Bus Riiiiiiiider

Buh buh buh bu ba ba buh...err...bam bam buh ba bam buh buh...

Geez, it's hard to sound out a bass line phonetically. I was going for The Guess Who song but I think I wound up closer to the mating call of the wild spotted wildebeast. Anyhoo, that's been me most mornings (the bus rider, not the wildebeast) ever since winter struck Ottawa back a few months ago.

Aside from my notoriously queasy stomach, which has improved to the point where I only rarely fear vomiting on my fellow passengers, I actually quite enjoy the ride. There's tons of characters on the bus, especially in my neighborhood of Sandy Hill. My bus (the #16) also happens to stop by a daycare for teenage moms, so that's quite fun. One morning there were eight strollers on the bus. I felt like I was in a condom commerical.

Sometimes there's fun conversations to listen to, like the other day when some dramalicious girl was venting to her friend about her baby daddy or whatever the kids are calling that these days:

D.G.: And, like, I gotta fuckin' go to school? How'm I supposed to go to school, and get a fucking restraining order against him, 'cause he's going to be there.

Friend: Yeah. You gotta do something.

D.G.: And then he totally came by my place, even though he was, like, he knows he's not supposed to come. And he totally came right into the room, and I was, like, in a meeting with fucking Child Services, you know? And he took some of his clothes from my room, so they, like, they think he lives there but he doesn't.

Friend: He just busted into your place like that? Fucker!]

D.G.: Well, I opened the door. I mean, I wasn't going to let him in, and I opened the door and he was like, fucking drunk and I did, like, fucking everything to stop him, like everything I could think of. He just went past me and took his clothes that he'd left. I mean, I wouldn't have opened the door if I'd known it was him, I mean, I saw it was him, but I didn't know he was drunk.

Friend: That sucks.

Me: [in my head, shaking D.G. by the shoulders] WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU AAAAAAAARRRRRRGH!!!!!!

So, mostly I listen to my Mp3 player (an Xmas gift from Papa Smurf). I have to watch myself, though, 'cause (and I hope this isn't just me) when I'm listening to music on headphones I sometimes forget that a)nobody else can hear it and b) there's other people around. And then I find myself, like, humming along or mouthing the words and suddenly everyone's looking at me all "yup, lots of characters on the bus!" And I'm all, shit.

But the one thing I really can't help is the MIG - that's "Music-Induced Groove" for those of you who don't know or did know but forget because, damn, that was a long time ago. The phrase was coined by one of the Stellyans (I think maybe Erin?) to describe that unconscious toe-tapping, finger-snapping, head-bobbing or booty-shaking that occurs when you're listening to a really good song.

Like this morning I was totally MIGging out to "Hey Ya" because that song is totally Da Bears, and the woman next to me was all, "Yup, lots of characters on the bus".