Bus Ride

Today I scheduled another social networking event for my group. And, as usual, none of the members signed up to attend. So this was a solo excursion. The event was to Rye Playland Amusement Park. Although I went alone, it was a nice trip. Not great or exciting to go to an amusement park alone, but it was still nice to get out of my apartment.

What was the most eventful thing about the excursion?

The hour and 10 minute bus ride there.

This young mother and her son(3 years old approx.) and her friend (with her son [5 or 6 years old approx.]). The kids' behavior and attitudes were atrocious (the 3 year old much more so). The 3yr. old threw an open bag of Doritos in my direction. Yes, the bag hit me (spilling Doritos onto the bus floor). The mother yelled, pinched, and pulled the 3 year old, but he just ignored her. After about 3~4 minutes, the kid finally bends down to pick up the Doritos. The three year old picks up a single chip, and then he picks up the bag. After putting the single chip in the bag, the other young lady snatches the bag. They were speaking in Spanish, but from the body language, I'm guessing she didn't want the dirty clip in the bag. After debating what to do, she balls up the bag...and goes back to the loud conversation the two young ladies were having. The Doritos were left on the floor. The boys went on being loud, and too playful for a city bus. However,...the ladies conversation continued. After about 10 minutes, the mother of the older boy puts a plastic container (about the size of a five pound bag of sugar), filled with cookies and a variety of candy. The kid played with the junk food, picked at the junk food, and of course, he ate the junk food. And then when he finished, he decided to lay across two seats (shoes on[of course]) to rest. About 15 minutes later, the older boy is playfully taunting the little boy, who was from time to time screaming for his mother (who is sitting right next to the two boys). However, the "adult conversation" wasn't interrupted. The ladies kept on talking, and the kid kept on screaming. That is...until the 3yr. old decided to throw a plastic shovel at the 6yr. old (again in my direction). The mother of the 3yr old snatches the shovel, and slaps the boys hand. The boy's reaction?

He snatches the shovel back and stares at his mother. The mother mumbles something ....and continues her conversation with her friend. Yep, the boy kept the shovel.

Near the end of the bus ride, both ladies now have their sons in their arms smothering them with kisses and baby talk.

True Story(with details left out). The only thing that kept flashing through my mind was that I would eventually have both boys in my classroom (metaphorically speaking).

Back in NYC

Sorry, I guess you figured out that I've once again allowed myself to be overwhelmed at work. I started posting over the uncompleted blog entries in my draft folder. I thought I would take a couple of minutes to try to clear out my draft folder. Below is one of the entries that has been sitting incomplete in my draft folder.

Thursday, August 6th

I'm back in NYC. the bus was about an hour behind schedule for the final leg of the cross country bus ride. After finally arriving in NYC, the bus driver had a minor accident with a Mercedes. While the bus company reps dealt with the accident, we sat and waited...and waited. We were waiting about 45 minutes. While waiting, the first sight I saw was a pregnant woman sleeping on the sidewalk outside a building. In the window right above the window was a sign that read, "Congratulations, it's a boy!". I tried to get a picture, but cars kept driving past the idling bus. Next, was the sight of police (or emergency service workers) rounding up the homeless. All I could think about while waiting on the bus was wow, I'm back in New York City.

Finally, the bus resumed. I was expecting another 15 minutes before we would arrive at the bus depot, but it turned out my sense of direction and time was off. The accident happened right around the corner from the bus depot.

I arrived home about 3PM and slept until about 9PM. I didn't even read the Harry Potter book. I was however, very happy with my DVD player. I was able to watch 3 movies on a single battery charge. I watched:

1. Journey to the Center of the Earth (with Brandon Frasier)
2. Pan's Labyrinth (wasn't a good movie)
3. Epic Movie (it wasn't funny)

The attached photo is the one I took while waiting on the bus (the homeless round-up).


