Weekly Update #2: Weirdos on the Subway (Part 1)
So I mentioned this in my last update, and figured I'd post my collection of subway stories here, in case anyone missed them on facebook, or just wanted to hear more about them. I'll break it down into a few categories: what the fuck are you wearing, what the fuck is going on, please do not talk to me, & that one cute guy. This will get a bit lengthy, so I'll be spreading the categories out over a few entries.
why would you want to?'>Category 1: What the Fuck are You Wearing
My first encounter with an oddly dressed person happened at the end of my first semester at OCAD. I ran into cute guy from english class (do you guys remember him?) on the train, and at some point during the ride, he noticed a man wearing a red cape. I turned around, and not only was he wearing a cape, but he had plastic objects attached to it. Toy telephone, those little wind-up teeth, etc. Only caught a quick glimpse of him because he immediately exited the train, but it was a pretty interesting look. We also saw a plastic spoon stuck in the subway tunnel. I have not seen it since.
This past January, I saw another weird outfit choice on the subway. A lady on the train had either decided winter is a good fucking time to dress up like a witch, or she had some sort of winter hat shortage, because she was wearing a red witch hat. She had coordinated the rest of her outfit to go with it, and being a fan of the supernatural I have to admit; it wasn't a bad look. I took a couple of sneaky pictures, because she was fairly good inspiration for a character design or a sim.
These next three people weren't dressed oddly, but they had some interesting pets with them. The first was a lady who brought her cat onto the subway with her. I have never seen a cat on the subway before. She had it in a weird cross between a gym bag and a cat carrier. A picture can be found on my facebook page. She looked like a much better pet owner than the second lady I saw, who had not one, but THREE FUCKING DOGS in her purse. Three dogs. All stacked on top of one another. I couldn't believe it. I desperately wanted to take a picture, but she was standing beside me on the platform, and once we got on the train she decided she was going to sit next to me, too. It's kind of hard to take a sneaky picture of someone when they're right next to you. The poor puppies didn't look very happy (or healthy, but I'm not an expert). One of them was chewing on the fur trim of the purse, and when its owner scolded it I learned the dog's name was Bertini. I can only assume that one of the other two dogs was named Martini. To this day, I'm still really confused as to why she had three puppies in her purse. Where was she going with these puppies? Why didn't she have a proper pet carrier? I hope the puppies are okay.
The last pet owner had a little white ferret, and I noticed him talking said ferret for a walk while I was looking out the bus window. His ferret was wearing a harness, though I didn't get to see the ferret walk, because he was carrying him across the street. Which was probably for the best; wouldn't want the poor thing to get hit by a car. I'm guessing he let the ferret walk once they were back on the sidewalk.
Category 2: What the Fuck is Going On
If you have a subway/bus system where you live, and you take it on a regular basis, you know that sometimes shit happens. Hopefully not literally. Hearing "We are currently experiencing a delay at..." is never good, and not just because they always fucking mumble the station name so I don't even know what is happening. One time they closed all of the stations I needed to pass through on a particular line, and I spent an hour panicking because I didn't know an alternate route to take. I was also too afraid to ask anyone where shuttle buses would be located, and the only reason I managed to get to school was because they opened up the line again before I took a different line and got myself horribly lost. Other than that, I've been pretty lucky with the subway.
The bus is a different story. I don't like the bus. You have that one asshat who plays shitty rap music with no headphones in the very backseat of the us (it's always rap, and they always sit in the last row, no exceptions), or the person who decides to have a not-so private conversation about how their brother likes "the dirty sex" loud enough for most of the passengers on the bus to hear. Sometimes both if the universe really hates you that day. Even if you luck out and neither asshole is present that day, the bus sounds like everything is going to shatter simultaneously for the majority of the ride. Good luck trying to listen to your music, bitch. It's not happening. This is just the morning bus, too. If you take the bus when all the high school students are going home, you're going to have a bad fucking time, my friend. I have had bus drivers threaten to stop the bus on multiple occasions because the teenagers won't shut up. Screeching and swearing and singing their shitty rendition of that Drake song at top volume is much more important than other passengers getting to their locations.
And speaking of the drivers, they can be assholes too. Recently I had a bus driver try to pull away while I was walking towards the door of the bus. I would understand if I were half a block away, or if I had just stopped altogether, but no, that wasn't the case. I ran because I wasn't sure if there were any other passengers at the stop, and I wasn't in the mood to wait for another bus. I slowed down to a walk about a meter or so away from the door of the bus, because the sidewalk was icy, and I needed to get my wallet out. Nope, bus driver was not having that. The bus only stopped because I noticed him trying to pull away and made a noise. He yelled that he was late enough, and allowed me to board the bus. I guess he really wanted to make the light, but even with me 'slowing him down' he was able to drive through the intersection before the light changed. I don't know what the problem was.
My last story is happier though, for this bus driver was a sweet person. She called after a passenger who left their bag on the bus, and when she noticed a lady behaving oddly on a street corner she stopped to make sure they were okay. Multiple passengers left the bust to assist her. I'm not entirely sure what was wrong with the lady, but at some point an ambulance was called down. The driver and a couple of passengers helped her onto the bus, and then we all were asked to leave once paramedics arrived. She must have contacted the next driver, because we were allowed to catch the following bus without paying fare again (paramedics wouldn't let us near the front of the bus, so we couldn't just take a transfer). It was a weird experience, since I had no idea what was happening at any point, but it was really heartwarming to see a bunch of strangers work together make sure another stranger was okay, rather than just driving by without a care.
