Thursday, October 06, 2005

Blind Man & Jesus Man

Today was the second time in a week that I had to give up my seat on the Max for a blind man. Two different men. Two different seats. Two different days.

While both instances resulted in strangers talking to me afterward, today's experience was the most eventful.

Riding the max before and after work is a much different experience than riding it on the weekend or during the middle of the day. Regular business riders are quite and polite and keep to themselves and their book of choice.

Every once and a while you'll get a talker or two and usually it's because they're not used to the routine. Today was one of those days. It started shortly after I got on this morning at my usual time in my usual place when "Jesus Man" struck up a conversation with "First-Leg-Of-The-Trip-Man" who has a son in the Army who is going to Iraq soon.

Fortunately this conversation died down quickly after a couple "that's politics for you" statements. So us regulars thought the interruption was averted.

That's when I sat down, only to be told I had to stand up again so that "Blind Man" could sit in my place. Why is it always my seat lately? I was really looking forward to that one too.

Although I didn't really mind moving it was the talking that insued after the move that was upsetting. I was really enjoying my book The Other Side of the Story (thanks Paige) by Marian Keyes, but it was hard to talk as "Blind Man" complained about work and school being so much pressure that he might explode and "Jesus Man" consoling him with the concept of bed time prayers. Thank God "Blind Man" got off at 4th street.

Then "Believer Girl" piped up. Actually she got up and went over to "Jesus Man" and said "You're a believer aren't you?" They proceeded to discuss where they went to church and then she said "Thanks for letting your light shine" as she walked away. Meanwhile the rest of us regulars hesitantly looked at each other (as eye contact is another non-regular event) and rolled our eyes in unison.

When I was telling this story to Terra it seemed very funny. As I'm writing it seems to have lost some of the humor. My apologies.

4 comments:

Paige said...

I got a big grin on my face Nat, I think perhaps your story lost momentum because you don't want to offend anyone in the Jesus set. Tell us what you really think!

Terra said...

Amen Paige!

Because, believe me, it was funnier when we were having the conversation. And, we didn't just harp on jesus freaks, although they are sometimes the worst offenders. We also included other MAX etiquette interrupters as "I will talk to anyone" guy and "We're teenagers and we need to make spectacles of ourselves".

brataloid said...

Truth is that I got lazy at the end of the story and didn't want to go into enough detail to make the cynicism carry through. *laugh*

Martha said...

What about "cell phone guy/girl?" Do you ever run into him/her.

I once had to spend 30 minutes listening to a man describe the strippers he had seen over the weekend. Actually I have been forced to listen to two stripper converstations on the bus.