"Another One Rides The Bus...........Actually, The Train............."

Good Morning;

So, last nights trip to Monkee's and back took over 4 hours in travel time....FOR WHAT IS NORMALLY A 90 MINUTE ROUND TRIP!!!

Loooooove that MTA!.....which stands for:

" May Take Awhile "

........dontcha know!

I had an experience on the Metro Subway that was disturbing, annoying and funny all in the same instant.

An older black woman, an obvious crack head; probably semi-homeless, possibly dual diagnosed, definitely in need of a crash course in personal hygiene, was walking up and down the subway car begging, saying "Help Mama get a cup of coffee????......". She kept approaching the same people again and again, and when the train would stop at a station she would get off and intend to go into another car and hit up a new crowd, but she was so far out of it that she would only make it to one of the other doors on the same car..( there are 3 sets per car)..and hit us up all over again....lol.

She sat on the seat perpendicular to me where I had my bag, almost crushing it and it's contents in the process, and imbuing it with and odor that lingered, (and lingered, and lingered, until I got back to Jenn's house where I was able to wash it off and spray it with Lysol), it was so bad from just that short contact that after she left the and people across the aisle and I moved away from the seat she was on to escape the funk, I placed it inside a trash bag to contain the biological contamination.

She made the mistake of counting her money in front of me, and I saw that she had $9.60 in bills and coin....'Coffee'?!?!...yeah riiiighttttttttt. Must be a 'dime bag' of 'whole bean'....lol! From the burn marks on her fingers and hands, and her lips too, I'm guessing it must be some extremely hot coffee!!!..."Craxwell House"....LOL!

As they say, you can't con an old con artist.

I usually give most anybody some change, (if and when I have it), except the obvious liars, aggressive panhandlers, and a certain type of addict...and she fit all three of the flagged categories.

I felt a little bit of guilt at first, until I saw her fumble in her pocket and drop her stash...

The people in the seat across from me (who also happened to be black and lower income folks), shook their heads and the guy said, "I been there before but, never done that sh*t", and his girl agreed. I said that "I'm there now and I've got my limits too." and pulled out the JT and flashed him the cover. About a minute later he did a double take and said let me see that again, I showed it to them and also the Baltimore Magazine and they leafed through it, and said the usual.."you look too clean...yadda..yadda..yadda......." and the guy who was just a little tipsy starts saying over and over "He gots his own magazine!!", varying the accent on a different syllable each time....lol! His girl kept laughingly shushing him and the train car cracked up as they got off, with the guy still repeating it....lol.

I got back to Jenn's after midnight, and guess what I did..again..right after I hit the bathroom, and before I could make something to eat? Well yes, I did make up the couch to be only moderately uncomfortable and painful, and yes, I did make the kid's morning milk sippy cups up, (so I would be able to immediately shove something in their mouths to shut them up as soon as they started making noise, and give me a window of opportunity in which get a DVD started and use it like the 'snooze button' on your alarm clock...lol), and yes I let the stinky dog out to pee so she would calm down and shut up as much as possible, and yes I did expend a quarter of a can of air freshener on and around her crate....but all this stuff is merely self preservation...lol. Yeah, I played dish-monkey again, (that is an old restaurant term, no negative connotations, ethnic, racial, or otherwise), emptying and reloading the dishwaher, and scrubbing the pots and pans and sink...luckily I find a kind of Zen relaxation in doing the dishes, just kind of reaching a state of meditative neutrality.....lol...(or I'd be riven between annoyance and disgust).

Well, I'm out of time again, and I have to go to the store before I head back to Jenn's to ride herd on the grand-monsters this afternoon and tonight.

I may be back tomorrow, depending on what this storm system does and whether I go to Annapolis or not....

later...........Dave