worst mbta ride ever
Coming back from Genevieve’s see-you-later dinner, Joanna and I experienced her 2nd worst and my very worst MBTA commute ever. The Red Line was down between the Kendall and Park Street stops, so a shuttle bus commuted people back and forth. While walking to the shuttle buses, there were two men dressed in ripped black dresses with studs and chains as accessories with their dog on a leash. They would encourage the dog to run after and bark aggressively at other commuters and command the dog to “Fuck him up! Yeah, fuck him up real good!” The men and dog got on one of the shuttle buses, Joanna and I decided to get on the other one. In hindsight, this was a bad choice.
The second shuttle bus was quite full but we were able to grab seats. A bunch of pre-clubbing young women who were scantily clad caught the eye of this one very drunk and belligerent man. Visual image: 300 pound, 5’10” white male in his 50s without front teeth. He started harassing one girl who was in a bikini and a low cut shirt, and to be honest, she didn’t seem to mind much and even told him it was her 21st birthday and later asked him to buy her a drink. He proceeded to do some sort of revolting strip tease for her, to the amusement of her friends and the disgust of the rest of the bus. We all looked the other way while shielding our eyes in case his hanging gut was in the line of our peripheral vision. The movement of his body and clothing caused his body odor to waft through the bus. This particular odor can be best described as 1 part vomit, 1 part feces, 1 part sweat, and 2 parts alcohol. Wanting to impress the young lady with his musical talent, he began to rap nonsense very loudly and gesture/dance belligerently. To engage his audience and make sure we all received a good view, he paced up and down the bus like some sort of rock star on stage at a concert. As though showing off his two talents of strip teasing and singing weren’t enough, he then began to share with us his acrobatic abilities. He repeatedly kicked up his feet so that they would hook over the handle bars on the bus, and then hang upside down from his feet and remain upside down for a minute or so, rapping nonsense the entire time. This act of rapping and flipping upside down and yelling and pacing up and down the bus went on continuously, without interruption, for the entire ride.
Now, I’ve taken T rides on weekend nights before and know to expect a few drunk and loud people, but this really tops them all. Though his verbal harassment of passengers and nauseating body odor were unpleasant parts of the ride, I accepted them as all part of weekend night commute. It was really his kicking his feet up and hanging by the bars that disturbed me. I was afraid that he would kick me in the head while kicking up to hang upside down, or that he would fall on me while he was hanging upside down. I was also convinced that he would fall on his head at some point and break his neck. Most of the passengers seemed pretty frustrated with the situation. Joanna and I held each other and consoled ourselves by memorizing the bus number and planning our complaint campaign. When we heard the bus driver finally calling someone and describing the situation, we were relieved, but then he started laughing and holding the phone toward the crazy man so that the other end could hear the rap. It turns out the driver was just calling a friend to share the fun times.
I am just glad that everyone got off that bus safely.
Okay, this was originally supposed to be a complaint letter, but I think I will tone down the sarcasm in the actual letter and post this to LJ instead.
The second shuttle bus was quite full but we were able to grab seats. A bunch of pre-clubbing young women who were scantily clad caught the eye of this one very drunk and belligerent man. Visual image: 300 pound, 5’10” white male in his 50s without front teeth. He started harassing one girl who was in a bikini and a low cut shirt, and to be honest, she didn’t seem to mind much and even told him it was her 21st birthday and later asked him to buy her a drink. He proceeded to do some sort of revolting strip tease for her, to the amusement of her friends and the disgust of the rest of the bus. We all looked the other way while shielding our eyes in case his hanging gut was in the line of our peripheral vision. The movement of his body and clothing caused his body odor to waft through the bus. This particular odor can be best described as 1 part vomit, 1 part feces, 1 part sweat, and 2 parts alcohol. Wanting to impress the young lady with his musical talent, he began to rap nonsense very loudly and gesture/dance belligerently. To engage his audience and make sure we all received a good view, he paced up and down the bus like some sort of rock star on stage at a concert. As though showing off his two talents of strip teasing and singing weren’t enough, he then began to share with us his acrobatic abilities. He repeatedly kicked up his feet so that they would hook over the handle bars on the bus, and then hang upside down from his feet and remain upside down for a minute or so, rapping nonsense the entire time. This act of rapping and flipping upside down and yelling and pacing up and down the bus went on continuously, without interruption, for the entire ride.
Now, I’ve taken T rides on weekend nights before and know to expect a few drunk and loud people, but this really tops them all. Though his verbal harassment of passengers and nauseating body odor were unpleasant parts of the ride, I accepted them as all part of weekend night commute. It was really his kicking his feet up and hanging by the bars that disturbed me. I was afraid that he would kick me in the head while kicking up to hang upside down, or that he would fall on me while he was hanging upside down. I was also convinced that he would fall on his head at some point and break his neck. Most of the passengers seemed pretty frustrated with the situation. Joanna and I held each other and consoled ourselves by memorizing the bus number and planning our complaint campaign. When we heard the bus driver finally calling someone and describing the situation, we were relieved, but then he started laughing and holding the phone toward the crazy man so that the other end could hear the rap. It turns out the driver was just calling a friend to share the fun times.
I am just glad that everyone got off that bus safely.
Okay, this was originally supposed to be a complaint letter, but I think I will tone down the sarcasm in the actual letter and post this to LJ instead.