Metro Journal: Dec 18 The Wrong Bus At The Wrong Time

When I got on the DASH in the morning, there was a couple sitting in the back. I got on about 10 minutes before it usually leaves at 9:50. After about 7 minutes, the woman goes up to the driver.

Woman: Are we actually going to leave anytime soon? We need to be someplace.
Driver: 2 minutes.

Walking back, she tells her insignificant other, rather fucking loudly, "We should have just fucking walked." She then spends the next 2 minutes bitching. And continues bitching.

They got off at the first stop near the lot, but there's not actually a gate there. Maybe they were late for a Dr Phil taping, which enters from a side door directly into their studio, but there was no page at that door. I was wondering if they meant to go to the tour, but tourists need to enter at the front gate, and if they figured it out, they would have to walk the equivalent of three blocks from where they got off. I could hear the nonstop bitching already...


That night I didn't leave until 7, and I just decided to walk straight to Western instead of worrying about buses either way. I was carrying what probably amounted to 15 extra pounds in Xmas gifts, and I was already tired from staying up late to finish presents. After I got off the bus at Hollywood & Western, I proceeded to wait forever for a 780. 30 minutes. And then when it finally came, it was of course packed, so I got on the 180 that had shown up at the same time. A longer ride, but I couldn't deal with standing with this extra weight until a seat opened up on the 780, and the 180 was less than half full, and I was too cold to gamble that there would be another 780 in the next 15 minutes.

A few stops after I got on, some guy got on and apparently didn't bother to pay his fare, just sitting down immediately behind the driver.

Driver: Excuse me! Excuse me! I need to see your pass!
Freeloader: mumble
Driver: Your first priority when you get on the bus is to show your pass! I don't care what you're doing, whether you're on the phone or anything else! You need to have your pass out! (Freeloader finally shows him his pass.) Thank you!
Freeloader: Behave.
Driver: Yes, you need to behave and follow the rules.
Freeloader: You need to be professional!
Driver: I am being professional. (And he was being rather calm about the whole thing. I've seen drivers get totally bent out of shape.) You need to show the driver your pass as soon as you get on the bus, no matter what you're doing.
Freeloader: I was on the phone!
Driver: That doesn't matter!

While normally I would have been thrilled to have this kind of entertainment, I was bone-tired. It was already 8, and I just wanted to get home. I was starting to have this nightmare, as the dumbass was getting increasingly argumentative, that the driver would end up pulling over and insist the asshole get off the bus, which did not seem like it promised to be a very efficient process. At that point we were pulling up to the stop at Vermont & Hollywood. There was a 780 behind us waiting for the left turn light! And I could see through the front window that it was pretty empty! I got off the bus and made the crossing light. (The 180 stops on the other side of the street from the 780 stop at the same intersection.) From the grumbling, it sounded like the people there had been waiting a long time. I imagine the bus I had passed on earlier had been so overcrowded that driver hadn't even bothered to stop to let people on.

I was dead tired by the time I got home. It was almost quarter to nine. And I still had to finish my boss's present. Yeesh.