Had to restart my phone using the battery pull technique before I could save the nice little rant I wrote. Damn BlackBerry! Probably all for the best. I vented, but I’m still in a position of waiting. I’ll write this again, though condensed and hopefully minus a few expletives.
It’s important to note that even a 6 hour flight to Mexico with ALL the leg room in the world nearly ruined the trip for me. I hate being confined in a small space with no control over my surroundings. You know, temperature, stopping when I want, not sharing my space with people with poor hygiene/lack of teeth, or cats in their coat… that kind of thing.
So I boarded the bus last night at 8:45pm, we did about three laps of the city when it was announced that the transmission was stuck in first. And so we returned to the depot, returned to the waiting room where we waited. At 10:30 we boarded the replacement bus and had a relatively uneventful time until we arrived three hours late at 10am in Edmonton. I was actually pleased with this. Less layover I thought.
I wasn’t really enjoying the depot. I have been harassed for money or smokes at least every ten minutes since I’ve arrived. This continued at the mall, but I’ll get back to that. When I went outside for my “finally off the bus” smoke I was bombarded by a man and his two sons with requests for smokes and money. The one son asked me if I was a boy or girl. I said boy, and he assured me he wasn’t being rude, just curious. It got me thinking about gender and how it influences the way people interact. It’s fascinating!
I wasn’t too sure who all I know in town with one major exception. And so I called up my dearest Nikko and we went for lunch at a restaurant much like Noodle Box, but with better selection and a television for every seat in the restaurant. Maybe not quite that many, but a truly inappropriate amount regardless. It was quite nice catching up and stuffing our pretty lil’ mouths; her’s a brilliant shade of purple, mine chapped from the dry freezing recycled bus air. After we finished she had work and so I made my way to the mall.
I purchased a coffee from Second Cup which was probably as close to the temperature of the surface of the sun as an Americano can get. Even with a sleeve I was using my coat sleeve as an extra element of protection. This is only mildly relevant. Maybe 10 minutes later I was on the escalator heading up to Coles. Ahead of me were three rather corpulent people. As they got off the escalator it sped up causing me to loose my balance and my grip and my coffee fell everywhere. I’m sure I smell like coffee, but it’s probably exasperated because I haven’t been without one in hand all day. I figure it’s all for the best, I certainly didn’t want to be that asshole tempting fate in a bookstore. I found nothing of interest though and made my way to Winners. Did you know they sell discounted cologne?
Funny conversation I heard passing two women in the mall:
“Did you have it done?”
“What? A colonoscopy?”
“No. LASIK.”
I wasted enough time that returning to the depot was a logical idea. I inquired about which gate I should be waiting at just to get slapped in the mouth with the giant dick of a 14 ton Greyhound.
My bus cancelled.
Next bus in 9 hours 45 minutes.
And so I returned to the mall and looked for reading material. I found it in the form of two books of The Walking Dead I have not yet read. Then I got anxious and returned again to the depot where I’ve read and played games on my phone and made lists and started writing this. The bus is still an hour and away and I can hardly think let alone stay awake.
The depot has been a wonderment of activity today. Domestic violence, death threats, drunk men passed out in the bathroom, on the benches, at the A&W, a bitch got maced! The place has been ALIVE with the scum of the earth… And sirens, cops, and flashing lights…
