Yesterday I got my weekly does of crack heads on the bus packed into one 25 minute ride on the 21 line. Who knew a Sunday afternoon could be so choc-full of crazies?
After a truly exciting experience of seeing Coraline in 3D at the Metreon (which you must go and see, and only do so if you plan on seeing it in 3D because it is extraordinary in a really trippy way), my roommates and I decided to catch the 21 line from downtown Market St back to our NOPA/Western Addition neighborhood. We should have known what we were getting into when we scoped out the other people waiting for the bus: en entourage of jersey wearing basketball thugs with missing teeth and facial scars, an older man dressed in his Sunday Best, a pregnant lady with a saliva issue, and best of all: a solo free-styling Eminem wannabe. He was crooning his little ditty from the time he stepped on at Market and 5th all the way to Hayes and Fillmore, where the majority of the collective bunch stepped off. It went something like this:
"Twisted like a dread... all up in my head.. reer reer chica reer head head head... reer reer chica reer in my head head head." Needless to say, this "song" got stuck in our heads for the rest of the afternoon.
At every stop, somebody - who was most likely distracted by the captivating show that was going on before their very eyes - would forget to get off and rush to the door to exit, mere seconds before the bus driver would get ready to take off again. All of the sudden everyone standing near the exit door (which happened to be all the crazies) would scream "BACK DOOR BACK DOOR" so the person was able to escape the loony bus. How thoughtful.
Normally this would be a situation where I just throw on my head phones and pretend like I'm not phased in the least by what is happening around me. But because I was joined by my two roommates, who may not be as used to the eclectic Tenderloin/SOMA crowd as I am (only because I happen to work smack dab in the middle of the 5x5 block area that the crack heads like to call "home"), I took advantage of this opportunity to soak in a pre-dose of the cluster fuck of people that are usually on my daily commute.
I am so impressed by the quantity of blogging you've done in the past couple of days, I feel like I know every detail of your life right now! Loved the descriptions of people on the bus and somehow, though I never heard the "reer reer chica"song you heard that guy singing, it is now embedded in my head for the rest of the day. nice work.
ReplyDeleteI have started seeing the same father/son duo on the 24 every time I take it now. It's this tall guy with a huge mustache and sideburns who looks middle eastern, and his tiny son with blue eyes and a very loud voice. The minute the little kid gets on the bus he starts yelling things at his dad; not angrily, just every thing that comes across his head has to be belted out as loudly as possible. It's adorable. And refreshing after the mumbling bums that infiltrate the 5 and the 22 normally.