Bus Fun

I ride the bus to and from work every day, and I get to see and hear all kinds of interesting things. I often wear headphones, both for the music and to avoid attracting conversation from other ridees. I've known for awhile that I needed to write a post about the bus, but I wasn't sure what specific story I wanted to tell. Today I finally had "the experience" that I needed to write about.

I was on the bus home today, and my iPod was dead. I decided not to fake listening, so I didn't put the earbuds in. There was a guy who was trying--only somewhat successfully by my estimation--to flirt with a woman on the bus. This woman did not seem wooed by his discussion of why Christianity is wrong. Perhaps it's best to ask somewhat about their views on religion before launching into a controversial topic. Well, she still remained somewhat engaged in the conversation.

At the downtown transfer center another guy got on and sat across from the original guy. This started a conversation that went something like this:
--New Guy: I'm curious about your shirt..."Burn it where you buy it." (I'm guessing he was hoping it was a drug reference.)
--Original Guy: Very long explanation about the emerald ash borer and how they are trying to stop the spread of it by telling people not to move firewood.
--New Guy: A few weird detailed questions about ash trees and the insect, including whether it is edible or toxic. (Who asks about edible bugs???)
--Original Guy: Answers the guys questions...there are millions of ash trees, the insects are neither tasty nor toxic, the insects are beautiful.
--New Guy: Asks about preserving these beautiful bugs in some type of epoxy.
--Random Unbathed Punk Girl: "That's what's in my ears!" She pulls out her disgusting gauges, which has a spider preserved in it. "Do you know a lot about bugs??"
--Original Guy: "Well, I am a PhD student in etymology."
--Random Unbathed Punk Girl: "Do you know what kind of spider this is?? I've always wanted to know, but I can't figure it out." She reaches to show it to Original Guy but says, "Don't touch it! It smells from being in my ear." (GAG!)
--Original Guy: Says some words about not being a spider expert but having some ideas about what kind of spider it is.
--New Guy: Takes the disgusting gauge. "This is really cool."
--Random Unbathed Punk Girl: Thanks them both and pops the disgusting gauge back into her ear.

Sadly, we then reached my stop, so my education on ash trees (used for baseball bats and houses), emerald ash borers (metallic green on their backs and metallic purple on their stomachs), ear gauges (smelly), and spiders (more difficult to preserve than insects) ended.

Flashback: Day One

There is a lot of activity in GL today, especially a loud teenage girl who has threatened to "tell your mom" and called someone a "m-f-er," which is an unusual combination. Despite the activity today, there is no succinct story for today.

Instead, I decided to share the story of our first day in GL.

Lizzy and I moved here without ever seeing the place. My mom had visited it, taken pictures, and advised us against moving into this apartment. Against her better judgement, we moved in here, mostly because it was cheap and close to a bus stop. We had a service deliver our stuff in a semi, and we paid some guys from Craigslist to unload the truck.

Gina's leg was in an air cast that day (and other days). She propped open the front door with a stool and sat on it smoking while the movers went in and out. Her cigarette smoke permeated the entire building, and she asked the movers numerous questions. Despite the fact that they told her repeatedly that they were just the movers, she did not seem to understand that only Lizzy and I were moving in. After we introduced ourselves and explained that the guys were movers only, she directed more questions toward us, but she still had questions for the movers.

I remember us being amazed that we had selected this building in this neighborhood. It smelled bad, it was relatively dirty (not compared to our last apartment when we moved in), and we clearly had interesting neighbors.

Seven Dolla Holla

Friday morning when I was leaving for work, the sign pictured below was on the front door.

Attention!!! $7.00 Dollars was Lost in the on the step or Hallway By #5 Please Have a good Heart and return it if you found it it was Bill money, please you don’t know how much just $7.00 Dollar means to my pay all my Bill off!!!      #5 Gina

Just to recap, we've had missing mail, stolen shoes, and now seven dollar dollars. There's just never a dull moment in GL!

Email

I received the following email today. We know nothing about the laundry, except:
1. Leaving your laundry in a public washing machine for 15ish hours = a bad idea
2. One resident is notorious for stealing items from neighbors, so she might be a good place to direct questions
3. "Found missing" makes no sense



Dear Resident,

We have been informed that a resident has had their laundry go missing from the washing machine in the laundry room. It was there yesterday around 2pm and was found missing this morning. Please let us know if you have any information regarding this incident. 

