Double B Adventures (Bus and Bed)

Today I took the bus downtown to pick up my SIN number and get a library card. Now the most direct route for me to get downtown from the apartment I now live in, is via Hastings St. On Hastings resides the part of town known as "Skid Row," where the poorest of the poor "live." My mom and I walked down Hastings when we visited in July, but it wasn't anything what it looked like when we drove by today... there were hundreds of homeless people wandering the sidewalks in the small two block area where most of Skid Row is concentrated. But thats not my story, my story today is about what happened before we drove down that part of Hastings. It starts on the bus stop right before those two blocks, when two men separately got on the bus and sat down next to one another. Within minutes of the bus taking off from the stop, the man closest to the window shoved the one in the seat next to him onto the floor and yelling at him. The man on the floor gets up and the man by the window pushes him back down. While this is going on, the bus driver stops the bus, opens the door and yells at the man by the window to get off the bus. He starts making excuses but the bus driver says for him again to get off. People from the back of the bus start shouting at him to get off. Meanwhile, the man on the floor gets up and moves to the seat in front of me. The man by the window finally stands up and starts to leave, but before he gets off he comes over to where the other man is and pulls back his fist as though he were going to punch the guy. I'm sitting there staring in disbelief, thinking I should do something but I was genuinely scared of the large, seeming mentally retarded black man hauling off to punch the poor, also mentally retarded man sitting in front of me. So I did nothing. The guy in the chair blocked the first punch, so the man successfully tried another. I was so stunned, I didn't even know what to do, but the bus driver roared a final "GET OFF" and the man left.

The entire incident reminded me of when I took "Theories of Persuasion" and we studied something about people in large crowds being less likely to take action because they think (hope?) someone else will. I don't know if thats so much the deal, or rather a fear of the large, MR man who could target me next, but I just felt extremely guilty that I didn't just reach a hand out to help block. The blow largely missed the guy, he just had a small red spot on his cheek, and for the rest of his trip he kept apologizing to me, saying he did nothing wrong, he just sat down...

In any case, the bus didn't stop on Skid Row and the trip back was uneventful.

Now I am in my new apartment off Commercial Drive, which I love. The room itself is rather small, but I have two huge mirrors and a huge window which help the room feel bigger. I also have my own balcony and bathroom, which is super fantastic. And Molly has a parking spot (two actually) in the underground parking garage, she is extremely happy down there not having to worry about vandals and thieves. There is also a massive blackberry bush about a block and a half east, a couple days ago I went out and picked 4 cups of blackberries that Claire and I have been eating. They are so amazingly sweet and fresh, I've never had anything like them. There are so many neat shops down Commercial, I found a cute little Italian grocery I love and will frequent more often. I've actually discovered food is much cheaper at these little places than at large chains such as Safeway. Not only cheaper, but much tastier.

I've been watching craigslist for a bed frame for my air mattress, mostly because I can't stand sleeping on the floor, it drives me insane. Since I wasn't able to find anything cheaper than Ikea, I decided to head over there and get one for myself. It's a fantastic beautiful unfinished pine bed--I get a whiff of pine everytime I come into my room now--and it took me roughly 6 hours and 2 stripped screws to assemble, but I got it together. I also got some organizational boxes for my clothes and an on sale artist's dummy for decoration. And since I also went to the art store yesterday for some basic art supplies (so I can get some decoration in my room), the artist's dummy may come in handy for sketching people!

All in all, this has been an extremely interesting week, but I am glad that it is the weekend and I can start Monday on fully focusing on finding a job... I have already pulled a lot of ads from Craigslist I am going to respond to. It should be an interesting week!