an eventful bus ride

went to my dads house today to watch the Apple Cup. which, if you're not a football person, is essentially a yearly civil-war type rivalry game between WSU and UW which are both washington state NCAA teams. it used to be in November when the WSU kids were on break, but since UW left the Pac-12 it's in September now. i was supposed to leave work at 3 PM (we close at 2), but literally everyone on earth decided to show up to the cafe 10 minutes before close and the supervisor didn't kick everyone out until 2:20 !!! twenty minutes after close !!! and then i spent an hour and 20 minutes washing dishes. and i could tell my supervisor was starting to get onto my coworkers last nerves because she was highkey micromanaging about really small things even while we were all sleep deprived and tired. but whatever, left work at 3:45 and got to my dads by like 6. we had taco bell and the game was fun. go dawgs !!!

my dad dropped me off at my bus stop like he usually does after we hang out, and as soon as i got there i realized there were a lot more people than usual at 8 PM. a lot of teens and general bus goers. but when we got on the bus, i realized that the kids were getting into it with this guy and his girl who were very clearly not in their right frame of mind and kind of poking and making jokes (ragebaiting as the kids would say) and at one point it escalated into the dude yelling and pulling out two metal rods-- they looked like they came from a broom or mop or something --and threatening the kids with it while his non-black gf called them the n-word with a hard-r.

there was a guy near the front of the bus who loosely called out the girlfriend and basically told the guy that he should check her racism before someone else does (physically).

me and the guy in the aisle across from me pretended not to be listening up until that point, where we both turned around to see what was happening. the guy and his girl got off, and then the kids did, and then i started talking to the guy across from me about it. i think our conclusions were kinda the same, that the kids were really stupid to antagonize a guy who was clearly not mentally all there and that it was just a sad situation overall. talked for a bit more, and then we exchanged goodbyes and "have a safe night"'s and i got off not long after.

 ive lived/worked in a lot of different places, ive taken the bus and walked places for many years so i've learned the timeless art of minding my business. ive had a guy yell "hey, you with the bag!" at me from across the street, hell ive literally had a guy scream in my face, but as long as you pretend not to hear it and be aware of your surroundings... you'll (typically) be okay.

there's this tumblr post that says something along the lines of "you can tell when someones frame of reference for normalcy is 'the people at the ice cream social' and not 'the people on the bus' and this was a great example of that. stupid kids, people who need help, and people just trying to get home.