Life on Route 435

I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again: these posts technically shouldn't be "route 435" anymore, because I don't even ride that bus now, but whatever. I'm keeping the name. So on to the post . . .

Yesterday was a pretty normal day. Until I got on the bus (of course). I was on ST Route 522 from Seattle, and the bus was full like usual. Thankfully by the time I get on, there are still seats on the rig; it's not unusual for people to be standing the entire ride. (This is not like a quick ride at high speeds, it's 40 minutes, folks.) Well, halfway home, as someone was *attempting* to get off the bus, she rammed right into me. What do I mean? Like she stood up while the bus was still moving and then when the bus jerked a bit, she lost her ability to balance and rammed me with her big backpack. Of course she was totally ignorant to what just happened. I might have been forgiving if she would have noticed and apologized, but since she didn't, she has earned herself a permanent mention on this blog.

Moving on . . .

Everything was going OK, until I (and everyone else on the bus) heard this high-pitched, kid-sounding music coming from somewhere. My first thought was that it was coming from a dude's earbuds that weren't quite in his ear. Well, after I noticed him looking around in disgust from the noise, I figured it wasn't him. So I looked around some more. Couldn't quite pin where it was coming from . . . UNTIL . . . a short, odd-looking girl/lady/female stood up to let someone out of her row. Picture this person in your mind: frizzy hair, black knee-length socks with pirate skulls all over them, short (like short, short, short) black leather mini skirt. Got that picture in your mind? Good. Now add to it her holding a netbook (you know those tiny computers that are popular now). She stands up, trying not to drop her computer. The person leaves. The bus starts moving again. The sound gets louder. And louder. And now it is non-stop.

Yes, the sound was coming from her--or should I say from her computer. All the way from Downtown Seattle until Kenmore (probably farther than that, but that's where I got off). As I got off the bus, I passed where she was sitting and glanced at her screen. I am not kidding, she was playing some stupid computer game and those noises were from each little thing eating whatever other thing in her game (looking like Tumblebugs if you know what that game is). Yes, she was playing her game, ignorant of all the stares, glares and angry looks from everyone else on the bus, and she was playing with the sound on.

I was so glad to get off the bus. I feel bad for the person sitting next to her, but I also wonder why she didn't ask her to turn down the volume or plug in her earphones or whatever. Some things (and people) I will never understand.

P.S. I forgot to mention the girl/lady/female on the bus the other day who was standing the entire time (scroll up for an explanation about people standing up). Yeah, she was holding the handle on the back of my seat, which would've normally been fine, except she was holding my hair with it. I pulled forward several times to try and get my hair out of her grip and also to try and get her to notice she was pulling my hair. Yeah, didn't work. Not-so-funny thing about this story, is that another intern and I ride the same bus every morning, and she was sitting behind me. She told me when we were walking to the office that she kept getting knocked by the same girl's backpack, the entire way from Kenmore to Seattle. Some people . . . .

Randomness for June

More random things about me . . . .

1. I have never had a manicure. Never. I have, however, had pedicures and I love them.
   
2. Speaking of hands, my thumbs are so short that I cannot sign "M" or "N" in ASL. I'm not kidding, have me show you sometime; it's impossible.
   
3. My new favorite show is Glee. Right now, I'm pretty behind on it (since I just started watching it), but I like it a lot. One of the best lines in Season 1: "They can't fire me; I'm a minority." --Ken
   
4. I never thought I'd own an Apple product, but now that I have a MacBook Pro, I will never go back to a PC. Ever.
   
5. In the last six months, I've gone from being an extreme night owl to being a morning person. I used to stay up until at least 2:30 a.m. every day, but now I cannot stay up past 11 p.m. (even 10:30 p.m. is pushing it).
   
6. I seriously get the chills when I see the following: the bottoms of artichoke hearts (after you pull the "hairs" off) and backs of fern fronds (where the seeds are).
7. My dream job would be to do PR and/or marketing for a non-profit organization that works with kids in some capacity. (Like Childhaven, Children's Hospital, March of Dimes, etc.)
   
8. Someday I will travel to Japan, China, Korea, Greece, Ireland and Africa.
   
9. I like it when guys wear pink. I don't like it when they wear light pink, but I do like it when they wear bright and dark shades.
   
10. When I was little, my siblings and I called our different sets of grandparents "different" and "regular" since we got them confused. The "different" ones were my mom's dad and his wife, and the "regular" ones were my mom's mom and her husband. Now we call them "house" and "condo" (respectively) since they, well, live in a house and a condo. (It's not like English when you name them distinctive names like nana, grandma, memaw, etc. In Chinese, if it's your mom's mom you call her one name and if it's your dad's mom you call her another name.)

Route on 435: The Creeper Edition

Wow, I cannot believe it's June 4th already. Where did the time go? Anyway, so it's been too long since I've posted about the weirdos on the bus, so here you go. Enjoy!

I got off work early today (like 3 p.m. early!) because I finished all my projects and nobody else had more for me to do. Since I didn't drive to the P&R today, I had to get the bus that takes me closer to home. No problem, it's the normal bus. The 435. (The normal bus means business people, non-scary, non-threatening people ride the normal bus.) Well, the bus didn't leave until 3:45 p.m., so I had a lot of time to sit at the stop waiting. Not a problem, it's covered and there was a bench open.

