Metro Journal: Jan 15 It's Your Fault

I had horrible timing this morning, so I decided to catch a Beeline that intersected the 780 at Central and Colorado. I've usually had bad luck with this bus, but I didn't feel like walking another ¼ mile to my regular stop since I was pretty sure I would just miss the next 780 there and have to wait.

Yeah, big mistake.

The Beeline was about 5 minutes late. Whatever. But a woman got on at the same stop I did and then remained in front of the yellow line talking to the driver about something. I couldn't make most of it out, but she kept pointing at the meter and he got out a notepad and we were already sitting there a couple minutes when their voices got a little more strident.

Woman: You're stupid!
Driver: It's not my fault!
Woman: Yes, it is your fault!

And so on.

Finally he told her she needed to sit down, but she just stood there saying she was going to get off "right down there." Finally she moved close enough to the yellow line that the driver just gave up. He stopped at the next stop, assuming as I had that "right down there" meant "the next stop." Well, no, she wanted to get off at the next stop, or something. She did sit down and didn't end up getting off until several stops later, but of course as she was going out the front door, she had to say a few more things to the driver. I was getting really close to telling her to call the damned customer service line, because she was wasting the time of everyone on the bus.

We finally made it to the stop a block away from the 780 stop, but as I was starting down the block, I saw the 780 go by. "Fuck!" If that woman had shut her yap, I would have totally made it.

The next 780 did come about 15 minutes later, but not until someone had tried to convert me to something. But the whole thing had thrown off my schedule that I got to work half an hour after I would have if the woman hadn't bitched forever about transfers or something. I was not happy. Window Kitty wasn't even in his window when I walked by, but that bike wheel was still locked to that signpost!

I walked out and just missed the DASH, which actually seemed to come at a weird time. I started walking to Western.

One of the interior decorating shops has this weird robot in the front window. If we're coming back in the shuttle from lunch, we always wave at it because it's Bob's buddy. The other day, Bob was excited because the red light on its head was turned on for the first time! Wow!

A block before I hit Western I saw another DASH waiting to make the left. This one was closer to the right schedule, so the last one must have been really messed up. I decided a bird in the hand is better than waiting across the street for another bus (plus the 780s are usually less crowded at the Vine stop than the Western stop, so I'm more likely to get a window seat) so I just got on the DASH.

Of course, this brought me right back to work. Two young dumbasses got on there. One of them proceeded to thrill me with his cultural literacy and astonishing articulation.

Have you ever heard of that movie 1984? I don't, like, know when it was written, but it was written, like, way before 1984 and it was, like, supposed to be what it was like in, like, 1984.

To think I almost missed that.

As I've mentioned previously, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is one of my comfort movies. As Ricardo Montalban had died yesterday and the theater named for him is on Vine halfway between Sunset and Hollywood, last night I had gotten off the DASH one stop early to try to walk by and take a picture. Um, not for myself, of course. However, because they're building that ungodly WHollywood thing, the sidewalk across the street from the theater was closed, so I couldn't get a proper angle. I did find Clara Bow's star along the way, but that's irrelevant. Tonight, I stayed on the bus, but because we had to stop almost right in front of the theater, I tried to take a picture. You can't make out the letters spelling out the memoriam, though. Oh, well.

The driver was trying to make the right turn onto Hollywood right as the light was changing, and some dumbass was trying to make a left turn into the same (right) lane, making it impossible for the bus to make its wide turn until the dumbass driver did, except he was stopped waiting for the bus. The bus driver started flailing at him to move, then shouted, "Fuck!" Then immediately apologized to us all (me, the two poster children for expository speaking, and some guy all the way in the back with his headphones on). I told her that it was ok, because that's why I didn't drive. She replied, "Some people are just... Lord help me!"

And then a 780 came a minute after I got off the DASH! Wheee!!!