1998 november 30

the wheels on the bus go round and round

i've been watching quite a bit of news this weekend [while i may not be addicted to cigarettes, i am not so sure about cnn] and one of the stories that keeps cropping up is that of the citybus in seattle that went off the bridge.

the whole thing gave me the proper willies. i was a busrider for years and i never quite overcame the uneasiness of someone else being in charge of the wheel, much less the whole cattlecarness of the conveyance. i don't know about the drivers in seattle but the ones i have experience with seem to be rejects from the nascar circuit, driving too quickly and swerving in and out of traffic as if they were ferraris instead of industrial sized buses. no seatbelts, no restraints of any sort at all unless you count the bodies of all the other people crammed in there with you. in other words, no control for claire.

i hate when i am not in control.

i feel like running outside and kissing my car except all the neighbors would think me crazier than they already do. it is bad enough to worry about the general craziness of the busdriver but if i also had to throw in worries about guntoting idiots riding nest to me i would be a complete and utter basketcase. of course i probably sat next to untold numbers of guntoting, cracksmoking, homicidal maniacs during my seven year bus tenure but ignorance is indeed bliss.

funny bus story from the past: last winter i was waiting for a citybus to take me to work and as usual i was dressed like a three year old [overalls, flannel shirt, backpack, hair in braids] and a schoolbus stopped to pick me up. as i stood there, mouth agape and completely dumbfounded, the driver kept telling me to "come on, get a move on girl, get on the bus." two days later, a sixteen year old kid tried to pick me up at another bus stop.

i have got to start dressing like a grownup.

heading out to give the car a wash, claire