Ride of Your Life

Recently I've been conducting an experiment.  I keep telling people that one of the reasons I like Burlington so much is that it's a great bike/public transportation town, unlike any of the other places I've lived.  I decided I'd try to take better advantage of that fact, so I purchased a bus pass (good for unlimited rides) and have been busing/biking to as many places as I can.  This decision has yielded several interesting experiences, but here are the Top Five from the week of September 25th:

5.  Ran into this girl that I frequently run into in Burlington but haven't seen in about a year.  We worked together at Borders (pre-bankruptcy) for about two days, then I had to quit because I was in grad school and was slowly going insane.  Then I saw her intermittently, usually at random places, throughout the next few years, and she always acted like we were best friends (I usually had trouble remembering her name).  She acted the same way on the bus the other day, and in fact she remembered not only my name (which in and of itself is a feat), but where I was from, what I went to grad school for, and what my favorite book was.  Next time she'll probably remember what stop I got off at.

4.  Forgot to put the bike rack back in place after getting off and retrieving my bike.  I was almost three blocks away before I realized the honking was for me.

3.  Ran into an ex-friend who recently (as in last week) "fired" me.  She got on, we ignored each other; she sat two seats in front of me, we didn't speak.  Good times.

2.  A young blond woman, probably in her twenties, but also probably not carrying an entirely full deck, got up and gave me her seat when I got on because she was "taught to be kind to the elderly."

1.  Official transcript from a conversation between a crazy woman who spoke VERY loudly, a kind, random girl sitting next to me, and me:

       CRAZY WOMAN:  Where's the baby?
       RANDOM GIRL and ME:  [looking at each other, then at the woman, confirming that she is, in fact, talking to us]  What baby?  [in unison]
       CW:  The baby, I said!  [speaking even louder, as if we haven't heard her]  Where's your baby??!!
       ME:  Oh, we left her at home.  [Girl suppresses a laugh]
       CW:  What??  She's only six months old, I thought!
       RG:  Yeah, we figured it was time to stop coddling her.  At some point you just gotta let 'em go, you know?
       ME:  [nodding my head]  Yeah, I mean enough's enough, right?
       CW:  [horrified]  You just left her alone?  No one watching her?
       ME:  Oh, well, no -- the dog's there.
       CW:  [back to normal; not sarcastic] Oh, well, that's alright then.


Stay tuned for next week's adventures!...