Fancy-suit-guy has some egg yolk stuck to his left cheek. I am trying not to look, but once I have noticed it, the little patch of yellow seems to shine as bright as the morning sunlight in between his short black beard stubbles. I force myself to shift my attention towards the other end of the bus. Loud music is blasting out of long-haired-heavy-metal-guy’s direction. He remains absolutely motionless while electric guitar and drum noise leave his tiny in-ear headphones. Next to him small-Asian-woman is sleeping calmly. Altogether, I count 6 people sleeping on the bus: 2 with their head back and mouth open towards the ceiling, 3 nodders and little-Asian-woman who just peacefully sleeps sitting up completely straight. Now that’s a talent right there.
My thoughts get disturbed by chirpy-girl. Huge coffee mug in hand, she tells everyone about her most recent camping trip. Apparently, there were complications with the tenting situation when one of the couples split up because HE was being an absolute jerk. Hair-in-front-of-face-friend at who the camp fire stories are directed uncomfortably shifts from one foot to the other. She is desperately trying to quite chirpy-girl down by occasionally jumping in with “yes” - “no” - “maybe” - “really” - “hmm” - “I guess so”. Suddenly, the camping story gets interrupted by first-year-undergrad-dude who answers his phone and loudly discusses how his midterms are messing with his social life. Rainbow-hair-lady stops humming and even pimply-guy looks up from his smart phone. Rhythmically chewing gum, the baseball hat deeply pulled down into his face, he can’t hide a smile when undergrad-dude announces that he fell asleep during the microeconimcs exam after having a blast at John’s house the night before. Out of the entire bus population 5 look up from their smart phones, 3 fiddle with the volume of their iPod and too-much-perfume-chick next to me decides to pause the gossip girl episode she is watching on her iPad to listen to undergrad-dude’s academic adventures.
Bagel-guy enters the bus. Peanut butter and jam on a toasted sesame bagel. I am starting to feel nauseated. He is also not the most quiet chewer but just when I noticed, the bus comes to a sudden stop and chirpy-girl spills half the content of her coffee mug all over hair-in-front-of-face-friend. There is much excitement for the next couple of minutes when everyone close by starts looking for a tissue or similar item. Some of the spilled coffee found its way to sleeping-athlete’s naked muscular thighs. Chirpy-girl, hair-in-front-of-face-friend, and now-awake-athlete seem all rather happy with the general development of things.
Then, ancient-couple enters. As soon as the bus door opens, the driver as well as several passengers start suggesting that people should offer them their seat. At the same time 4 front-sitters had already jumped up to make room. Good-humoured-bus driver patiently waits till ancient-couple is safely seated before he continues his journey. Fancy-suit-guy starts a conversation with ancient-couple about the pros and cons of solar heating. The topic of egg yolk in beard does not come up. I wonder if this is due to old age vision loss or Canadian politeness. During all of this, serious-woman alone seems to be completely unaffected. Dark sun glasses are covering her eyes, while her facial expression and body posture remains unmoved for the entire duration of the bus ride. Don’t mess with serious-woman.
When big-rimmed-glasses-guy pulls out a paper about the fluid mechanic properties of a non-Newtonian fluids, I suddenly remember that I meant to finish reading a paper for today's journal club. I pull out the crinkled print out and start scanning it. By the time I have found the paragraph were I stopped reading the day before, the bus has arrived at the final stop.
- Creepily-staring-girl
My thoughts get disturbed by chirpy-girl. Huge coffee mug in hand, she tells everyone about her most recent camping trip. Apparently, there were complications with the tenting situation when one of the couples split up because HE was being an absolute jerk. Hair-in-front-of-face-friend at who the camp fire stories are directed uncomfortably shifts from one foot to the other. She is desperately trying to quite chirpy-girl down by occasionally jumping in with “yes” - “no” - “maybe” - “really” - “hmm” - “I guess so”. Suddenly, the camping story gets interrupted by first-year-undergrad-dude who answers his phone and loudly discusses how his midterms are messing with his social life. Rainbow-hair-lady stops humming and even pimply-guy looks up from his smart phone. Rhythmically chewing gum, the baseball hat deeply pulled down into his face, he can’t hide a smile when undergrad-dude announces that he fell asleep during the microeconimcs exam after having a blast at John’s house the night before. Out of the entire bus population 5 look up from their smart phones, 3 fiddle with the volume of their iPod and too-much-perfume-chick next to me decides to pause the gossip girl episode she is watching on her iPad to listen to undergrad-dude’s academic adventures.
Bagel-guy enters the bus. Peanut butter and jam on a toasted sesame bagel. I am starting to feel nauseated. He is also not the most quiet chewer but just when I noticed, the bus comes to a sudden stop and chirpy-girl spills half the content of her coffee mug all over hair-in-front-of-face-friend. There is much excitement for the next couple of minutes when everyone close by starts looking for a tissue or similar item. Some of the spilled coffee found its way to sleeping-athlete’s naked muscular thighs. Chirpy-girl, hair-in-front-of-face-friend, and now-awake-athlete seem all rather happy with the general development of things.
Then, ancient-couple enters. As soon as the bus door opens, the driver as well as several passengers start suggesting that people should offer them their seat. At the same time 4 front-sitters had already jumped up to make room. Good-humoured-bus driver patiently waits till ancient-couple is safely seated before he continues his journey. Fancy-suit-guy starts a conversation with ancient-couple about the pros and cons of solar heating. The topic of egg yolk in beard does not come up. I wonder if this is due to old age vision loss or Canadian politeness. During all of this, serious-woman alone seems to be completely unaffected. Dark sun glasses are covering her eyes, while her facial expression and body posture remains unmoved for the entire duration of the bus ride. Don’t mess with serious-woman.
When big-rimmed-glasses-guy pulls out a paper about the fluid mechanic properties of a non-Newtonian fluids, I suddenly remember that I meant to finish reading a paper for today's journal club. I pull out the crinkled print out and start scanning it. By the time I have found the paragraph were I stopped reading the day before, the bus has arrived at the final stop.
- Creepily-staring-girl
