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SEVEN friggin' hours on a bus - with a maniac bus driver who thought he was gonna save us all from ourselves and our baser instincts to have free will. Awwwwwwwwww!!!
Wanna read about the nightmare?
Visiting my beautiful, handsome, wonderful (no he isn't reading this over my shoulder, but he'd adore that description none the less) best friend in Hotlanta.
Had to take the bus - and trust me, it was NOT a quick hop skip and jump journey. Which alot of it was timing and weather - I mean, the bus was FULL - as in no seats left - as in people standing in the aisles as we drove. Hurricane escapers, mostly. I'm just glad I'm not clausterphobic, because after hours and hours of being packed in like that - I'd have been insane.
So we're driving along - and every once in awhile, the driver makes a pit stop - he gets up and lays down the law - in the voice of the worst domineering elementry school teacher voice you could imagine. Basically, he was right for the first half of the trip - telling folks they were to remain seated and not leave the bus for smoking breaks (when we're just stopping for less than 5 mins to drop someone off) - makes sense, yes? Yeah, until he started prowling down the aisles taking much glee in saying how he'd leave anyone who brakes the rules on the side of the road. (Eeekk)
Okay - so I can deal with that. I'm not a smoker, and I wanna get to my destination. Fine - do what the man says.
Thennnnnnnnn - two things happen.
We pick up this couple - elderly and from the wife's outfit, you can tell they were originally from India. No problems, we're riding along - and then the bus driver sees that the husband has taken off his shoes. Now, the man had worn the equivalent of flip flops, folks. Fancy leather, etc - but flip flops - meaning his foot was naked anyway. So the driver tells him to put his shoes back on - I don't know if the man just didn't hear him, right away - but he didn't do it. So the driver proceeds to pull the bus over onto the side of the highway, stand up and addresses the man in front of everyone - completely humiliating the man. He talks down to the husband, telling him to put his shoes on or else. I think the man was a little astonished to be talked to in this way, with the entire bus hearing it. He does put his shoes back on. Only to have the driver still staring him down. Then the best part of all - (remember that we're in the middle of nowhere)- the driver asks the man rather snidely, in a booming voice if he'd enjoy having himself and his wife tossed out of the bus into the woods. Says that's what will happen if the man doesn't obey his rules from now on. The man's just quiet, doesn't say anything - because if he argued or acted upset then he'd have probably ended up kicked off with his wife.
Grrrrrrrrr.... The worst part was, after the driver got back onto the road - the Indian husband just sat there - silently crying. I mean it. Tears falling down his face at having been embarrassed that way, dominated that way - frankly, to my mind abused.
I don't know if the driver just got off on it. Or if there was something else behind it. The couple was Indian - did he think them to be from Middle East? Hello, India is an Asian country. So who knows. But I was fuming. If the driver was making assumptions because of the color of their skin or their appearance, it would have been the biggest irony because the driver was black.
After that - we hit the main highway where for over an hour we crawled at less than 25 miles an hour, stop / start / stop /start - for ten miles. Yes, one hour for ten miles. Though I know it was worse than that for folks in Florida.
Finally - we got to the last stop, an hour late, and there was Payne. I was more than glad to see him...lol. I was also glad to have escaped the tension-filled bus and to get away from that driver. I squeezed the Indian man's arm as I passed him on the way off the bus, hoping to show him some kindness. He looked up at me and smiled.
So I'm out of town for a few days - will be back home on Tuesday. But I'll be checking online.
Today is Saturday, and Payne and I will be having lunch with Em!!! It'll be great to meet her, and to see her and Payne talking about women writers of gay porn....hehe.
Hugs
xof
Wanna read about the nightmare?
Visiting my beautiful, handsome, wonderful (no he isn't reading this over my shoulder, but he'd adore that description none the less) best friend in Hotlanta.
Had to take the bus - and trust me, it was NOT a quick hop skip and jump journey. Which alot of it was timing and weather - I mean, the bus was FULL - as in no seats left - as in people standing in the aisles as we drove. Hurricane escapers, mostly. I'm just glad I'm not clausterphobic, because after hours and hours of being packed in like that - I'd have been insane.
So we're driving along - and every once in awhile, the driver makes a pit stop - he gets up and lays down the law - in the voice of the worst domineering elementry school teacher voice you could imagine. Basically, he was right for the first half of the trip - telling folks they were to remain seated and not leave the bus for smoking breaks (when we're just stopping for less than 5 mins to drop someone off) - makes sense, yes? Yeah, until he started prowling down the aisles taking much glee in saying how he'd leave anyone who brakes the rules on the side of the road. (Eeekk)
Okay - so I can deal with that. I'm not a smoker, and I wanna get to my destination. Fine - do what the man says.
Thennnnnnnnn - two things happen.
We pick up this couple - elderly and from the wife's outfit, you can tell they were originally from India. No problems, we're riding along - and then the bus driver sees that the husband has taken off his shoes. Now, the man had worn the equivalent of flip flops, folks. Fancy leather, etc - but flip flops - meaning his foot was naked anyway. So the driver tells him to put his shoes back on - I don't know if the man just didn't hear him, right away - but he didn't do it. So the driver proceeds to pull the bus over onto the side of the highway, stand up and addresses the man in front of everyone - completely humiliating the man. He talks down to the husband, telling him to put his shoes on or else. I think the man was a little astonished to be talked to in this way, with the entire bus hearing it. He does put his shoes back on. Only to have the driver still staring him down. Then the best part of all - (remember that we're in the middle of nowhere)- the driver asks the man rather snidely, in a booming voice if he'd enjoy having himself and his wife tossed out of the bus into the woods. Says that's what will happen if the man doesn't obey his rules from now on. The man's just quiet, doesn't say anything - because if he argued or acted upset then he'd have probably ended up kicked off with his wife.
Grrrrrrrrr.... The worst part was, after the driver got back onto the road - the Indian husband just sat there - silently crying. I mean it. Tears falling down his face at having been embarrassed that way, dominated that way - frankly, to my mind abused.
I don't know if the driver just got off on it. Or if there was something else behind it. The couple was Indian - did he think them to be from Middle East? Hello, India is an Asian country. So who knows. But I was fuming. If the driver was making assumptions because of the color of their skin or their appearance, it would have been the biggest irony because the driver was black.
After that - we hit the main highway where for over an hour we crawled at less than 25 miles an hour, stop / start / stop /start - for ten miles. Yes, one hour for ten miles. Though I know it was worse than that for folks in Florida.
Finally - we got to the last stop, an hour late, and there was Payne. I was more than glad to see him...lol. I was also glad to have escaped the tension-filled bus and to get away from that driver. I squeezed the Indian man's arm as I passed him on the way off the bus, hoping to show him some kindness. He looked up at me and smiled.
So I'm out of town for a few days - will be back home on Tuesday. But I'll be checking online.
Today is Saturday, and Payne and I will be having lunch with Em!!! It'll be great to meet her, and to see her and Payne talking about women writers of gay porn....hehe.
Hugs
xof
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From:
Saturday
So glad we finally had the opportunity to meet, xof! But we really didn't talk all that much about women writers of gay porn. Did we?
Hugs,
Em
From:
Re: Saturday
Was very glad to meet you too. Hugsssss.
xof