51A Freak of the Week

So, this morning I had to grab a bus to take me into tahn for my job interview. Of course, I was running a bit behind my preplanned schedule. See, Pittsburgh buses (& traffic & detours & people) are rather unpredictible. Thus, I wanted to build in a 30 minute buffer for traveling to a place I could walk to in 35 minutes. And the cardinal rule of job interviews is to be on time, if not early. Anyhoo, I (miraculously) caught the 51A at 11:30am, with 30 minutes until the interview. Things were looking up. The bus was pretty empty, so instead of heading to the back of the bus & sitting in the U-shaped section (as I usually do), I sat in one of the doubles along the left side of the bus. I placed my briefcase on the aisle seat next to me & began rehearsing interview answers in my head.

Approximately 3 blocks later, a man who I always see riding the buses, dressed in his life uniform of jeans, denim jacket & Pirates ball cap, boarded the bus. He took forever to pay his $1.75, digging around in his pockets & wallet, and we missed the light at 20th. This makes me a tad annoyed on days like this where time is of the essence. And then he jammed the change-thingy by pushing his quarters in the slot until the driver told him to "Stop it." Then, denim man walked back & stood over me until I got the message that he wanted to sit where my briefcase was. So, I gave him a look & politely (but, internally begrudgingly) moved my bag onto my lap. He sat down, making sure to rub up against me at least three times. (Remember, the bus had, like 25 empty seats, many of them without anyone to share; further, I was the only professionally-dressed woman on the bus, i.e. pantyhose (no undies, T!), suit, high heels, etc.) So, this sleazeball sits down next to me, real close like, and keeps giving me this look. And he was sitting soooooo very close. Ugh. But, I was trapped by the window & couldn't really escape & change seats without looking like a total bitch. So, I closed my eyes & waited to get the hell across the Mon River so that I could jump off this bus. I can easily say that this was one of the most uncomfortable bus rides in recent memory. Especially since I was kinda nervous about the interview and really did not need a freak to be all up in my personal space. I had this wierd feeling that he was getting off from sitting so close to me, but I could not bring myself to check to see if he had an erection.

I survived, por supuesto, but, seriously I am putting the PAT bus freaks on notice: there is no need to sit virtually on top of the one normal-looking person on the bus. None. My relative normalcy/sanity will not rub off on you during the 15 minute ride dahntahn. It is physically impossible. Try therapy. I need some, myself.

Enough ranting. The interview went well, but I was informed that he was interviewing another 8 candidates. Hooray. Now onto conquer the world of secondary copyright liability. Joy.