In the life of a commuter, today was a doozy. Prepare yourself people, this is going to be a rant.
This morning, on the #34, the guy sitting next to me on the standing-room-only-bus decided he should call his cellphone provider to demand information about his bill. Really? Is there no other time in your day for you to call them? I’ve had my share of frustrations with cellphone-cable-Internet companies; I feel his pain. But the bus is not an appropriate venue in which to voice this pain. He proceeds to yell at the poor operator on the other end, “… No, I can’t write that information down, I’m ON THE BUS.” Well whose fault is that buddy? In the middle of his tantrum, he spilled his coffee all over the floor, so half of the seated passengers had to lift their feet for the rest of the ride to avoid getting their sandaled toes wet. Nice.
On to Round #2. On the way home, I took #33, which delivers people to the ‘burbs, so it was one of those accordion-linked, double-length buses (read: many, many seats). Now that you’ve been properly briefed, picture this: I decide to make the most of my commute by trying to do a little more work before I get home. So, I set my purse on the seat next to me, haul a couple books out of my bag and start taking notes. A woman walks up, stands next to me and clears her throat. “Excuse me …” she says, looking down at my bag. ARE YOU KIDDING? There were eight. EIGHT. empty seats in front of me. If the bus was full, I would definitely not place my belongings on the seat next to me. Come on! But maybe she’s craving some human interaction, you ask? NO. She proceeds to put on her headphones and blast pop tunes so loud that any and all reading I was trying to do was futile. Lovely.
Every day, a.m. or p.m., there’s a story. Do these people act like this all day? When they’re around friends and family? I just don’t understand it.
Am I being unreasonable? Please, commiserate with me.
like a hamster on a wheel 
Definitely not.If I were in your place, I would have told the lady, "Sure, why don't you take MY seat too?" And would have just gotten up and moved.Or I would have sat there pretending I didn't see her. =DSheesh, the cell phone thing is NORMAL here in NY. People go as far as doing their make up in the TRAIN.I dislike people like that too man. D=-Lilox
I used to commute to and from London on the train…what I never got was peoples seat choices. When there is a whole carriage of empty seats, why do people always sit right next to you? Are they scared of being alone?!
I used to take the 33 and 34 when I worked downtown too. Complete nightmare. I had my ipod in every single minute I spent on the bus, even if the battery was dead, so I wouldn't have to talk to anybody and could ignore people like the seat weirdo you encountered.