UTA > or =TriMet

Ever since the summer of 2007 I have been wary of public transportation. Specifically buses. Specifically 28 July 2007. That was the day I discovered that I do not like TriMet. Anyway, when I got my job at the beginning of the summer I was excited about everything except the commute. No, I do not have to walk half an hour like I did with IS and no, I do not have to sit in two hours of traffic on a Friday evening with no air conditioning like I did with PC. Something much worse. I have to ride the bus.

Apparently this is a common occurrence in the commuting world, but I dreaded it more than I had dreaded anything since my FHE mom calling last summer. I did not want to ride the bus. After a week of finding alternate routes to work (which is a hassle, let me tell you) I finally gave in and used the bus pass I purchased at a student price even though I am no longer a student.

I have a routine down now and it works quite well. I don't enjoy the bus itself (it feels dirty all the time) but I do like the drivers, who are almost always consistent on their specific shifts. I don't ever say anything more than "Hi" and "Thanks" but I still like them and am used to them.

Until this morning.

The bus driver was a man I'd never seen before, but I said hello and went to my usual seat. I read my book like I always do (currently La's Orchestra Saves the World) and pulled the signal to let me off in the exact same place on the road that I always do. But he didn't stop the bus. [Small interjection here, the bus stop where I get off is literally right at the edge of the driveway for my office building. It's fantastic.] I didn't know what to do, maybe he thought I meant the next stop, but we passed that one too. And a third, and a fourth. I knew I should say something to him but having the courage of a nine-year-old girl, I didn't. Luckily, a man needed to get off soon and the bus driver stopped for him. But I had to walk 12 minutes to get to the office instead of 12 seconds.

The odd thing is, the woman who drives the bus in the evenings accidentally did this on Wednesday. She completely missed my stop and didn't realize it until she was halfway down the block. But going home doesn't really matter as much, and I ended up running into an old coworker (this word always looks like cow worker), which was a pleasant surprise.