Correlation?

Why is it that everyone that sits next to me on the bus smells like they just put out their cigarette literally as they stepped onto the bus? It isn't like there is a lot of extra air I can breath when I'm sandwiched between a smelly smoker and another smelly smoker. I'm confused as to why people still smoke anyway? Isn't that like so 1990's?

I have even seen, on several different occasions, people rolling their own cigarettes while they ride. I've had to do a few double takes to make sure it was tobacco. Or there is always the guy who holds a cigarette in his mouth the entire ride so he can light it the second he gets off, even though he probably only has been on the bus for a maximum of 20 minutes. I can never tell how old the smokers are either. They're kind of a tricky bunch. But mostly they smell.

So I started wondering why EVERYONE who rides the bus smokes cigarettes. When I started analyzing the situation, I started thinking that people who ride the bus probably don't have cars. Why don't these people have cars? Probably because they can't afford cars. Why can't they afford cars? Duh! Because they have to support their expensive addiction to cigarettes! Could there be a correlation between people who can't manage their finances well enough to own a car and cigarette addiction? Seems logical to me, but maybe it is because they have health issues from smoking and they spend their potential car money on hospital bills.

This correlation between smoking and finances and health was further evaluated when I was recently in the hospital and everyone that sat next to me smelled like smoke. No matter how sick they were, they got up every now and then for a cigarette. Why are you in the hospital I wondered? Could it be because of a smoking related health issue? I don't know.

I know that the smokers out there are probably saying that they stay the 20 feet away from buildings or whatever the law is. But the fact is that you still smell and you still don't have a car.

Maybe someone else has a hypothesis as to why smokers ride the bus, but mine is because they spend all their money on cigarettes...seems like there might be a correlation to me!

My Boyfriend

Dear Diary,

Yep, there's a hottie on my bus. I saw him now and then last semester, more regularly now. He get's on at the U of A and carries a backpack so I figure he must be a student, ah dang too bad. And really he rides the bus, what's up with that, he has to be a student because don't normal people usually drive their own cars to their jobs?????

But now, I keep seeing him on the same route and school is still out for holiday break. So maybe he works on campus? Plus, I carry a backpack on the bus too...to blend in. Maybe we have that in common hehehe. He dresses well and never in pajamas, which would quickly indicate a student. Regardless, he's good lookin'.

Today, I was sitting down and he ended up standing right in front of me, facing me, holding the handle above my head. If you can picture that awkwardness...I was blushing most of the ride.

Maybe someday we'll make eye contact hehehehehe.

Yours Truly,
Tiffany


Fernando Says (Fernando is my iPod's name, because that's his name):
  
1. You by Radiohead


AND

2. None of Your Business by Salt n Pepa. hahahhaha. I'll spare you the video.

Cast of Characters

I have a lot of inner dialogue about the people on the bus and wonder about them. I wonder why they ride the bus, where they are going, if I will see them again and make predictions about their personalities outside the bus. That is the interesting part about these people, I only get a tiny piece of them so I can make up the rest in my inner dialogue. The route I take goes by 2 middle schools, 2 high schools, the University, a hospital and on to downtown; that is just the part that I ride so you can imagine the types of people I see. My morning bus has the most regulars, if you could call them that. I give a lot of them names and since I might mention now and then, here is my cast of characters:

• Mother Hen. She used to always be at my stop in the morning and we would chat about the weather or where the bus was. She chats with all the regulars and comments on their hair, family, etc. She always has a bit of a smile on her face, we exchange glances and shake our heads at the idiots, she must work downtown and probably the safest person on the bus. However, she disappeared from my morning stop one day. I still often see her on my evening route but I'm confused. Sometimes she gets off at my stop, but goes either left, right or across the street. Other times she gets off at totally different stops. What is she doing?! 

