Adventures on the bus, #21242

Last night's bus adventure was a little scary, and more than a little annoying. See, I had gone last night to volunteer at the film festival again, and I left around 8:00. It was really, really cold, and snow was forecasted. And by the time I got on the bus, I had to use the bathroom.

Anyway. The bus finally pulls up to the stop, we all get on, and it's warm and cozy. I'm listening to my iPod and reading a book, trying to distract myself from the fact that I have to use the bathroom.

And then. The guy sitting right in front of me goes off on the bus driver. I missed the beginning, due to the whole iPod thing, but apparently, what happened was the bus driver told a girl to stop eating french fries. Which is against the law (eating on the bus, not the driver telling her not to.) And the guy (let's call him D. Johnson Baxter, for reasons that will become clear later) starts yelling at the driver, asking him why he told the girl not to eat, and did he think he was a cop and was he wearing a bullet proof vest. Oh, and if the girl, who was black, were a white man, would the driver have said something to her.

Ok. Ridiculous, right? The part that's even more ridiculous was that the driver then PULLED OVER. To continue this argument. D. Johnson Baxter was totally wrong, and annoying, and making me mad because, well, I needed to use the bathroom and this was just taking up time. I didn't say anything. What could I say? D. Johnson Baxter is crazy. And I am white. Clearly, that's some kind of hot button issue for him. I wanted to make it home! D. Johnson even called the bus driver a racist. Even though he was black, too.

Finally, we get on the road again. D. Johnson Baxter is continuing the argument, by adding things like, "I have rights. I can say what I want. My name is D. Johnson Baxter. You need my name? You gonna call the po-lice? It's D. Johnson Baxter. B-A-X-T-E-R."

The driver pulled over AGAIN. Told us he has 3 houses and doesn't need this job. D. Johnson Baxter says he has a car; he likes taking the bus; don't call him "dude" or "brother", his name is D. Johnson Baxter. Have I mentioned I really needed to use the bathroom? But was scared to say anything, like oh, I don't know, "shut up and drive the damn bus!"?

Finally, I made it to my stop. It was still about a 7 minute walk from the stop to my house, and I decided to try and concentrate on something less painful than needing to use the bathroom. Like how my toes were so cold I couldn't feel them anymore.

Delightful evening! I'm just happy I made it home. And that I didn't lose any toes to frostbite. And that D. Johnson Baxter didn't try to follow me home.