I sit down and start texting friends (of course). This bum is standing next to me and before long another bum comes along. The bum-buddies start chatting. I listen to their conversation, interested in whatever bums talk to each other about. Well, these bums were high-drunk-smoking bums. How do I know? They were telling each other about it. "Yeah, I'm waiting for the bus," said Bum no. 1 (Really? I mean, that's why you're waiting at a bus stop. Brilliant!). "No, man, I'm going clear across to the mountains," said Bum no. 2. "I'm going to get high, you know, smoke some ___________ (I couldn't understand that part)." Then Bum no. 2 asked Bum no. 1 if he was hungry. "Yeah, of course," Bum no. 1 replied. So Bum no. 2 reached in his ginormous duffle bag and pulled out a black plastic bag. "Here, this is some salad I got," Bum no. 2 told Bum no. 1 as he gave him the bag holding the container of salad. "It's good salad." Then they did this weird side-by-side pass off thing and Bum no. 2 gave Bum no. 1 something else. I didn't want to get shot, so I didn't look hard enough (I mean, they were right next to me and I was trying to mind my own business, sort of). Well, then Bum no. 2 left and told Bum no. 1 to take care.

I stopped texting for a moment and started updating my journal. Bum no. 1 sat down. Next to me. He started talking. To me. I'm normally a friendly person, but he was creeping me out. (Why didn't I move, you ask? Because it was raining hard and I didn't want to stand until the bus came.) I surpassed my normally friendly state and ignored the bum . . . as I was writing in my journal about him. Haha, good thing he couldn't see what I was writing.

Then I hear a "pop" sound. I glanced over and saw puddles of fizzy something falling to the ground. Soon after that, I smell alcohol. Yep, Bum no. 1 opened a can of beer. Miller Genuine Draft to be exact. The weird part? He kept hiding it in his coat pocket. Yes, an open can of beer inside his coat pocket. Odd.

Anyway, just as I was getting squeamish about sitting so close to a soon-to-be-drunk bum, the bus came. I got on and hoped he wouldn't follow me. He didn't; he was too content with his beer and salad. What a day.

Randomness About: Me

Thanks to my bestie, Paulina, for the idea of blogging random information about herself . . . I'm going to copy her and add my own here. Enjoy!

1. At at whooping 5' 3", I am the tallest in my family. No joke.
   
2. I've played the piano for 15 years. Asian stereotype? Sure, why not!
   
3. Since age 14, I have babysat more than 90 kids from about 35 different families.
   
4. I hate LOTR, Harry Potter, Twilight and Jane Austen. I know, random genres and topics, but don't like any of them.
   
5. I'm half-Japanese and half-Chinese, but people often ask if I'm a) Mexican, b) Hawaiian, c) Samoan or d) Filipino.
   
6. I've never had a manicure. Just pedicures. And I love them!
   
7. I love to sew, but I always rush and end up ruining my projects.
   
8. I enjoy reality TV shows.
   
9. I've never had a retail job.
   
10. I'm extremely indecisive. It's an annoying characteristic to have.
    

There is my first attempt. I'll see how many more random things I can come up with.

Later.

Life Has A New Route

This is a really short post, simply because I'm tired and ready for bed. But in the last few weeks, I've sat next to some interesting characters on the bus. These characters include Inspector Gadget and Harry Potter. Use your imagination.

A Life on Route 435 Update

I suppose I should change the title to Life on Route 36, since that is the bus with all the weird people. Route 435 is actually mostly business people who are normal for the most part.

Anyway, today I wore a short white skirt. Bad mistake. It rained (it was supposed to be nice . . .). I took the bus to meet my grandma for lunch. On the bus to Chinatown, some weird Hispanic/Mexican/Spanish/Latino guy sat next to me since the bus was crowded and it was the only seat open. No problem with me, but he was sitting really close to me. After a few people got off the bus, he decided to move. At first I was excited that he moved, until I noticed that he was staring up my legs (remember I was wearing a short skirt). Yeah, disgusting pervert. Anyway, then finally more people got off and he moved to the front of the bus.

On that same bus, another dude was sitting sideways. Close to me. Very close to me. And he was whistling for a l-o-n-g time, I swear he was trying to get my attention. Then my handy cell phone came out and I started texting my friends about the ordeal. What the . . ., he was peering over my shoulder trying to read my texts!

Anyway, that was my day. Creepy men. They're my favorite. And for you who cannot sense sarcasm for anything, that was a joke.

Life on Route 435. Again.

Today was interesting. First off, it was hailing this morning so it made waiting for the bus miserable (I was wearing a skirt and it was windy and cold). I woke up a bit later than usual today, so I was putting my makeup on at the bus stop. As I was putting my eyeliner on, some super friendly lady walked up to me. "Good morning," she said. "Can I get you to read this magazine? We're trying to get people into their Bibles." I knew right away she was probably a JW, so I asked her, "What is your organization?" And sure enough she was a JW. I told her I wasn't interested and she walked away.

Nothing too much out of the ordinary in terms of the bus ride down to work. I walked on the opposite side of the sidewalk this morning so I could purposely avoid that newspaper man who is ALWAYS there on the corner of 4th and Union.

On my way to the bus stop to come home some dude was walking and he had--not kidding--5 watches in his hand. Not on his wrist, in his hand. Dangling. Like he jacked them from someone or something sketchy like that. Anyway, I was trying to avoid getting too close to him since I was paranoid that he was stealing people's watches from off their wrists (even though I don't currently wear a watch). Well then he started talking. I've gotten really good at pretending like I can't hear the person who is talking to me (it's easy to do Downtown since the street noise is so loud and there are people everywhere). "Hey, is that Chanel for her perfume you got on?" he asked. Well I don't know how he could smell anything on the street, let alone the perfume he thought I was wearing. Oh, and since I woke up late today I didn't put mine on. And for the record, I don't wear Chanel!

So today wasn't too horrific, but like most days I came home with stories to tell of the weird people I "met" while going to and from the office. Later.