X Bus Strikes again!!!

I had a bad ride on the X bus today. It wasn't necessarily bad, because I was harassed or anything. I was more annoyed than anything else.

First of all, I knew it was subject to be a difficult ride, when a regular sized bus showed up. The X-Bus is a long bus route that usually uses the extended buses (it looks like two buses joined together), which are necessary in order to accomodate the large number of people who ride this bus at any given hour. Why they would ever use a regular size bus is baffling. You could ride the X bus at 1:30 in the morning and there would still be 45 people on the bus. Trust me--- if been on there during that time.

Anyway, I'm sitting toward the front of the bus; mind you, but not in the elderly seats. I got on the bus at the very beginning of the line. By the time, the bus arrived at the fourth stop , there were only a few seats left, and the bus hadn't even reach the first of it's three most congested stops: Chinatown, Union Station, and 8th and H Streets. Those are the busiest bus stops on this route. So busy in fact that, one bus could pick up 20 passengers, drive away, and if another one shows up immediately after, there will still be 20 more people ready to get on.

Anyhow, the bus had passed Chinatown. There were no longer any seats left and there were people standing up in the aisle of the bus. I've got my seat, and I'm sitting next to the window, reading a magazine. Then I hear a man saying, "you need to sit down...?" Then I hear a woman yelling loudly, "That's alright! That's alright! Let 'em stay blind. Let 'em stay blind!" As the crowd stepped to the side to try to let her through. She's still yelling the same phrase, "Let 'em stay blind!" Apparently she was implying that someone should have given her a seat , since she was carrying a baby and a stroller.

Here's where I get upset:

Yeah, quite a few people could've been nice and allowed her to have a seat, BUT----it is not a requirement, and they were old and didn't know anyway(they couldn't see her). Metro buses all have signs in them that say that it is a federal law requiring that elderly and disbabled people be given the front seats----the rest is up to society's manners, morals, and ethics.

Most of the people sitting in the front were old, and didn't even know who was talking ( they couldn't see her--it was too crowded) judging from their shocked and puzzle looks when she emerged from the crowd. She didn't give anyone a chance to acknowledge her existence and offer her a seat. Instead, she was rude, loud, and obnoxious---at which point some of the people sneered their faces in offense. Then the woman next to me got up and said, you can sit here. She comes busting through the crowd swinging her stroller wildly, hitting people in the legs, etc... When she got near the woman who offered her the seat, she said harshly, "Excuse me," like she had an attitude and the woman was in the way. Well she couldn't move any further out of the way, due to the fact that the bus was crowded, but she tried. This woman with the baby just blew her breath and swung the stroller around and sat down next to me---with not one, but two pointy bags pushing into me very hard at which point I turned to look at her like she was crazy---but I said nothing. I just stared at her, like she was a mad woman. I started to say, "Just 'cause you're mad, that doesn't mean you have the right to squish and jab me up....," but I didn't feel like arguing with a self important asshole. I turned my head and met the gaze of another woman who, sneered up her face at how the baby woman was acting, and she said: "Who owes you something? You act like somebody owes you something, 'cause you had a child." The baby woman just mumbled under her breath, something about swearing to God. I just turned my head away back to the window and tried to keep my composure.


Now here's my point:

How bad am I supposed to feel, because some woman has a child, a stroller, and a baby bag and a purse.

Truth of the matter---this woman was not struggling, had had her baby in one arm, her bags on her other shoulder and the stroller in her other hand. She was handling her load quite well.

But, are people supposed to bow down to single mothers, riding public transportation? If I see you struggling, I don't mind giving you a helping hand.

But should they be demanding it, and with an attitude no less. I've seen elderly people, get on and not be offered a seat---and there's actually rules for that. Yet, these elderly people aren't ranting and raving about it and throwing there shit all over people because they are mad.

I hate the X bus!!!!!!!