bus rides

"If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place."
~Margaret Mead

oh seattle king county metro. where to start? well as you might have guessed, i take the bus every day to work which is about a thirty minute commute. and although there are always those sketchy situations...i love it. coming from the country end of things, being in a city, i find, is best taken in through the bus. every morning, we drive down the very steep hill of queen anne, and i look out over the city and mt. Rainer (if its not too cloudy). feeds the soul. as does the lemon lift tea i drink.

then i get down to the seattle center, say "oh hey" to the space needle and head into downtown. which is CRAZY all the time with people- tourists, homeless, business people, you name it. and i mean- downtown is always a bustle with things to do. pikes place, video gaming conventions (yes- that happened), the flagship nordstrom store (6 levels of ridiculousness). its crazy. then i get to capitol hill, best known as the crazy artsy section of town which as you might guess i would love. but the people- oh- the people. its a sociologists dream come true.

well there are the regulars you see every morning get on the same bus. the woman with the crazy hair who talks about gardening and cats and i love her. then there is the "beautiful man" as my roomate likes to call him who sits in the corner listening to music, reading political thrillers. the professor (at least i think he is) who wears a white hat like the man in curious george and keeps to himself. then you have the mom who brings the worlds cutest baby on board. adorable.

then we have the wild cards. people who run after the bus after it has started to move to try to make it. my personal favorite was a 15 year old kid who chased after the bus yelling in rush hour on his skateboard. you have the very verbal and somewhat grouchy individuals who complain about bus fare ( i mean, it is rather expensive) and how much the bus drivers get paid (i believe i heard somewhere that seattle bus drivers are among the highest paid in the country. after driving the narrow streets of seattle in a giant refrigerator van, i dont think they get paid enough).

then, you get these amazing moments where you meet a total stranger and have just the neatest conversations around. my second week here, my roomies and i went to the thriftstore where i picked up a tall mirror to use for our bedroom. an older man came on the bus, and was caught off guard by his reflection in the mirror i was holding. he sat next to me, and stated how you need to be prepared for the unexpected, because it is always around the corner. i came to find that this gentleman is a counselor for individuals who have lost a loved one to homicide. he was inspired to this work when his young daughter was murdered in LA by one of her troubled social work clients. amazing man. amazing stories. he handed me one of his business cards that quoted him saying "words unspoken are not unheard". beautiful.

i had a kick ass convo with a guy who knows his hockey. which i realllllly appreciate in town without a hockey team. which can i just break and say- how can you be this close to canada and not have a hockey team? they like soccer here. what the heck.

then there are the busdrivers. who are just the sweetest people in the world and have to put up with so much crap. one of my favorite drivers works on my morning bus route and when the mom with the child gets on board, he just lights up and stops the bus so he can oggle over the baby. then he animatedly calls out the stops and where we are heading next. "up next: pike and third; home of the pike place market, macy's, other overpriced retail outlet stores". you gotta love that kinda humor that early in the morning.

this was quite the random ramble, but bus rides rock. i love it. when i finally got my orca pass (bus pass), i felt like a true-ish seattle-an. am i a food/snow snob who complains that no one knows about hockey? yes. always. but i ride the bus in seattle and sort of know where i am going. i think that should count for something.

love to you all
~me