Adventures on the Bus

A few days ago, I was sitting on the the 99 B-Line bus, on my way to a friend's party at UBC. Now before I get into the events that happened on the bus that day, I think that it's necessary to explain my usual bus routine.

I travel to UBC everyday from my Coal Harbour apartment because I go to school there. On weekdays, I take the 44 UBC/Downtown both to and from school. However, the 44 doesn't run on weekends/holidays. If I want to go to UBC on a weekend, I have to take the Canada Line, and then the 99 B-Line. I usually don't go to UBC on the weekends, because it takes me an hour, but I am willing to go on special occasions.

Back to that day. It was my friend's birthday party, and I was on my way. I had packed her present and got on the Canada Line. I got off at Broadway-City Hall Station, so that I could transfer to the 99. Then, I got on the 99. This is where the comedy commenced.

I sat down at the back of the bus. Even though it was extremely crowded, I was fortunate enough to find a seat. I sat down, turned on my iPod, and began pointlessly staring out the window through the bodies of those standing up. I was trying to get in the mood for the party, -since I initially didn't want to go-  so I listened to some of my favourite hipster music. Portugal. The Man, Wolf Gang, Grouplove, Fitz and the Tantrums, Parov Stelar, Lord Huron, Arcade Fire, Devotchka, Neon Indian and Vamipre Weekend (my favourite band) were all on my playlist that day. The different styles all contributed a little extra to my mood, and by the time that my half dead battery became fully dead, I was happy. Sadly, there were around twenty minutes remaining until my stop, and I really felt as if I needed to do something, but there was nothing.

Anyway, I started looking around the bus to see if there was anybody that I could use to laugh at. Yes, I know, it sounds SO evil, but I was bored. As one of my friends once said, "every person has a story, that's seven BILLION stories. Doesn't it interest you to find out what each person's story is?"WOW! My friend is deep. Truthfully, no, I don't care what their story is, because I don't care about them. My friend is obviously better with empathizing; he's much more compassionate. The way I think about peoples' stories is simple. I find the weirdest person, and make-up a story about them. I don't mean I just kind of exaggerate certain things I see. I mean I REALLY exaggerate everything. If I see a scar, I make-up something like: The guy was a circus bear fighter, and he isn't anymore because a half-bear, half-tiger, tried to kill him! OMG!

Back to what I was saying. I saw this one guy sitting across from me. Like me, he was moving his head to the beat, but he was more intense. His whole body was moving along with the music, which I hadn't seen before. As if that wasn't funny enough, he had the funniest face ever! His face just looked stupid. He had one of those annoying little spots of facial hair on his chin. His hair was super short, yet loaded with waxes and gels. He had some ugly "no frame" glasses. He was huge: really tall, and chubby. His head was too small for his body, though. Yes, I know, I'm very superficial. The funniness comes now. As if he himself, and his intense music weren't enough. He took out his phone, and started taking selfies. Firstly, in my opinion, a grown man taking selfies is utterly ridiculous, as you may be aware from my recent post "Selfies". The selfies he was taking were even more hilarious. He started raising one eyebrow, and captioning his pictures.

 If you've ever seen me on the bus with nothing but my iPod, you know that I like to do that thing where you move your head to the beat. However, I don't make myself the center of attention when doing that. I was so very annoyed by the man's motion that I felt like I needed to look away, so I tried, but his obscurity had a certain magnetism about it and my eyes were drawn back to his face. This whole bus ride, I spent in disgust. Disgust which I both could've and couldn't stop. When I got to my friend's party, I gave her her present and everything was marvellous. I ate pounds of delicious food and completely forgot about the weirdo, but every now and then, he pops back into my mind.