Metro Journal: Nov 14 Letting It Allllll Hang Out

They were resurfacing Los Feliz at Central this morning, so the driver had to take a detour, along with every other car, down the already-busy San Fernando. Unfortunately, this required trying to make a left turn at a stop sign into cars that were already backed up a couple blocks, and we probably sat there close to 5 minutes. The truly unfortunate part to the wait was the rather zaftig woman in a tracksuit jogging towards us, wearing nothing under the jacket. Ask me how I know that she wasn't wearing anything under the jacket. Go on. Ok, I know because it was unzipped down to her belly and she was seriously hanging out of it. I tried to look away, but I would just have to look up again to see if she had, you know, maybe noticed by now and zipped it up a little.

We finally got merged onto San Fernando and as we were waved by a policeman through the intersection at Los Feliz, we got a good whiff of hot tar.

I just now realized that the woman with the gravity-enhanced zipper was running right toward the intersection with the police officer...

Anyway, the driver seemed to have known about the detour, because he had stopped at a temporary stop before turning off of Central. He didn't seem familiar with the actual detour route, though. Los Feliz is one of the few roads that crosses the train tracks and will also get you across I-5 and the Los Angeles Drainage Ditch a mile or so away, so you have to go a little out of the way in either direction when you can't use Los Feliz. Well, he turned in toward the Metrolink station, maybe thinking he could then make a right turn up one of the dinky side streets before the train tracks and then make a left turn back onto Los Feliz. This route had the benefit of taking me past that garage which had had two International Harvester Travelalls locked in its yard. They were still there! Actually, I don't think they've moved an inch, unless that last earthquake nudged them a little.

Unfortunately the first side street had a sign saying no through traffic, presumably because you still couldn't get on Los Feliz at the other end because of the construction. He started to turn down the second one, which was the last one before the actual train station, and then for some reason I couldn't see (maybe it was also blocked at Los Feliz?), he had to back up to turn around. I mean, these are seriously long buses. The 45' length puts it 10 feet longer than the standard Metro bus size. Ok, they're long, get it?

He finally got the bus onto Glendale Blvd, went up Riverside, and then turned back onto Los Feliz, thus neglecting anyone waiting for the 780 there, because they were on the wrong side of the intersection. I did see a Metro Local bus coming down Los Feliz, so maybe our driver got a little too detoured.


That evening, when Joe the Bear came to my desk asking if I wanted to walk to Vine Station with him, I thought a moment about how I had planned to stay a little longer, then I remembered the bus hell of the night before. "Sure!"

It was already very dark and the sidewalks in Los Angeles are crap, because the city will only fix ones which were damaged by city trees. Seriously. The whole thing is, pardon my French, fucked up. But anyway, when we got to Sunset Blvd without tripping and breaking our necks, I saw that the marquee for the newly-reopened Palladium was all lit up... because Motley Crue are playing there tonight! Whoa!!!! Um, yeah. And even though there were still two hours until showtime when we walked by, people were already lined up for over a block, wearing lots of black and taking pictures of each other's tattoos. I realized I was wearing a black skirt. I feared being mistaken for, um, I don't know what Motley Crue fans call themselves, and I'm not really going to offer my own term up. But the long black skirt, paired with my hot pink Ravelry t-shirt, didn't really scream "Skank!" to the expected degree.

I was grateful that I didn't have to wait for than a few minutes for a 780 tonight. I was less grateful when two women, both with young sons, got on, and then totally failed to attempt to control their sons' screeching. They were sitting half of the 45' bus length from me, and even with my headphones on, I could still hear them. People were constantly turning and glaring, to no effect. Pay attention to your bratty kids already, people!

Some dumbass got all hot under the collar when we didn't stop at Chevy Chase. Um, this is the Rapid. It *never* stops at Chevy Chase. Well, unless the light is red. "Now I have to walk two blocks!" That cannot be a greater burden than being a dumbass who doesn't know what bus he's getting on.