Pretty Young Things

It's like all my friends on the bus know that I write a blog about buses.

Since this will be my last AC Transit-based post until I come back from my homeward bound adventures, the 1 knew exactly how to bid me farewell in style on this hot day that made my brain melt.

As I walked to the the bus stop on my way to Oakland I did wonder what my trip on the 1 would be like since last weekend proved to be nothing short of underwhelming...or maybe it was just whelming.

Waiting at the 1 stop on Telegraph and Dwight never ceases to amaze me and today all of my friends were out in full force.

I realized today that just because I can't hear all of the characters at the bus stop doesn't mean that they don't want to be my friend.

Standing next to the old pay phone seemed to encourage the homeless Frick and Frack to stage a bit of performance art in front of my very eyes. The man in the safari surfer hat decided to eat his delicious burrito directly in front of me while his other half (man or woman...hard to say) chugged her canned beer and did a little jig.

The beer turned out to be so good that once she was done she smashed it against a tree...

Between the sounds of the street and my own faithful music, she appeared to be rapping about "fucking this city with a million dollars." Too true too soon.

Finally the 1 arrived but there was some street mojo that had to be straightened out first. The beer infused friend confronted another friend in dark dark sunglasses and apparently said something that made him very angry...so much so that he started to choke him/her a lot yelling "I thought I told you I never wanted to see your face around here again!!"

Due to the drama of this situation, the bus driver didn't allow the drunkst choking victim onto the bus for fear of a re-enactment from the 1989 hit "Crackhouse".

But wait there's more. Who knew that there were silver foxes in Oakland?

Usually one might define silver fox as: An attractive older man. Generally, one that has gray hair and is often desired by younger women. (Thank you Urban Dictionary).

In actuality it seemed that one can think of himself as a silver fox even if he appears to be potentially homeless but is actually only in need of the keys to the gallery next to yours.

Let's just say that this fellow...we'll call him Steve...was very much interested in coming into the gallery I happened to be sitting in this afternoon and wanted to chat it up. He must have come into the gallery at least 6 times asking what time it was (really? you don't even have a watch?). Then he asked if I wanted a beer since he just found some in a back shed! The best was when he asked if I was the pretty young thing they hired to sit in the gallery. All in all good pick up lines that unfortunately did not work.

Coming home, the 1 was 45 minutes late as I melted like a small angry popsicle in the funny Oakland sun.

And surely riding the bus is never the most comfortable experience, but at the end of the day (like the insightful man on the 1 this afternoon announced) we are all just trying to get by.