Riding the 51

I take the bus. Yes, I also own a car, but it usually only comes out on weekends. I take the bus to and from work. I love this set up and always wanted to take the bus when I lived in SLC, but I couldn't seem to get over the fact that in order to do so I would have to wake up one hour earlier in order to get to work at the same time. There also wouldn't be a cost savings on gas, and I would have had to walk a couple of blocks downtown for my transfer. However, I always imagined myself one day living in a place that I could just take the bus. Now, I take the bus. My bus is usually a big fancy bus with soft seats that recline a little like tour buses. My fellow bus patrons also commute into San Francisco and are relatively quiet with the occasional loud talker on his/her cell phone. I enjoy my commute and riding the bus.

This past week I had two opportunities that made me incredibly grateful to ride Bus O daily instead of any other bus. Bus O only goes to and from Alameda and San Francisco. Bus 51 goes from Alameda to Berkeley through Oakland. I usually take this bus when I leave work really late (I take the BART to Oakland and then the bus to my house). Last week my boss' boss was in town, and we had dinner after work. We ate at a steakhouse in the new Bloomingdale's mall. Of course I went shopping after dinner. I didn't find anything, but I also spent too much time shopping because I barely missed the BART I needed, so I was left waiting for 20 minutes for the next train. I therefore barely missed the bus I needed, and I was left for 30 minutes waiting for my bus. Yes, mom, I was standing in the middle of downtown Oakland at 9:30 PM (it was dark). I was completely safe. Anyway, I met a couple of interesting people while I stood there waiting for the bus. One homeless man was really nice to me and wanted to know what kind of a store JCrew was. I guess that did mean I ended up buying something because I had a bag with me. Anyway, he was pretty funny and told me not too worry lil' darlin'. Who doesn't love being called a lil' darlin'?

Finally, the bus is approaching a new person joins the crew of people waiting for the bus. He seemed normal enough. I got on and sat down. I later realized that I only paid $1.50 for the bus when it actually costs $1.75. I guess I owe AC Transit $.25, sorry. So, it was late and cold and I was bare legged in a skirt. So I sat on the seat on top of the heater. It was so toasty wonderful. Unfortunately the new fella came and sat across from me. He kept looking at me too. When on the bus you should look forward, out the window or down if you do not have anything else, like a book, to occupy your eyes with. Don't stare at the other strangers. (Yes, I did stare at the Jason Lee guy from Almost Famous, but he was almost famous--ha ha ha, I'm hilarious). Anyway, creepy! I was totally grateful when he got off the bus a few stops later.

Overall a less than stellar bus ride. I missed my fellow quiet commuters that don't stare at me.

I took Friday off of work. I had to take my car to the dealership in Logan. Guess what? A 51 bus stop was right next to the dealer, awesome! So, in the middle of a Friday afternoon, I innocently enough I hop on the bus. Big mistake! Big! Apparently it was field trip day. The bus was full of at least 30 8 year olds. Luckily they were all in a very giving mood and decided to sing for all other patrons on the bus. That's right. They sang, the entire time they were on the bus. I learned about the planets in the solar system (Pluto was still included) and how many minutes are in an hour, and hours in a day, and days in a week, and weeks in a year. I also got to listen to Yankee Doodle, This Land is Your Land, The Star-Spangled Banner and some other patriotic tunes that I couldn't quite place. Plus additional songs that I couldn't pick out or knew. True to 8-year-old form, they only had one volume level for their singing voices: LOUD! It was the longest 10 minute bus ride of my life.

I'm taking a moratorium on the 51 bus.