2008-02-13

Choices

In terms of public transportation, I'm pretty much an Orange Line girl all the way. On occasion, though, circumstances arise where I have to take a bus. This morning, for example. I had an appointment nowhere near an Orange Line station, and so had to take the bus from my appointment to my office.

The #39.

For you locals -- have you been outside today? It sucks nine kinds of dirty ass out there. That is a bona fide meteorological term. Look it up. It's dark, it's raining, it snowed last night so you're dealing with huge slushy puddles and you can't wear cute shoes and it just SUCKS.

And then, you get on the #39, which stops every 10 yards and each time picks up between 6 and 8 students from Wentworth, MassArt or Northeastern, all of whom are carrying backpacks the size of Amy Winehouse's beehive. You are at least 18 stops from your final destination, and already it's like being stuck in an old toolshed with 9 dozen wet dogs, half of whom have wracking, croupy, Dickensian coughs.

At the stop before yours, the bus driver gets on her cellphone. She makes a couple of calls. The bus stays put. Now, while it's obviously good that she's not one of these halfwits who drive AND talk on the cellphone, there doesn't appear to be any emergency up ahead or on the bus itself that would merit stopping the bus and making a phone call, let alone TWO.

As someone in recovery, you have learned that you always have a choice. Make the right choice, and you get another day free of whatever it was that you were inserting into your plumbing to avoid dealing with shit. Make the wrong choice, and you go back to being the weird, drunk aunt who smells like box wine and Newport Lights. If you're lucky.

At this moment, you have two choices. You can stay on the bus, fume, and continue to expose yourself to the myriad microbes being passed along by your fellow journeymen, or you can get off here and walk the 10 yards to your stop. You're going to be miserable either way, but if you disembark here, you'll at least be MOVING.

So you get off the bus. And you walk through the pouring rain to your office. And you turn on your computer and listen to David Lee Roth's isolated vocal track from "Runnin' With The Devil," which your friend Jon sent you last week, and which you have listened to at least 3 times a day since, because it's fucking hilarious. And everything is okay again.

You have made the right choice.

lisamcc at 3:53 p.m.

5 comments so far
Stephen
2008-02-18 14:39:22
It's on Chunklet: http://www.chunklet.com/index.cfm?section=blogs&ID=313
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Spooney
2008-02-13 18:11:50
Dude, you gotta send me the isolated vocal track from "Runnin\' With The Devil". I think I need to hear that! That song was our offical football rally song in high school, cuz we were the Leominstah Blue Devils. One guy would come out dressed as the Blue Devil & destroy a guy dressed as the Fitchburg Raider with his blue pitchfork to that song...soooo wicked awesome!
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Bill
2008-02-13 18:35:25
The #39 bus gives me nightmares. Personally, the worst part is when the cramped, crush-level bus stops alongside an empty, wide, roomy trolley along S. Huntington. I\'m not normally a jealous person, but damn... Today I managed to snag a ride on the 48 (which under normal circumstances, mysteriously appears only when I don\'t need to use it) and linked up with the Orange Line at Jackson Sq.
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LisaMcC
2008-02-14 08:18:14
Spooney - I'll send you the track. It will seriously change your life.
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Lynette
2008-03-24 23:39:18
Ahhhh...the 39. I've had many a 4 hour ride from Copley to Forest Hills on that baby. I think they need to add more stops. I wouldn't want any college student to actually have to WALK two steps.
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