror that the smell would not go away because it came from one of the other passengers! Since my nose is hyper sensitive when it comes to urine smells, I needed to get off the bus as soon as possible. The mere thought of having to endure that smell for the 20 minute ride home scared the heck out of me. I scrambled off the bus as fast as my feet could carry me and walked back to my original stop to wait for the next bus.

When the next bus came, I even had a seat, which was good. However, this bus had it's own annoyances. This time it wasn't dried urine smells. Instead, there was a woman with an obnoxious voice talking loudly to the bus driver the entire time. She was essentially the only person talking loudly on the bus. You could see the pain on the other passengers' faces as she droned on and on in her loud voice. She was just prattling on about things that didn't make much sense.