At this time, it's necessary to report on my worst bus experience to date. It was a combination of two of my biggest pet peeves: public cell phone conversations that should be private and poor parenting. This was so horrible that I don't really want to write about it and relive the experience, but I am also a firm believer in sharing. Sharing in this instance means that you will have to suffer with me.
I got on the bus to go home after work and sat down, realizing too late that there was a baby directly behind me. Someone sat next to me in the aisle seat so I was trapped for the next 30 minutes. And of course, I forgot my IPod. The baby was quiet so I thought that it would be okay. But then I realized that his mother (who was probably about 19 or maybe 20) was talking on her cell phone. It was all downhill from there. It's okay to cringe.
The mother I will call Nicki, because I can and it seems to fit. The person she was talking to, even though we can't hear him, will be referred to as Chad. And my thoughts will be in brackets [like so] just so you can follow along with the narrative in my head.
First, the conversation topic was about how Chad always makes Nicki feel stupid and used to make her cry. We can ask a person named Crystal for verification of this fact if we don't believe Nicki. This must have upset Chad because Nicki said, "See, you always just fly off the handle. You're ecstatic."
Chad must have informed her that her use of ecstatic was incorrect, because Nicki then launched back into her speech about how Chad is so smart and makes her feel stupid, randomly throwing in that that was why they could never date. She paused to yell at her son who was pulling himself up to the window and standing on the seat, pulling on the Request Stop cord. I also feel it is important to note that the baby was only wearing a diaper and shoes. [It's not that warm out and buses are dirty places. Perhaps you should spend less on the unlimited cell phone minutes and more on clothes for your child. Just a thought]
The conversation progressed with about 10 minutes of Chad asking Nicki to explain her "we can't date" comment and Nicki begging him to stop pressing her about it [when clearly she wanted to talk about it because she's the one that brought it up]. At this point, the bus driver asked her to make her child sit down because it's a safety hazard so Nicki swats at her son and yells at him to stop. [Very effective.]
Next we learn that Nicki isn't saying that she doesn't want to date Chad, but she doesn't understand why he would possibly want to date her. According to Nicki, Chad is extremely attractive, intelligent, has everything going for him and could have any girl he wants. [He must also have a huge ego because he manages to get her to repeat his litany of attributes at least three times.] And Nicki wants to know why he would want to date a girl with a one year old to take care of. [Good question...]
The baby starts crying when Nicki pulls him down from his standing position and yells at him again. At this point, most mothers would focus on quieting their child or entertaining him because he's clearly bored, but Nicki is consumed with the bigger priority of keeping Chad on the phone and convincing him that he should come over tonight. The baby stands up, the bus driver yells, Nicki yells and hits, and I fight the urge to go into the fetal position.
By the time we make it to my stop, I've actually started to feel bad for Nicki. It's become obvious that she doesn't have a lot of self-confidence and at the end of the day, this whole Chad thing will not turn out well for her. But then the baby starts to cry, Nicki ignores him, and I flee the bus leaving any sympathy for Nicki behind.
Pocket Susan Advice: Make a difference in your community by volunteering. If you go online to www.volunteermatch.org you can do a search for volunteer opportunities in your area using keywords like "mentoring" or "animals". Volunteer Match even has virtual volunteer opportunities that can be completed at your home on online if you aren't able to volunteer in person.
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