Friday 25 March 2011

Public Transit Pariah



I am an average looking woman in her mid 40's. I have good personal hygiene, and while I tend not to wear makeup on a daily basis, I generally look tidy, pleasant and presentable. I wash my clothes frequently, and do not over-do perfume or hair spray.
Still, I am always the last person sitting alone on public transit.
People getting on the bus or streetcar will sit next to a drooling man marinating in his own soiled trousers before they will park it next to me. I would understand it more if people stood instead of sitting next to either myself or the most unfortunate smelling person on the car. At least then I could tell myself that "they just wanted to stand" or "they're getting off at the next stop anyway".

But no. My fellow commuters chose potential cholera transmission over having to sit next to me.

Why is this, I wonder to myself.
Is it because I look like this and talk this way?

I'd also like to know why people wait until they are on public transit to hold their cell phone, expletive filled arguments. Yesterday, I was on the street car, minding my own, and, yes, sitting alone, when a woman left a voice mail message for someone that had every swear word in the whole world. She spoke, not loudly enough to be obnoxious, but loudly enough to be heard by people sitting in her vicinity. Ok. The person wasn't home, crazy lady! You could have waited the 4 extra minutes that you had left in your streetcar ride and then left your pathetic cry for help message AFTER you were out of hearing range of the children and senior citizens. 

I want you to know I have nothing against crazy ladies. Just people who are oblivious to their surroundings and the sensibilities of people near them. People like the woman on the streetcar. And Charlie Sheen. And Gaddafi.

Can we please all decide how to spell Gaddafi?

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