The most obnoxious human being that I have ever had the misfortune to encounter on a bus, got on my bus today.

He swaggered to the back, headphones on, and proceeded to plant himself firmly in front of the back exit of the bus, making sure that every time that someone wanted to get off the bus, he’d have to leap out of the way (and he did every time).  When nobody was waiting to get off the bus, he’d stand on the part of the exit that activates the door to open and invariably, when the bus would stop he would activate the door opening mechanism, even though most of the time nobody was exiting the bus.

Let us add to the image the way he loudly smacked his hand against his pant bottoms in a rivetting SMACK SMACK SMACK rhythm, steady as a heartbeat, presumably to the beat of the music.

And his final offensive move was to ask everyone, headphones on and music blaring, if they had Twenty. Five. Cents., saying those three words crisply as if talking to a slightly slow individual.  I’m still not convinced that he wasn’t on drugs because after assaulting most of us in his vicinity with his question, he suddenly leapt from his post at the bus exit, vaulted into the seat beside an unsuspecting bus rider, and proceeded to ask her the same question.  Her response was that she didn’t think she had any change and “What are you listening to?” since it was so important that he couldn’t even REMOVE HIS HEADPHONES and turn off the music while asking his question.  How rude!

I could barely conceal my loathing and I think that was why he didn’t even bother asking me for any change.

I mean seriously:  it’s first thing in the morning, you’re heading downtown with a bunch of the working class or the university students and you don’t have a quarter on you?  And I didn’t see if everyone refused his request but they better have because nothing is more off putting that someone who asks you for a quarter for a phone call, let’s say, and you give it to them, only to see them asking for another quarter for another phone call not one minute later.  Lame.

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I have serious issues with people asking for money, especially able-bodied people.  I know that I’m assessing their level of able-bodiedness by what I see and the truth could be less apparent but it still irks me. And being able-bodied is not all that is needed to be gainfully employed.  You should be relatively mentally stable too.

A particularly comical incident happened on the university campus last year:  three times total, and two days in a row, a guy leapt [what is it with beggars and leaping?] on the bus and was asking people for a dollar.

When this particular guy asked me again the second day in a row, I told him that I still don’t have change for him and that he asked me yesterday.  Ugh.  That reminds me of a guy who kept asking me in the mall I work at, if I had money for him to get a bite to eat at the food court.  Maybe he really does need the money to grab a bite but again I had to tell him that he’s asked me several times before, to which he responded that he hadn’t.  How on earth would HE remember who he’s asked from the dozens of people he asks?

Filed under: NaBloPoMo, Outrospective by jummy