Standing Room Only...

The commute to and from NY is always a journey, and often an adventure. Standing room only in the morning, and waiting on endless rush hour lines to return home can make anyone a bit anxious.

Day after day, Monday through Friday we see the same tired and frustrated faces just counting down the weekdays until crossing the finish line on Friday. While my fellow commuters and I, commiserate with the same old conversations over and over again. ‘The taxes keep rising, why are there not enough busses, and my favorite, I got to get out of here”!

Today, I feel I won the lottery, because I got a seat! Ok, It was a broken seat, and more of a recliner. Never the less, it was a seat. I unintentionally became closer and more intimate with my neighbor behind me with every bump in the road. As the other customers started to pile in, I was starting to feel claustrophobic, I was getting retail flash backs of working the day after Thanksgiving. The isles were packed with bags, coats, body parts in your face, and people extending their conference calls to the bus for all of us to hear. I did what any respectable person would do put in my ear buds close my eyes and tune it out. This worked for a while until a rather large overgrown ass unintentionally (I hope) grazed my face. As I reprimanded her, there was no apology and even got a dirty look from the perpetrator. I realized quickly that yelling, would only fuel this young woman so I let it go.

As my stop approached and walked closer to the front of the bus, I heard commotion and what I thought was a fight. As I turned around I noticed the same “portly” woman engaging in a potential made for U-Tube moment, and best of NJ commuter gone wild. I witnessed fists flying, words exchanged, and a cell phone right hook to the head. The bus driver and passengers were all involved now with screaming, and threats, and God knows how that ended.

I stepped off the bus, and I walked to my apartment unscathed for today anyway. All I could think of was the bottle of Chardonnay chilling in my fridge just calling my name.

Just another day of adventure on the NJ transit bus…