Bus Story: The Lively Man

For those of you who have seen Cocoon this story sounds like something right out of the movie. Here's what happened:

Last night I was taking the bus home late in the evening (about 9:45 or so). There was an elderly gentleman on my bus who was standing up at the front of the bus (there were seats he could sit in, but he seemed to enjoy standing there). At first I thought he was talking to the bus driver (to be honest I had music in my ears) but then he started to get a bit active. He walked from side to side.

Soon he was holding himself up on the bars that run the length of the bus. Soon he started doing chin-ups (at least what I thought were chin-ups, he didn't really pull his chin over the bar - but considering there is not much room above the bar and his age, I was pretty impressed). I looked around and didn't really see anyone paying attention to him (at this point what he was doing wasn't that obvious).

So I started thinking that maybe he's got a bit of energy and was excited about something. But it didn't stop at the chin-ups. He eventually started holding on to the bar and then bringing his feet up as high as he could. At first it wasn't high, but eventually it got to about the height of the bar. Again, I looked around (with a noticeable grin on my face) and saw a few people pay attention (though many were obviously making an effort to ignore it - an interesting bit of social interactions - makes me think of some interesting social experiments I could do...).

It wasn't until he started swinging back and forth (with each arm on different bars) that I realized I had my cell phone - which has a camera - on me. I took it out to try to get a picture (which drew at least one grin from a fellow passenger), but he got off as soon as I got it picture ready.

So that's my story. To make things even weirer, the guy kind of resembled Don Ameche in Cocoon (in actions and in appearance).

I think I could start a blog writing about my bus experiences (I think I should post my poem about buses that I wrote as an example for my class.... perhaps another day).

I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed seeing it. Isn't life full of wonderful things?

Weird Coincidences

When I started this blog I swore to myself this wouldn't be one of those feelings type blogs where I write that I had a piece of toast for breakfast. While this is not quite a mundane part of my day, it is probably registering high on the "Who the eff cares" factor. Read on if you interested in weird things...

Today I was riding the bus home from my school. I am a fairly observant person and I happened to notice a man beside me (well, I was behind him, but my seat was facing sideways - ahhh, the weirdly arranged bus seats) was reading a book and he was just starting Chapter 6 (yes I realize this is really boring - keep reading). Across the aisle from him was another woman reading a book and since my mind was already on the sight of books I looked a bit closer. I noticed she too was starting a chapter. I looked a bit closer and saw that it was Chapter 7. A simple coincidence you might say.... well it gets a bit weirder.

I had seen another lady (she was in the back corner of the bus, which was in front and to the left of me) reading and I thought after I saw the chapter 6 and 7: wouldn't it be funny if she was starting chapter 8. Well I could see the page she was on by the reflection in the window. I looked and I stared. Could it be? This was really starting to get to me. I almost got up and asked her, but I saw it. The letters: E..... I..... G.... H.... T. I kid you not. I just started to think to myself: Am I in the matrix? Is this some sort of computing error where the random number generator breaks down and goes in order? Surely the odds of three people on a bus all starting a chapter are astronomically small. The factor in the fact that they were on successive chapters. Then what are the odds they would all be sitting near me and I would look at them IN THE ORDER of the chapters. Truly mind boggling...

I hope that didn't bore you to death.

If you have any crazy and weird stories like that, please send them to pieceofdust@gmail.com and I'll publish them... geez, I'm still a bit spooked from this.