Post Date - Sunday, November 1, 2009 1:50AM

On the Road

Wednesday, July 29th

Today was my last day in Salt Lake City. I started the day at 5AM. I changed my mind about doing a noisy departure from the hostel. Regular readers of this blog will remember a posting a few weeks ago about a noisy wake up when I had to be up at 5AM.

Sorry, I don't know how to post a link to that entry. If I can figure out how, I will post the link to that specific entry below.

Unbelievable Luck!

If you don't see a link, then you'll know I wasn't able to do it.

Anyway, I was up at 5AM. Other than a problem with returning the room key to the keylock (another "easy automatic service" that was anything but easy or automatic). After about 10 minutes of trying to get the key in the keylock box, and trying to call the owner of the hostel, I gave up and shoved the key under the door.

I arrived at the Greyhound station at about 6:30AM. There was already a line about 25 people long. I got behind a trio of ladies who seemed to be ....never mind.

The departure time was suppose to be 7:10AM. The bus departed about 30 minutes late. The last person on should have been the first(a woman in a wheelchair). The bus was packed, but of course you had those who tried to stake out their space by taking up two seats hoping no one would sit next to them. One young lady had her feet up on the second seat next to her, covered in her blanket, sound asleep. The guy in the back was laying down across the three back seats, again sound asleep. I woke up the guy in the back seat. I actually like the back seat right by the bathroom because it is the only seat where you can stretch out your legs. The down side, the very, very down side is when the bathroom is not clean. Not only was the bathroom dirty and stinking up the back of the bus, but person after person kept leaving the seat up causing the back to stink even worse.

I will be on the road until about 6PM tomorrow. There were heavy clouds but luckily no rain. I passed the time reading comics, listening to my MP3 player, and watching the DVD "Disaster Movie". I laughed a couple of time, but the movie was a bit too vulgar for me. On the road, somehow we arrived 1 hour late into Denver. Having to transfer buses in Denver made me a little worry about the late arrival. Also, Greyhound overbooked my transfer bus by an extremely large number. How did I know there was a large number for the overbooking? They needed three buses to get everyone on the road. The good news was that everyone who was suppose to go was able to get a seat. The bad was that I had no time to eat or go to the bathroom. I was a bit annoyed about the late arrival and the overbooking, but I have to say that Greyhound did get me on the road (if a bit delayed), and the ride was not difficult.

Thursday, July 30th

This is a continuation instead of creating a new entry.

Nothing much to report. More time on the road. Towards the end, I realized the two guys seating near me were just released prisoners. The comment about "we're not in jail anymore was the finally confirmation of my suspicion. The envelope showing the prison label "correctional facility..."(sorry, I don't remember). Later, on another bus, there were another two guys having a longer than necessary loud conversation about someone being in prison. For the first time on my bus ride, I felt a bit self-conscious about the "extra" gear I brought with me (MP3 player, DVD player, radio, etc...). But, there weren't any problems.

I arrived in Indianapolis around 7PM. Rather than try for public transportation, I asked the hostel owner for the hostel pick-up service. The hostel turned out to be about 4 miles from downtown.

First impression of the hostel. The hostel had a very warm, comfortable feel. The neighborhood however, was a bit different. The first night there, the nearest store was about a 10 minute walk. Having lived in the inner-city, I had a flash back when I walked into the "local supermarket". Some of the food was out of date, with discount labels for expired food. Frozen foods had freezer burns. There was also a very limited amount of choices(a lot of brands I didn't recognize). The neighborhood seemed to be a mix of low and middle income houses, but seemed relatively okay.

Well, that's about it. First day in Indianapolis. Actually, I should say first evening in Indianapolis. My epal told me months ago that he would only be available for Saturday and Sunday to show me around town, so I won't even bother calling him until Friday evening or Saturday. Since my main goal was to get out of NYC for a while, I told myself that I would just do some solo walking around town. I did meet (online) a couple of locals who said that they might be available for some tour guiding, but I'm not sure if they will or not. Either way, I don't mind doing solo walks around town.

* The attached photo is a picture I took while on the bus on my way to Indianapolis.

Post Date - Friday, August 28, 2009 9:57PM