People Watching

I love watching people.  People rushing here, people rushing there, people anywhere in masses scurrying around.  Such fun.  I used to love going to the airport and just sit in a concourse and watch people; of course you are not allowed to do that any more.  Boooo - TSA!

Twice I have spotted long last friends, thrice movie stars, once a singing star, mostly no one of any note, except in their own minds.

So, yesterday I rode several buses and got to get some people watching fun hours in.

On my first ride, I observed a very happy lady get on, her eyes blazed they sparkled so brightly.  Well, at least until she saw me and her walls went up so fast I am surprised she did not lose an eyebrow on that one!  Her face sort of froze.  I quickly scanned my memory of all six women I have actually ever talked to.  Nope she was none of them.  So why the sudden shut down on seeing this rather quiet old German guy on a bus?  No idea.  Maybe I reminded her of the vet that put her pet poodle down at age ten.  Absolutely no idea.  But that is why I like watching people - the vast a array of emotions portrayed.....

The next bus had another woman, there seem to be many of them on the buses I ride, whom was pleasant and I thought , "wow, someone normal!"  Yeah, well, then she had to get off and as she did so, she opened up on the bus driver for six straight minutes, using every foul English word I have ever heard, to berate him for being two minutes slow .....  She was lucky I was not the bus driver, I would have opted for a call to TSA and report her as a terrorist.

The next bus was funny because I switched lines and thought I would try a different one and many from the second bus were on that one.  But, this is Seattle, never let your eyes meet, never smile, never acknowledge you are not the only one in creation.....

And lunch, surrounded by walls, watching, seeing and knowing dysfunction.  Eh, so what, it is not like I am wholly human.  Just water off a duck's back.  Walls upon walls, I discerned them everywhere.  Well, save, for one, whose walls collapsed.  It was so refreshing to see, if even for only a few seconds!  Hope for humanity restored.

Saw a man whom resembled Alvin of the Chipmunks, very disturbing!  Was body blocked, literally knocked out of the line for the bus as my foot was about to land on the bus step.  "Sorry, I am disabled" yelled the rather large lady as I was thrown five feet sideways.  Then she saw I was using a cane and not able to catch my balance on my broken knee.  Yeah, I went down and she did not care.  She got to cut the line and she was no more disabled than anyone else on that bus, save for me.  That was the kind of person whom pisses me off in any situation - narcissistic users of others.....

And then we have the mentally ill, in this case a woman whom sat and was regaling a young man with her list of conquests as a "cougar".  Then when it was his bus stop she refused to let him out of his seat because she was not done telling him of all of her "victories", which then led the bus driver to tell her to either let the young off the bus or she was going to get off of the bus too.  The young man was in sheer terror at this and she was carefully considering the advantages/disadvantages.

People watching a good hobby, most of the time....