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I think everyone should be required to ride the bus once in awhile. It's so easy to get isolated in a car, to forget about the wide variety of people that live in or visit the same place you do.
I commute by bus from October to early April, roughly -- when it's cold enough that my reynaud's makes biking dangerous, painful, or impossible. My bus goes from downtown out to Tumwater, which is basically 'a few grocery stores and lots of state offices', so the norm on the bus is a few high schoolers, state workers, and families with screaming children headed for the grocery store or DSHS ever since the one time I took Monkey to the vet on the bus I've had a lot of sympathy for the parents of screaming children).
Then sometimes -- well, this morning -- I walk on and sit next to an absolutely gorgeous man from Sudan who introduces himself by offering a toke (Nah, thanks, I'm good). And the bus noise is too damn loud for me to really ask "How the hell did you end up in Tumwater?" and it really doesn't matter, because he's just enjoying looking at all the green.
[On a somewhat related note, I really love carrying band business cards with me, for tons of different reasons. I like making interesting connections, and there've been far too many interesting opportunities I've let slip by for lack of bravery, but like anyone else I'm leery of being harassed or having friendliness come off as flirtation. My band business card only has an email address, not a phone number, and that email address is answered by three people (the other two are my dad and my boyfriend). Friendly, but safe. It's an awesome middle ground.]
I commute by bus from October to early April, roughly -- when it's cold enough that my reynaud's makes biking dangerous, painful, or impossible. My bus goes from downtown out to Tumwater, which is basically 'a few grocery stores and lots of state offices', so the norm on the bus is a few high schoolers, state workers, and families with screaming children headed for the grocery store or DSHS ever since the one time I took Monkey to the vet on the bus I've had a lot of sympathy for the parents of screaming children).
Then sometimes -- well, this morning -- I walk on and sit next to an absolutely gorgeous man from Sudan who introduces himself by offering a toke (Nah, thanks, I'm good). And the bus noise is too damn loud for me to really ask "How the hell did you end up in Tumwater?" and it really doesn't matter, because he's just enjoying looking at all the green.
[On a somewhat related note, I really love carrying band business cards with me, for tons of different reasons. I like making interesting connections, and there've been far too many interesting opportunities I've let slip by for lack of bravery, but like anyone else I'm leery of being harassed or having friendliness come off as flirtation. My band business card only has an email address, not a phone number, and that email address is answered by three people (the other two are my dad and my boyfriend). Friendly, but safe. It's an awesome middle ground.]
