Another night in Sea-Tac
I almost got mugged the other night, walking home. The walk from the bus stop to my house is one of the creepiest places at night, a long, dark road, flanked by overgrown trees and acres of airport parking. On the right are some empty apartment complexes hidden behind creepy trees. On the left is a steep drop to a chronically deserted parking lot. The parking lots are surrounded on two sides by highways. It's very empty and there's nowhere to run.
It was almost midnight and I was between the abandoned Taco Time and the abandoned apartment building, across from the abandoned family fun center, when a guy stumbled out from behind the bushes with a paper bag. It's funny, whenever I imagine what "Aaron getting mugged" would look like, this is pretty much what I come up with. No one around, nowhere to go, me with my headphones.
When the guy got to me, he turned and reached into the bag, with a slurred "How you doin' mistah?" He reeked of cheap booze. A small knife came out of the bag, but it felt like more of a suggestion than a threat. Between my adrenaline rush and his drunken stupor, I was able to just keep walking past - with my headphones on, I pretended I didn't even hear him. After about twenty paces, I turned and saw him wobbling down the hill towards the highway waving his little knife. Weird.
So I'm on the bus typing this and a crazy man just sat down beside me. At first he just angrily shook his bag of sunflower seeds at me, then he started jabbing at the computer screen with his polka dot frame glasses. I still don't know what the problem is, but he won't stop raving about it. I should have known better than to open my computer at night on the 174, nothing but crazies.
He's been reading over my shoulder as I type. He read the absolute worst part of the last entry out loud, "menopause-induced dream..?" so I had to start typing in French. He's telling me more things than I want to know about his shower this morning. I've asked him to stop talking, twice, that I need to finish some work. No effect. Wait...
He's now asleep on my right arm, and cutting off the circulation. My fingers are all cold... I want to make him move, but if I wake him up, he'll just start ranting again. Damn. Okay, just forty more minutes.... I hate this bus.
It was almost midnight and I was between the abandoned Taco Time and the abandoned apartment building, across from the abandoned family fun center, when a guy stumbled out from behind the bushes with a paper bag. It's funny, whenever I imagine what "Aaron getting mugged" would look like, this is pretty much what I come up with. No one around, nowhere to go, me with my headphones.
When the guy got to me, he turned and reached into the bag, with a slurred "How you doin' mistah?" He reeked of cheap booze. A small knife came out of the bag, but it felt like more of a suggestion than a threat. Between my adrenaline rush and his drunken stupor, I was able to just keep walking past - with my headphones on, I pretended I didn't even hear him. After about twenty paces, I turned and saw him wobbling down the hill towards the highway waving his little knife. Weird.
So I'm on the bus typing this and a crazy man just sat down beside me. At first he just angrily shook his bag of sunflower seeds at me, then he started jabbing at the computer screen with his polka dot frame glasses. I still don't know what the problem is, but he won't stop raving about it. I should have known better than to open my computer at night on the 174, nothing but crazies.
He's been reading over my shoulder as I type. He read the absolute worst part of the last entry out loud, "menopause-induced dream..?" so I had to start typing in French. He's telling me more things than I want to know about his shower this morning. I've asked him to stop talking, twice, that I need to finish some work. No effect. Wait...
He's now asleep on my right arm, and cutting off the circulation. My fingers are all cold... I want to make him move, but if I wake him up, he'll just start ranting again. Damn. Okay, just forty more minutes.... I hate this bus.