• Overbearing White Mexican mom and pre-teen daughter with rolly bag: The mom barely speaks English, but you would never know by looking at her. The pair of them are always on my morning route. Pre-teen daughter with rolly bag must go to the Catholic school across the street from the hospital and the mom always gets off with her. I wonder if the mom works at the hospital, or walks her daughter up to the front door of the school, then gets back on the bus. I get a kick out of the daughter always rolling her eyes when her mom fusses with her hair or tells really loud stories to her about god knows what. I'm pretty sure the mom does all the art projects too, because they are pretty sophisticated.

• Blind Knitting lady. She most definitely has been riding the bus for a long time because she knows all the bus drivers and talks to overbearing White Mexican mom and pre-teen daughter with rolly bag about knitting. Sometimes I find the 3 of them sitting squished together when the bus is pretty empty. Odd. However, blind knitting lady has cute mary jane shoes. 

•  Most of the high school kids on the morning bus. I mostly want to know who they are all texting at 7:30 in the morning!?

• Ginger Gary Sinise. This guy was a character. He was always awkwardly crossing his legs to form a makeshift table to do his sudoku. He would crunch his face up trying to figure out the sudoku and would look up in hopes of making eye contact with someone so he could tell them about the difficult sudoku. Haven't seen him since the time he must have been drinking at work because on the evening bus he was telling some hilarious story to a random guy who was pretty freaked out by Ginger Gary Sinise since he kept putting his arm around him and laughing hysterically in his ear.

• Gallagher/Santa Claus: he is fairly regular on my morning route. He looks like across between Gallagher the comedian and a smaller version of Santa Claus, and has this knapsack that looks like it is from WWI. He never speaks, but looks very depressed. I hope he is happy in his life outside of the bus. Here is a picture of Gallagher that is most representative of the bus guy, except that this picture is smiling.

 

Believe me there are more, but there are so many of them I have to save some for later. When I have some more time, I'll tell the story of Robert.

For Brittney

I decided to write a blog about my adventures on Sun Tran, the city bus in Tucson. I started riding the city bus to and from work last August for several reasons:

• A parking pass at the University is somewhere around $600 - no thank you. 
• I live a little bit too far away from work to bike, which I used to do.
• I've never been a commuter and frankly I don't like to start my day stressed out by traffic, or end it that way for that matter.
• And of course wear and tear on my car, carbon footprint, yadda yadda.  

I finally started this blog, a semester after I started riding the bus, specifically for my friend Brittney. I told her I was going to start it to keep her entertained, or at least something to look at because I really can't promise that this blog will entertain, but I can promise the real people of Tucson, Arizona. 

The format of this blog? Whatever I feel like, gosh. But mostly the people on the bus, my neighborhood and perhaps my playlist since I usually put on my iPod and stare out the window in hopes of avoiding some of the strange conversations that sometimes occur.

Oh and this blog is titled after one of my favorite Violent Femmes songs, "Waiting For the Bus." Take a gander, it's a good one... 

A little glimpse into today's bus ride:

The bus was super crowded and I didn't grab the handle in time when the bus took off, so I crashed into the people behind me and stepped on someone's toe, yelled sorry, then felt like an idiot for the rest of the ride. 

I could eventually scoot further back so I could lean up against something. The girl next to me had on a sweet yellow pleather jacket and was singing out loud to her phone/mp3 player. I glanced over and the background of her phone was a picture of herself laying on a bed looking provocative, yes her own phone's background. But what really got me was her fingernails. They were those super long fake ones with swirlys and a bunch of jewels on them. Gawd awful. I found a replica:

She was pretty fun to watch but what really interested me was the shaven bald head with an X scar on the back of it. When they do scull surgery, do they ever make an X? When he turned to get off the bus, he had a few more scars on his face so I thought it probably wasn't surgery... 

 

When I get off the bus I have to cross a really busy street. There is a bus stop on each side of the road, so it isn't uncommon seeing people cross there. As I was waiting for traffic to clear, I see a guy start running across from the other side. I think he is cutting it close until he loses his hat in the middle of the street with traffic coming at 40 mph plus. I gasp, half scream as the cars slam on their brakes. He makes it across alive, but heard me gasp and smiled at me when I had stopped walking and had my hand covering my mouth. I thought I was going to witness a ped death, and he thought it was funny. 

Oh Tucson.