everyone's equal on the bus

when i visited LA, i remember my friends who i was staying with told me i could use their car to get around. i told them i wasn't really comfortable driving in LA and i would take the bus. both gave me a look. "no one in LA takes the bus. pearl, that is for like the immigrant workers." i remember thinking, omg, what?! i replied. everyone uses the bus in philly.

it's funny. philly is a city with the haves and the have nots. i mean it is like that in any metropolitan city, but in philly, the lines are pretty distinct. you have the rich neighborhoods two streets over from the poor neighborhoods.

sometimes i get lazy in the morning and don't feel like walking to work, so i wait with the bus crew. all of us holding our 2 bucks, a token or a senior citizen pass. today as i sat on the bus, i often just sit and enjoy morning daze listening to music or reading. today, i looked around. the bus is an interesting biosphere of people. you have men in smart business suits who carry business cards with watermarks and wear cufflinks. you have blue collar workers with dirt underneath their nails going home from the night shift. you have old rich ladies dressed in their minks and holding their chanel bags. you have teen mothers with their babies crying and their siblings drinking soda and eating cheetos at 8 in the morning. you have students. college. high school. grad school. you have punks. you have yuppies. preps. thugs. here, we all are. sitting on the bus. giving up our seats to the elderly. we're all equal on the bus. you don't get a better seat if you are in a higher tax bracket. there is no snobbiness or attitude. taking the bus isn't reserved for the broke and middle class. it's for all classes.

i like how sitting on the bus you can have the business man sitting next to a thug and both are listening to their shiny iphones.

we all pay the 2 dollars to ride the bus and mr. investment banker has to sit in the seat that smells like pee in his brook brothers suit since he got to the bus late, while the homeless guy is sitting in a clean seat.

in philly, the bus always wins.

sit tight peeps

i will be sans my macbook this weekend. long story. but three words: failed hard drive. oh goodness.

anyways, read this story and sit tight.

i got my haircut today. ok ok ok. for my friends, i have been sporting the same elf bangs forever, but just realize, that now, i really look like an elf. today was a good day. i took a walk at lunch, got a perfect haircut, the weather is nice and soon i will be going to yoga, which is my new jawn.

read and then i'll post next week. compooters make me angry.

the story below happened this summer. i am a magnet for crazies. or should say i am a "magNUT."

btw, i am beginning to write my memoirs. it is going to begin with the chapter of what happened to me yesterday after the gym. i was waiting for the bus since it was 100 degrees out and it takes me 30 minutes to walk home and i decided to sit on an air conditioned bus. (not a green move, but oh well). as i was waiting for the bus stop and rummaging for my shuffle ipod, some old creepy lady that looked like a she male approached me. then she burped in my face. she quickly explained that when she talks to people, she always burps. my thought bubble: this crazy woman just ate mcdonalds.ew.

she takes out of her patch work hand bag/tote/luggage a tube of cheap looking lipgloss. she taps me on the shoulder and says, "you like? wanna pay me a dollar for it?" before i can throw out a quip, she adds, " i pick pocketed it out of someone's purse, so i didnt use it." as if this last sentence would entice me. as if i would be inclined to buy a lipgloss used by another and not this wanna be saleswoman. but i dont say any of that. the asian in me, didnt want to be rude. i politely tell her no thank you. she huffs at me and then as a last resort asks, " do you have any extra bus tokens at least?" i nod no. by now, i have untangled my ipod shuffle earplugs and quickly put them in and tune in to the soothing sounds tex ritter and johnny cash.

finally the bus arrives. i pick a seat. of course, it is right across from the crazy lady! she gives me disappointing looks. i wanted to tell her that first off, no one is going to buy a used lipgloss! second, no one really wants to wear hot fushia lipgloss!

my second thought bubble was interrupted by the septa driver telling us passengers that there is a detour and my stop was not on it. grrr. so i ended up walking home anyways.

end of the night, the score reads:

pearl 0

septa 1

crazy lady still a crazy lady.