today is my first day of fall break...
it's nice to get out of the hill once in while. To my surprise, Greyhound didn't suck this time as much as last last time.
Recap
I was a bit nervous. on Wednesday afternoon, I went to the Westmoreland transit area in front of 'Otterbein' church to purchase a greyhound (g) ticket. The lady in the ticket booth said that they don't sell g ticket, I had to go to Tommy's bookshelf (good thing I knew where it was or else ("doom" for me)).
I found out from the owner of Tommy's bookshelf about how he became an agent for the greyhound. He told me how the county of westmoreland was losing revenue for having to maintain a full time staff. The owner then became the agent and complained to me how he's spending more money paying for "rent" space rather than earning profit.
He stressed to me to arrive at the bus stop 1 hour early and to stand directly in front of the greyhound bus sign. According to him, if the bus driver was a jerk and he didn't see anybody, he wouldn't bother to stop (and i would have to miss my bus). To my 'naivite' I actually believed him.
The day
I arrive half an hour early on Friday. The bus was half an hour late. Under normal circumstances this would have been fine, BUT, i didn't eat my dinner. I was paranoid that the owner of Tommy's bookshelf was right. To my relief the bus did arrive.
MEANtime: Sketch of Americana
i entered and placed my black bag on the floor. This old caucasian man started talking to a teenage boy across from him. I thought it was odd at first. Then I realized that the bus they might be riding was local and they were familiar with each other.
The teenage boy started conversing with the guy and asked from across the room:
"Did you watch wrestling?...you missed it, Undertaker was defeated, his casket was burned to the ground...oh he's pissed... you should have seen it George!"
the guy replied: "My name is not George, it's Eugene...remember i changed my name...thanks for telling me...i can't wait to watch it tonight..."
"It's so cool George- I mean Eugene." The boy walked away and met up with his friend outside.
Eugene started talking to the guy across from him. The guy soon left, and Eugene continued to mumble:
"America is a great country...football...when I was born if I only knew, I would have turned around and get back inside...I wish I wasn't born...nobody likes me...we're running out of trees...it's becoming overpopulated...Alaska has trees...the victims of the Katrina..."
I looked outside and the local buses finally left and greyhound still hadn't arrived. I went to the ticket window. The ignorant ticket seller assumed that I missed the bus.
"It must have left already," she said.
I refuted, "The bus is supposed to be here at 4:30 and I've been here since 3:45."
"Oh, well... here's there number, you can call their toll free number, there's a payphone near the bathroom."
I walked away and started dialing my cellphone. The greyhound finally arrived. End of Sketch
the Bus ride
back to my voice (not the sketch voice)...the ghetto thing that happened in the bus going to Pittsburgh was lack of seat. The bus driver had to ask somebody to volunteer to stand up until Monroeville so that one of the newcomers could sit down.
I fell asleep and when I woke up, we were in Monroeville mall. The sky was beautiful. The gray clouds acted as barrier in between the orange light of the setting sun and cold blue october sky. I fell asleep again and woke up in Pittsburg. The sun was hiding behind the mountain. The sight was sort of startling. Either I was in a high elevated place or the sun was really low.
Another bus incident...when i was in the bus going to Columbus, a man was annoying the bus driver to make a stop at Cambridge, OH. At first he said no because Cambridge wasn't part of a stop (although it was on the way) but eventually he succumbed. Our bus driver to Cambridge was Fischer (I forgot his first name). He was comedic and it appeared to me that his bus was his stage for his bawdy jokes about bus policy(phone policy, neighbor consideration, temperature etc.) and his ex-wife. This was totally something different from other bus rides I've taken...
Columbus
I arrived finally, the ride was definitely better (probably because it's not a holiday). My uncle picked me up...my godchild was quiet for the first ten minutes and then he started talking. In spite of Morgan Spurlock's warning, I still tried White Castle's burger...it tasted like any burger, I admit the beef patty looked weird...but hey I was "starving"...