Bumpy Beginnings

My initiation to commutership was a bit of a bumpy ride.  Tell me you're not surprised. 

I was utterly petrified of getting on the wrong bus or not knowing what to do.  How do you pay?  Where do you go?  What is the lingo?  I've never pretending to have any sense of direction or any sense, for that matter, when it comes to getting from point A to point B.  Why should I start now?  So on my very first day of commutership, my kind coworker, A.B. agreed to take me in and show me the ropes.  We made plans to meet at the Park-N-Ride and take the bus together.

We both arrived at the bus depot around the same time to find that the whole world decided to bus it that day.  There was absolutely not one single parking spot.  Not one!!!  What's more, people were illegally parked all over the place.  I was tempted to follow suit but I met a very nice security guard that warned me not to do lest my car be towed.  In my desperation, I called A.B. to see if she had better luck than I did finding a spot.  And wouldn't you know it, the poor dear got a ticket for being on the phone while driving (in a parking lot)!  My bad.  I felt terrible.

After about 30 minutes of circling that lot unsuccessfully, we decided to take our chances and drive over to the grocery store across the street and leave our cars there.  This, by the way, is not advisable.  We were very lucky to find our cars intact when we came back for them at the end of the day.

A few long minutes later we found ourselves standing in a very overcrowded bus, but we were happily on our way.  Our stop is actually on a section of the freeway which is actually a bus stop, but on the freeway.  I've never noticed these before.  The bus driver missed our bus and upon realizing it, she decided to stop right smack on the freeway shoulder.  Not knowing any better, I thought this was normal.  I was so happy that I had taken my first bus ride, I whipped out my phone to call my hubby and tell him all about it.  Distracted by my dialing, I didn't see that a car was coming in my direction and it almost hit me!  I swear it missed me by about 10 inches.  That was the day I almost died.

Later that week, A.B. was not able to ride with me but I felt I had a good handle on it by then.  I got to the Park-N-Ride early, got my parking spot and waited for my bus.  I hopped on, found a seat, took out my book and started reading, feeling very proud of myself that I had done it all by myself.  I glanced out the window and I got a sinking feeling in my stomach that the things I was seeing out the window are not the same things I had seen in the days prior.  We were not on the freeway.  We were on the streets.  I took a few wobbly steps toward the bus driver and asked him where we were going.  He said, "This bus is going to Disneyland." "Disneyland?  Oh no!  I got on the wrong bus!"  The bus driver, very calmly told me it would be okay, that I needed to get out on the next bus stop and cross the street and take the bus going the opposite direction and I would be on my way to downtown LA.  Feeling very sheepish, I followed his instructions.  I had to make the very embarrassing call to my boss to explain why I was going to be late to work that morning.  I sat at the bus stop for what seemed an eternity when finally, my bus emerged from around the corner...and it kept driving...it drove right past me.  Never even slowed down at the bus stop.  What the heck?  My next call was to my colleague who is also a commuter and she informed me that if you want the bus to stop for you, you have to stand up and waive at it.  Like you're hailing a taxi.  Otherwise, the bus driver will assume that you are waiting for a different bus.  That is when I learned my first piece of bus etiquette.  My goodness.   I finally made it to work that morning about 2 hours late.  Thank God I'm not sensitive because the amount of giggles I was greeted with that morning was enough to make a grown man cry.

Another day that week, I fed the bus meter with a $5 bill and stood there expecting my change.  This was before my bus pass arrived.  The bus driver sat there with a blank stare as I asked for my change.  Then one of the passengers yelled out to me that the meter will not give you change nor will the bus driver and that I was holding up the bus.  Fortunately, the next guy was also going to pay with cash and instead of feeding the meter, he gave his cash to me and we called it even with the bus driver.  Bus etiquette rule #2: have exact change.

I must really be a glutton for punishment because even though my first week was crazy, I decided to stick it out.  And that my friends, is the story of my bumpy beginning.