This is not a conversation piece

What is it about doing work on the bus or skytrain that makes people think you want them to ask you about it? Do you think if I had time for a little chit chat I'd be doing my work on transit? I'll give you a hint: probably not. I'm probably up against some sort of deadline or on a roll with some train of thought and need every second to try to finish my work. So no, I didn't just bring out these papers so you'd have something to ask me about as a conversation starter. In fact, from now on, let's just assume that if I want to start a conversation with you, I'll do something crazy, like say 'hi'.

Who's the parent?

Woman gets on the bus with a small child. Small child stands near door at back of bus. Woman sits in seat across from door. Woman says to son, "You should be sitting here." Gentleman next to woman gets up to give seat to child. Woman says, "Oh you don't have to do that; he probably won't listen anyway; he's pretty stubborn."

Wow. Now I may not have kids, but I'm sure my parentally-inclined friends will agree, "probably won't listen" is not an acceptable default state for a child.

Way to put forth an effort at parenting, lady.

Keeping it classy (with Transit Rule #1)

Over my headphones and from somewhere behind me on the skytrain, I hear some guy yelling at what I assume was his cellphone. He hangs up and a few seconds later there is this loud repeated banging noise. I look over and see angry yelling man doing what looks like kicking the skytrain door. Way to throw a tantrum, loser.

Then some guy from a few seats over says what we're all thinking, "Hey man, can you shut the f*#@ up?". I'm thinking to myself, "Oh no, this could end badly." Luckily some other guy distracted angry man by striking up a conversation.

That's one of those skytrain situations that can escalate quickly and leads to one of my rules for riding transit: "Always have an exit strategy."

Standing is hard

You'd think a bunch of university-aged students, who probably all just got off the skytrain anyway, would have the stamina to stand for a 15 minute bus ride. Well, you'd be wrong, as evidenced this morning by a bunch of lazy bus riders who saw that there were no seats left on the bus and decided not to get on. The lineup formed outside the bus doors of course prompts the bus driver to shut the doors and pull away just as I'm about to get on.

Thanks, guys. I miss a perfectly good bus because you're all too lazy to stand. Except that you're now all standing in line waiting for a bus; so apparently you're lazy and dumb ... I'd quit university now if I were you guys.