Thank you,
Megan
X Brokers

This Should've Been a Guest Post

I've been trying to get Lizzy to write a guest post here because she has been having a lot of interesting GL action lately, including the following:

• Gina borrowed 40 cents from her and attempted to repay her with a doughnut.
• NOLD showed her pictures of "the girls." She previously told me all about "the girls" who are apparently the only other lesbians she has ever met. She wondered if we knew them, and Lizzy said she had to "check the roster."
• An old "grody" man was asleep/passed out/unconscious on a lawn one block over.
• Gina rambled incoherently, as per usual.
• NOLD brought in an "all access pass" that she found on the sidewalk and gave it to Lizzy because she thought maybe it belonged to us. There are two problems with that idea: first, it clearly belongs to a child, and second, it has a name on it, and that name is not Lizzy or Jessi.

Sadly, Lizzy has not been enthusiastic about writing a guest post. However, she might dictate one for me.

Just Another Day in GL

GL goodness started early today. I could hear Gina outside talking to NOLD before I even got a bite of breakfast. I was hoping that she would be back inside before I left for the bus. She wasn't. I put in my earbuds and walked out the front door, wishing Gina and NOLD a nice day. I had some kind of awareness that Gina was talking to me, but I didn't want to risk missing the bus, so I kept walking. I couldn't hear her over the music. She followed me to the bus stop; I gave up and took out my earbuds. There was no bus in sight, but she asked if "that's the one that goes to the school." There are two bus routes that stop there, and they both go to the school. One is more direct than the other, but they both get there. I typically take whichever comes first. So, I said yes. She then indicated that she didn't want the one that goes to the school; she wants the "regular one." I told her that the next one that comes will go downtown on the way to the school, so that's probably the one she wants. She then talked to me the whole time I was waiting for the bus and talked to me all the way downtown until she got off of the bus. Again, her speech was tangential and peppered with loose associations. All I know for sure is that we covered the following topics: she almost caught some other bus but missed it, she has to have/did have another foot/feet surgery and is concerned about bleeding, her son wants her to cook collard greens for him, her son and his girlfriend are having relationship problems even though she thought things were going well, her son seems to be developing a drinking problem which Gina believes is connected to his unhealthy relationship with his girlfriend (which is directly contrary to her earlier statements about their good relationship), their family is "church going and devil fighting," and she knows someone who was in a car accident when drinking. She referred to "40's" several times with particular disdain, which leads me to believe that she may not actually know what a 40 is. I offered about 20 words during the course of the conversation that was not about the bus routes, and she did not seem bothered by that.

Tonight I also got to observe a special bit of GL entertainment. (BTW, Gina is talking to someone on speakerphone right outside of our window right now.) There were three older teenagers on the street. Two of them were on bikes, and the third one was on a skateboard. The skateboarder kept attempting tricks, but he had no skill. He then decided the best plan was to tie a rope to the back of one of the bikes and ride his skateboard down the hill, so he could do some kind of a trick when he hit a pothole. Bad Mom (who didn't seem to actually know him but was driving by) warned him that he was going to get hurt, and he replied that he already knew that. I saw them start this feat, but I cannot see far enough down the street to see the inevitably painful ending. I did just see an ambulance go by though, which I believe may be related to this disastrously bad idea.

The awesome thing about living in GL is that I just never know what I might see/hear/smell/experience next.

Images of GL

I thought it might be nice to mix things up by adding some pictures of GL. These were all snapped during a 20 minute walk around the 'hood, so they may not necessarily be representative. 

Does anyone know what these things are? They were on the sidewalk when I went out to the bus this morning, and later today someone apparently moved them onto the grass. I don't know what they are are or where they came from.

This series of three houses is entertaining to me because they are all in a row. The first one (above) has an untended yard and a boarded window. I'm not sure if anyone lives there.

The second one (above) has the most pimped out yard of anyplace in the neighborhood all year round. They had an extensive nativity situation for Christmas-March.

The third and final house has had large furniture wrapped and on the porch since sometime before we moved in. I wish I knew why that was and what their plan for the furniture is.

This barbed wire apparently serves to keep people out of this factory. It's strange how it's so secure on this side, but the side just to the left of this is a wide open parking lot with about a 1/2 a block entrance. 

This is not necessarily ghetto-ish, but it is kind of cool. Yay for green energy!

This picture serves to illustrate the general state of disrepair of many houses in GL.

I wish I had a better version of the final picture in today's series. This man was wearing cowboys boots, a t-shirt, and gym shorts. He's holding a round wooden shield in his left hand and a wooden sword in his right hand. He was sparring with that metal helmet on a wooden pole. He practiced attacking the pole helmet from various angles, and the pole helmet failed to mount any type of offense or defense regardless of the angle. I couldn't get a better picture because, frankly, I was concerned about what this man might do if he saw me taking a picture of him.

I hope you have enjoyed today's tour of GL!