I’m waiting for the bus on 50th Street, having just eaten fried pizza at the new and much-hyped Don Antonio’s. It’s cold and raining, and the girl next to me is gawking as I struggle to pull on my gloves while keeping my umbrella upright. She had already been at the bus stop when I arrived, so I’d of course stood to her left to form the beginnings of a line. Another girl walks up moments later, stands to my left, and consults a bus map that’s no doubt of very little help, since the MTA refuses to actually mark the stops on it for some reason.
We wait for ten minutes, and the line gets longer. People keep stepping off the sidewalk to get a better look down 50th Street, our umbrellas blocking each other’s views. Finally the bus arrives, and I close my umbrella, knowing I’m going to be second onto the bus and not wanting to hold anyone up behind me.
But I see that in front of the girl next to me–the girl who had been alone at the bus stop when I walked up–an old lady has appeared out of nowhere. And in the time it takes for the bus to pull up and stop, an old man hobbles over on a cane and stands behind the old lady.
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6 Comments
I get that a lot. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that if I let anyone step onto the subway in front of me, they will drift in the door and hover there, trying to decide which way to go. Meanwhile people that have gone in the other doors will backfill all the available seats while the drifter is deciding where to sit. What I wouldn’t give for a cattle prod, sometimes.
Same with the escalator. If I let someone step in front of me, they will pull up beside someone else and form a blocade so no one can get by. Then all I can to is look up the steps as an open path to the street above, beckons. Makes me want to pop their heads together like coconuts.
Gosh, Ett. Respect your elders! Or at least don’t close your umbrella too soon.
God I love your transportation rants. You should come to Louisiana and I’ll take you for a drive. Then we can yell at idiot drivers together.
Not that I really need anyone to encourage my road rage issues, but whatever.
You are a baaaaaaad, baaaaaaaaad girl.
I didn’t think it was taking me THAT long.
:)
Or the other girl was Southern. We can’t help it. Old people make us go all to pieces.