I didn’t want to drag myself out of bed at 5-something this morning, so I took a different bus, almost half an hour later. This is the bus I’d been avoiding, knowing how much busier it would be, and I encountered a whole new set of challenges riding this one: white men. First, at the bus stop, I encountered an apparent neighbor who engaged me in conversation. On the surface this doesn’t seem threatening, but from experience I’ve learned that most men who chat me up are flirting at minimum. This puts me in an awkward situation: continue to chat on the bus, possibly “inviting” an expectation that we will move beyond bus-acquaintanceship so that I have to lie to get out of giving him[…]

Almost missed the bus today because Bernard is off and the defensive white woman subbing for him was EARLY but justified her zooming by me a minute before she was even supposed to be at the prior time point by claiming that it’s him who is normally late. Whatever. Darrell has a sub, too. So for the first time in the morning, I’m just someone stuck riding the bus. No enthusiastic chatter. Just sitting here.  Stuck. On a rattling, bumpy, deathly quiet bus. And I’d sooooooo much rather be back home in bed. Ugh.

I’m still sitting on the couch after having submitted my last blog post.  I don’t want to have to scramble to make it to a bus on time.  I want to sit and enjoy the quiet and the Christmas lights and another cup of coffee!  I want to leave when I want to leave – not when I have to in order to meet a bus. I’m usually a pretty positive person.  But this bus stuff is making me grumpy. I am seriously in AWE of those who do this regularly because they have no other viable choice.  Their strength FAR exceeds mine!!

That’s what I started thinking less than two weeks into this experiment.  Riding the bus is EXHAUSTING.  I have no idea how people do it on a long-term basis.  And it has nothing to do with how nice the bus drivers are – because they are amazingly nice – it’s all about the amount of time it takes, and the challenges one encounters when relying on public transportation (or even her own feet, but I’ll save that for another blog). What used to be a twelve minute trip has turned into a forty-five minute commute – and that’s just one way!  So I could sleep for a half hour longer – grade thirty minutes more worth of papers – exercise for that recommended thirty minutes[…]

I wondered how long it would take before riding the bus made me cry, and just over a week ago I found out. Five days. Yep – a measly 5. I’d like to defend myself by blaming it on the blizzard of November 2015, but honestly it was my own fault.  I was determined to get to the New Towne community info meeting at Heartland on the 21st, but with 8 1/2″ of snow, I was unable to take the leisurely 45-minute stroll I had originally planned. I figured if I wore my hat, and my hood, and my snow boots – if I walked quickly to keep warm – if I took the Charles Street bus from the stop less than a mile south[…]