The good, the bad, and the ugly (passengers)

THE GOOD

Male passenger: So you drive the bus in between modeling jobs?
Me: *very unlady like snort and hysterical laughter*

It was a nice compliment though. I must say I did drive around the rest of the night with a huge grin on my face.

THE BAD

A young girl comes running past me as I'm standing outside my bus. "We didn't even need to run, he's not in the bus" she says to her posse of friends. "It's she, and I'll be leaving in about ten minutes" I reply. Looking straight at me she says "HE must be taking another break. I swear bus drivers don't care about the schedule; all they want is more time to drink their coffee, eat their doughnuts and get fatter. It's not like it's a hard job. They don't even deserve breaks for what they do".

My opinion (which, sadly, was not voiced because I wasn't in the mood to lower myself to this chicks standards and/or pick a fight with her. It would be embarrassing for a seventeen year old cheerleader to start crying in front of her friends...oh, no, wait...don't they do that all the time?) Number one: she's confusing bus drivers with cops. Number two: driving, contrary to popular belief, is one of the hardest things on the human body. If we don't get out of the seat to stretch every once in a while we'll end up with back/knee/joint issues....hell it still happens when we do get out of the seat and stretch. Number three: dealing with rude, disrespectful people all day eventually will get to you. WE NEED TO GET OUT OF THE BUS AND TAKE TEN MINUTES TO OURSELVES OR WE WILL GO POSTAL ON THE NEXT PASSENGER THAT ACTS LIKE AN IDIOT!

THE UGLY

An extremely intoxicated man gets on board at the train station. He sits down and not even five seconds later he starts snoring. "Sir! Wake up and tell me where you're getting off" I ask. "uninteligible mumbling" he replies. "Look, you need to tell me where you're getting off. Once I get to the end of the line, there are NO more buses running until five in the morning. That means you'll be waiting outside for over two hours. Understand?" I say. He snores in response. "Fine. Just wanted to make sure we're clear" I say.

I call dispatch and explain I have a passenger passed out on the bus. The first thing they ask me is if I'm okay driving with him on board because if I'm not, they'll send someone out A.S.A.P. I assure them that I'm fine and they tell me to drive to my terminus point and then go up thirty blocks and that's where the calvary will meet me.

Once I get to the assigned meeting point, I see two supervisors waiting for me. As soon as they see me, they're like "You again. What's with you and problem passengers?" Is it a bad thing that supervisors, security and police all know me by name? It takes about ten minutes to get this guy woken up and off the bus. When asked where he was trying to get to, he replies "the train station (yes, the same one that he got on the bus at!!!) Apparently he just got on the bus to keep warm! Rule number one when you're drunk - don't get on a bus at 2:30 in the morning to keep warm, most likely you'll end up stranded in a location farther than where you want to be.

By the time I got back to the yard (ten minutes to get the drunk off the bus, plus an additional 60 blocks of driving) I was 25 minutes late. It's not that I mind getting the overtime, it's just that I was extremely exhausted and I wanted nothing better than to go home and sleep write this blog.