I'll update with the other half of the stories sometime this week! Also, feel free to share any public transportation stories with me in the comments. I love swapping stories about weird strangers.
why would you want to?'>Category 1: What the Fuck are You Wearing
My first encounter with an oddly dressed person happened at the end of my first semester at OCAD. I ran into cute guy from english class (do you guys remember him?) on the train, and at some point during the ride, he noticed a man wearing a red cape. I turned around, and not only was he wearing a cape, but he had plastic objects attached to it. Toy telephone, those little wind-up teeth, etc. Only caught a quick glimpse of him because he immediately exited the train, but it was a pretty interesting look. We also saw a plastic spoon stuck in the subway tunnel. I have not seen it since.
This past January, I saw another weird outfit choice on the subway. A lady on the train had either decided winter is a good fucking time to dress up like a witch, or she had some sort of winter hat shortage, because she was wearing a red witch hat. She had coordinated the rest of her outfit to go with it, and being a fan of the supernatural I have to admit; it wasn't a bad look. I took a couple of sneaky pictures, because she was fairly good inspiration for a character design or a sim.
These next three people weren't dressed oddly, but they had some interesting pets with them. The first was a lady who brought her cat onto the subway with her. I have never seen a cat on the subway before. She had it in a weird cross between a gym bag and a cat carrier. A picture can be found on my facebook page. She looked like a much better pet owner than the second lady I saw, who had not one, but THREE FUCKING DOGS in her purse. Three dogs. All stacked on top of one another. I couldn't believe it. I desperately wanted to take a picture, but she was standing beside me on the platform, and once we got on the train she decided she was going to sit next to me, too. It's kind of hard to take a sneaky picture of someone when they're right next to you. The poor puppies didn't look very happy (or healthy, but I'm not an expert). One of them was chewing on the fur trim of the purse, and when its owner scolded it I learned the dog's name was Bertini. I can only assume that one of the other two dogs was named Martini. To this day, I'm still really confused as to why she had three puppies in her purse. Where was she going with these puppies? Why didn't she have a proper pet carrier? I hope the puppies are okay.
The last pet owner had a little white ferret, and I noticed him talking said ferret for a walk while I was looking out the bus window. His ferret was wearing a harness, though I didn't get to see the ferret walk, because he was carrying him across the street. Which was probably for the best; wouldn't want the poor thing to get hit by a car. I'm guessing he let the ferret walk once they were back on the sidewalk.
Category 2: What the Fuck is Going On
If you have a subway/bus system where you live, and you take it on a regular basis, you know that sometimes shit happens. Hopefully not literally. Hearing "We are currently experiencing a delay at..." is never good, and not just because they always fucking mumble the station name so I don't even know what is happening. One time they closed all of the stations I needed to pass through on a particular line, and I spent an hour panicking because I didn't know an alternate route to take. I was also too afraid to ask anyone where shuttle buses would be located, and the only reason I managed to get to school was because they opened up the line again before I took a different line and got myself horribly lost. Other than that, I've been pretty lucky with the subway.
The bus is a different story. I don't like the bus. You have that one asshat who plays shitty rap music with no headphones in the very backseat of the us (it's always rap, and they always sit in the last row, no exceptions), or the person who decides to have a not-so private conversation about how their brother likes "the dirty sex" loud enough for most of the passengers on the bus to hear. Sometimes both if the universe really hates you that day. Even if you luck out and neither asshole is present that day, the bus sounds like everything is going to shatter simultaneously for the majority of the ride. Good luck trying to listen to your music, bitch. It's not happening. This is just the morning bus, too. If you take the bus when all the high school students are going home, you're going to have a bad fucking time, my friend. I have had bus drivers threaten to stop the bus on multiple occasions because the teenagers won't shut up. Screeching and swearing and singing their shitty rendition of that Drake song at top volume is much more important than other passengers getting to their locations.
And speaking of the drivers, they can be assholes too. Recently I had a bus driver try to pull away while I was walking towards the door of the bus. I would understand if I were half a block away, or if I had just stopped altogether, but no, that wasn't the case. I ran because I wasn't sure if there were any other passengers at the stop, and I wasn't in the mood to wait for another bus. I slowed down to a walk about a meter or so away from the door of the bus, because the sidewalk was icy, and I needed to get my wallet out. Nope, bus driver was not having that. The bus only stopped because I noticed him trying to pull away and made a noise. He yelled that he was late enough, and allowed me to board the bus. I guess he really wanted to make the light, but even with me 'slowing him down' he was able to drive through the intersection before the light changed. I don't know what the problem was.
My last story is happier though, for this bus driver was a sweet person. She called after a passenger who left their bag on the bus, and when she noticed a lady behaving oddly on a street corner she stopped to make sure they were okay. Multiple passengers left the bust to assist her. I'm not entirely sure what was wrong with the lady, but at some point an ambulance was called down. The driver and a couple of passengers helped her onto the bus, and then we all were asked to leave once paramedics arrived. She must have contacted the next driver, because we were allowed to catch the following bus without paying fare again (paramedics wouldn't let us near the front of the bus, so we couldn't just take a transfer). It was a weird experience, since I had no idea what was happening at any point, but it was really heartwarming to see a bunch of strangers work together make sure another stranger was okay, rather than just driving by without a care.
I'll update with the other half of the stories sometime this week! Also, feel free to share any public transportation stories with me in the comments. I love swapping stories about weird strangers.