Stuff you miss while you're listening to podcasts

This morning between the North Berkeley and Downtown Berkeley BART stations, I could hear hysterical laughing from one man over my headphones. I began to notice people around me looking around so I turned around. There was a man in an odd white beanie sitting at the other end of the car. As we pulled into the Downtown Berkeley BART station, two BART cops got on the train where the loud man was sitting with his wheelchair. They politely asked him to step off the train so they could talk to him and he got pretty belligerent. Amongst the things he said to them:

"You're messing with someone and you don't even know the consequences;"

After being told by the cops "Come on, let's go, you're holding everybody up" he replied:
"No, you're holding me up!"

"Get your ass out of my face or I'll punch your lights out;"

and

"I'll beat your ass!"

A few BART police officers have had REALLY bad publicity over the last two years and made (in my opinion) bad decisions. This has led to an overall distrust for and lack of respect of BART officers (though sitting through Voir Dire for jury duty a few months ago made me realize that this distain is not limited to the BART police).

But watching the two BART police officers this morning reminded me of the dangers of generalization. These two officers were patient and gentle with a very belligerent passenger. They kept their cool and never yelled. They could have forced him into his wheelchair but they gave him plenty of space and never came within an arm's reach of him.

Finally, the man conceded and wheeled himself off the train. It very much reminded me of Puck every morning when we try and put him in the living room to leave for work. He backs out and barks, pawing at the ground and growling (obviously, he doesn't want to leave). If you're calm and tell him repeatedly to come, he'll eventually puts his head and his tail down and retreat into the room. Watching the man this morning, it was just like that.

Once he was off the train, one of the officers explained that they had received a call about a disturbing customer and asked if anyone had made the call. One man raised his hand.

It really makes me wonder what I missed while listening to my podcast! I've been on BART with a fair share of disruptive passengers and usually people just ignore them. This man may have been particularly annoying.

Muni

Yesterday on Muni, a guy realized he was at his stop about 5 seconds after we stopped (with plenty of time to exit). Instead of quickly getting up and walking off (or heaven forbid, getting off at the next stop one block later), he dove out of his seat into my back and took both arms and shoved me out of the way. So rude and totally unnecessary!

At the next stop, the next guy to exit the bus was only wearing dirty socks (no shoes).

I think I'll stick to BART.

Books

I have a bad habit of sneaking a peak at what people are reading on BART. I've actively tried to restrain myself from doing this but I inadvertently find my eyes wandering over to a book and reading the title before I am even conscious of what I'm doing. I've also had to stop myself from commenting on their book choices, too. "Oh, you're reading The Hunger Games? Isn't it AWESOME?" or "Look, I'm also reading A Dance with Dragons! Aren't you addicted?!" I'm intrigued when I see someone reading Rick Steve's guide to Prague, ammused when I see someone reading a romance novel (a more-common-than-you'd-think occurrence), and impressed when I see someone reading a classic novel that I've never been able to get through.

I learned my lesson the other day when I glanced at the guy next to me and saw the title of his book: Sex at Dawn. A quick look on the Goodreads app revealed it could be one of two books: Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Human Sexuality, a non-fiction book about the evolution of monogomy (gotta admit, it sounds pretty interesting) or Sex at Dawn: An Erotic Tale of Sexual Hunger. hmmmm....I was really, really hoping for the former. I could not sit there with a straight face if I was sitting next to someone reading an erotic novel on BART.

Did I really learn my lesson? For about two days. Sadly, I'm back to my nosy ways.

Happy Anniversary Puck!

In honor of our five-year anniversary of having Puck, I'm posting pictures of my favorite subject: dogs on BART. Both these dogs did not appear to be service dogs. Even though they're not allowed to be on BART, I'd much rather have them on BART than the dude currently sitting next to me who obviously had too much to drink last night and hasn't had a chance to take a shower.

And I threw in a non-BART but super-cute and recent picture of Puck.

Mr. Magoo

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I estimate that I almost get hit by a car daily when walking from the parking lot to the BART station. You have to have your wits about you! So, you keep your head up, your smartphone in your pocket, and your eyes scanning. It was nothing really new when a man ran a stop sign as I was crossing over to the station today. What was new was that he looked at me and kept driving. Even though I stopped, he came within a foot of hitting me. And then he started yelling at me (it may have been instigated by my dirty look and shaking head). Are you freaking kidding me?! You do not almost hit a pedestrian crossing in front of a three way stop intersection after running the stop sign and get to yell at her. When I first started learning how to drive, my dad instilled the fear of death in me regarding hitting a pedestrian or bicyclist. I would never play chicken with a pedestrian when I was behind the wheel of a car. Being on time is not worth it!

iPhone4

Please feel free to start complaining about the poor quality of my photos.  I need a good reason to upgrade my iPhone :)

A fine line and a large tongue

I've been sitting on one particular post for about two months.  There's a fine line between "documenting" bizarre behavior/personalities and blatantly making fun of people.  I try to stay clearly on the side of documentation, as I don't fancy myself a snarky individual.  When posting something, I play a little game where I ask myself "if you were doing this in public and saw someone post about it in a blog, would you laugh and say 'fair enough!' or would your feelings be hurt?"  If my feelings would be hurt, I don''t post. 

So, when I saw a woman with the largest tongue I have ever seen on a BART platform in November, I was torn.  On one hand, this woman's tongue was something else. It literally could not take my eyes off of it.  How many tongues without tongue rings do you notice on a daily basis?  Probably zero.  This woman's tongue tongue was extraordinary.

On the other hand, it is a part of her body.  A body part I'm fairly confident she has no control over. How would I feel if someone blogged about seeing my freakishly large-for-my-body feet?  And then I looked down and bam! there were her feet, you couldn't miss them!  I haven't seen such large feet on a relatively small body since I was an eighth grade boy... and don't get me started on her big toe!  (By the way, I did not draw this example from thin air.  Many people have looked at my shoes and commented on my disproportionately large feet.  I inherited my father's feet but not his 6'0" height)

I reasoned that if I could rule out any medical disorders or syndromes, it would be okay to post pictures of the tongue.  So, I took to the internet for research with a Google search for "enlarged tongue" and "disorder."  After perusing my favorite medical websites, in my bystander-non-expert-opinion, I don't believe she exhibited any of the symptoms of the most common medical disorders or syndromes which may result in an enlarged tongue.  In all other aspects of her person, she was utterly unremarkable. 

I reasoned that if I avoided insulting words like "freakish," it would be okay to post pictures of the tongue. 

I reasoned that if I approached the story with awe and wonder (which were my genuine reactions), it would be okay to post pictures of the tongue.  After all, if I saw an extremely beautiful person on BART, someone of supermodel status, I wouldn't hesitate to post about it.  This would be similar...

Right?

But I couldn't hit the Publish Post button to my original post.  It just felt mean.  It may work for the characters on South Park and Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but I don't want to live like that.

So, this is my compromise -- to share the story with you through sharing my moral dilemma. I hope I haven't offended.

My dog is better behaved than your dog

When I got off the BART train at Embarcadero today, there was a K-9 cop and his German shepherd friend, who I must say was a bit misbehaved. I don’t think it was in a “I smell drugs!” way but more of a “I’m a really hyper puppy” sort of way. I suggest a gentle leader.

I later found out that there were large Occupy protests in the Financial District that morning, which explains the police presence in the BART station.  For more information:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2012%2F01%2F20%2FBA4L1MS7IC.DTL&feed=rss.news

Morning Routine

Many women apply makeup on BART. Two things about this BART ritual interest me:

1) These women are able to flawlessly apply eye makeup on a rickety train. I have been applying makeup for approximately seventeen years and I still have not mastered applying eyeliner in my completely still bathroom. If Puck so much as brushes past me, I need to reapply.

2) How long it takes to apply their makeup and how many makeup tools they use. My mind maxes out at eight different types of makeup to apply - and I'm pretty sure the only day I used all eight was on my wedding day. I have repeatedly seen women spend my entire 31-minute BART ride applying their makeup. There are only four body parts on your face! Admittedly, my makeup routine is lazy and short (probably abnormally so), but this still boggles my mind.

All this is my long-winded way of introducing the woman sitting in front of me on BART this morning. She had a hard suitcase that took up an entire seat (during rush hour! I think, by now, you are well-acquainted with my sentiments on inconsiderate BART passengers. I do need to give a shout-out to the woman who walked up and made her put the suitcase on her lap so she could sit down). The suitcase was open and entirely full of makeup. Four bags of makeup! My favorite article was a big, fat Sharpie marker.

The suitcase gets its own seat

Her car keys have a Lexus key.  A Lexus-driving woman who applies Sharpie marker to her face.  Awesome.

Nausea

The SF-bound BART train was about ten minutes late this morning. It happens occasionally but not that often - I get on at the second station on the line so there's only one station that can cause delays. When the train finally pulled in, we all walked on and immediately started rushing for the other cars. The car I got on had the most god-awful smell. I'm struggling to describe it ... Extremely strong mildew mixed with vomit is as close as I can get. I'm not being melodramatic when I say I nearly vommitted on the spot and twenty-five minutes later, in a clean car, I'm still incredibly nauseous.

Today, I miss my car.

Earthquake Upgrade

The BART escalator to the southbound track has looked like this since October. It was worked on (dismantled) for three days, blocked off, and left alone. I haven't seen a single thing change in three months.

What's left in its stead? Three flights of stairs. Now, I have nothing against using stairs normally. A little bit if exercise is good. What is killing me about this situation is that the escalator etiquette (stand on right, walk up escalator on left) doesn't translate to the stairs. I wish people would apply the rules of the road (slower traffic stay to the right) to the stairs (but who am I kidding, people have trouble adhering to that on the freeway). I cannot even tell you how many mornings I'll be scanning my Clipper card when I hear the train come screeching into the station upstairs. I'll start my sprint up the stairs (not easy when you're sore from a morning run) only to be waylayed by people creeping up the stairs, three person abreast.

I can hear Mike's voice saying "why don't you leave earlier and then you'll avoid this." So I should let you know- this is for the earlier train. I'm there with plenty of time to catch the I necessary train to get to work by 8 am. It's just so hard to stand there and wait when the earlier train is coming through.

It may be like this for two years.

Music

At the Embarcadero BART station this morning, a saxophonist is playing the theme song to The Pink Panther. I can't believe I've been commuting for a year and a half and this is the first time I've heard that.

Weirdly, a man is yodelling on the other end if the station, it's so bizarre.

Priorities

I'm sitting on BART, bitching in my blog post and sitting next to a woman who's reading her bible. I feel like such an asshole.